Who err regarding the infallibility of the Church?
Those who believe that the Church can definitively and formally hold or teach doctrinal error, or that past definitive teaching may be superseded in a process of doctrinal evolution, or who construe the charism of infallibility too broadly, as if individual members of the Church were entirely incapable of error.
Why is it dangerous to misconstrue the Church’s infallibility too broadly?
Because one risks being scandalized by heretical clergy, and it is a painful fact that the most pernicious errors in history have sprung from the ranks of the ordained. Christ warns us to beware of such ravening wolves and false shepherds (see Mt 7:15; 23:13; 18:6; and Acts 20:29).
What truths fall within the sphere of the Church’s infallibility?
All revealed truths contained in Scripture and Tradition are its primary object: “This infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine of faith and morals extends as far as the deposit of revelation extends, which must be religiously guarded and faithfully expounded.”33
What are some examples of this primary object of the Church’s infallibility?
“If it is explicitly revealed that Jesus is true God and true Man, then it is already revealed, but this time implicitly, that in Jesus there are two intellects, one divine and one human, and two wills, one divine and one human. If it is revealed that Christ declared that what He offered under the appearance of bread was His body, then it is already revealed, but implicitly, that in that upper room there took place an extraordinary change of one substance into another, a transubstantiation. The Church, divinely assisted, can therefore define as revealed by the Gospel itself, that in Jesus are two intelligences and two wills, [and] that the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist presupposes transubstantiation.”34
This excerpt was printed in The August 31st Remnant Newspaper
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What is the secondary object of the Church’s infallibility?
Those truths not formally revealed, but “necessarily required in order that the deposit of revelation may be preserved intact; truths without which the Deposit of Faith could not be protected and explained.”35
What are some examples of this secondary object of the Church’s infallibility?
The knowability of God, the power of man’s mind to know truth, the spirituality of the soul, the freedom of man’s will, or the philosophical concepts and terms with which dogmas are promulgated, such as “person,”“substance,”“transubstantiation,”etc.
Is the Church infallible in the purely natural order?
No. Conclusions of the natural sciences are beyond the Church’s sphere of infallibil- ity. However, it is the Church’s right and duty to condemn any theories that oppose divine revelation, since truth cannot contradict itself.
What is the infallibility of the Church? The fact that it is preserved free from error throughout time, both in definitive teaching and universal belief.
Where does the infallibility of the Church reside?
There are several organs of infallibility in the Church, the chief of which are:
1. The universal and ordinary Magisterium;
2. The solemn definitions (including anathe- ma-affirmations) of ecumenical councils;
3. The pope’s ex cathedra pronouncements;
4. The sensus fidei of the Church’s living members.
What is meant by the universal and ordinary Magisterium?
It means the constant and unchanging teaching of the Roman Pontiffs together with the bishops spread over the world and outside an ecumenical council; that doctrine taught always (semper), everywhere (ubique), and by all (ab omnibus).36
Is each teaching act of a pope or ecumenical council automatically infallible?
The Church’s fundamental principle says: “No doctrine is understood to be infallibly defined unless this is manifestly demonstrated.”
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Do the words solemn or extraordinary Magisterium mean automatically infallible?
“Solemn” can refer to the exterior form: “The supreme power in the universal Church, which this college [of bishops] enjoys, is exercised in a solemn way in an ecumenical council.”38 Sometimes the term solemn is used to indicate a dogmatic definition itself: “By divine and catholic faith all those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God as found in Scripture and Tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or in her ordinary and universal Magisterium.”39 The term extraordinary may also indicate the exterior aspect or exceptional character, yet it was not used by Vatican I or Vatican II.
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Can a pope also proclaim a dogma of faith without any exterior solemnity?
Yes. The pope can proclaim a dogma of faith simply by a letter addressed to the entire Church.
What is the sensus fidei?
It is an innate “sense of the Faith” present in every soul in the state of grace: a capacity to intuitively perceive whether or not a certain teaching is in accord with the authentic doctrine of Christ, retained in His Church. This perception acts and grows in proportion to our fidelity to perennial Catholic teaching, resistance against heresies and doctrinal ambiguities, repeated acts of faith, and the holiness of our life.
How is the sensus fidei of the Church’s living members infallible?
“The whole body of the faithful who have an anointing that comes from the Holy One (see 1 Jn 2:20, 27) cannot err in matters of belief. This characteristic is shown in the supernatural appreciation of the faith (sensus fidei) of the whole people, when,
‘from the bishops to the last of the faithful’ they manifest a universal consent in matters of faith and morals.”40
What is a Christian’s duty with respect to the truths infallibly taught by the Church?
He must accept them without reserve, believing in them as the teachings of Christ that they are.
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