Ex cathedra statements?

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Struggling1

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I’m probably missing something super obvious but if the church is supposed to be protected from error and all the ex cathedra statements are the only thing protected from error, how do we know anything else is true, couldn’t popes release any amount or sort of encyclicals and it would be the teaching of the church but without the ex cathedra stamp of infallibility? Obviously we wouldn’t be required to follow it but in essence wouldn’t the church would be teaching in error?
 
Catholics owe “religious submission of will and intellect” to the non-infallible teachings of the Church. This is so because, while these are not infallible, they still enjoy a high degree of protection from error.
 
Struggling1 said:
church is supposed to be protected from error and all the ex cathedra statements are the only thing protected from error, how do we know anything else is true
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You don’t. You take it all by faith. Even the infallible statements. Because you still need to have faith they are infallible.
 
What, exactly, do you believe that the Church is teaching in error?
 
Blessings
I googled Catholic Church AdMagesterium.
UNDERSTANDING THE INFALLIBILITY TEACHING

Are Catholics under the impression that unless a doctrine is infallibly taught, they
don’t have to abide by it?

By Russell Shaw

By declaring that the doctrine barring women’s ordination as priests has been taught
infallibly, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited the infallibility
of the “ordinary and universal magisterium.” Quite apart from the women’s ordination
issue, that was an unusual, important and widely misunderstood step.
They are quoting infallibility if Ordinary and Universal Magesterium. Still looking things up.
In Christs are love
Tweedlealice
 
Struggling1 said:
the ex cathedra statements are the only thing protected from error,
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They are not the only thing protected from error.

See these sections of the Catechism for an answer to your question:

888 Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task “to preach the Gospel of God to all men,” in keeping with the Lord’s command.415 They are “heralds of faith, who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers” of the apostolic faith "endowed with the authority of Christ."416

889 In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a “supernatural sense of faith” the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith."417

890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. the exercise of this charism takes several forms:

891 “The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals… the infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,” above all in an Ecumenical Council.418 When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed,"419 and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith."420 This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.421

892 Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful "are to adhere to it with religious assent"422 which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.
 
To be honest a few things appear frightening the upcoming reinterpretation of humanae vitae, lack of clarification on other statements. I know the Pope can be fallible but how do we know for 100% sure that the teachings are correct? Anything besides the Bible and ex cathedra statement? Like someone just told me technically the catechism is fallible how do we guarantee any truth in it then? Couldn’t the pope teach errors like say abortion is correct but then say it’s not ex cathedra so technically the church would teach it since the pope is the human head of the church? I know he could be declared heretical but how do we know there is protection against those types of modification essentially super imposing teachings that are counter dogma without changing actual dogma? Let me know if that is too difficult I’m sorry!
 
Ok so what happens if a pope does legitimately make an untrue change to dogma? What happens? I know the papal infallibility won’t let him but we have free will so theoretically he could do that?
 
It isn’t possible for him to do so. Not theoretically, not actually, not ever.

The charism prevents him from doing so.
 
Ok but like what if Pope Francis does make a change in the reinterpretation of Humanae Vitae? What stops him? I don’t understand the argument if he can’t because we have free will?
 
I’m also probably quite dense so I apologize for not understanding!
 
We know because God is not a trickster. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He wants us to come to him, he wants us to have the truth. Therefore he provides as way for us this know the truth and know him.
 
The Holy Spirit stops error from entering the dogmatic teaching of the Church.
 
So I shouldn’t worry about the people that are all freaking out right now this isn’t a new thing? I’m in process of coming back to the faith and I was so worried it looked like it was crumbling.
 
Struggling1 said:
the ex cathedra statements are the only thing protected from error
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Ex Cathedra statements are not the only infallible levels of the Magisterium.

There are two levels of Extraordinary Magisterium which are Infallible - ex Cathedra Papal pronouncements and teachings of an Ecumenical Council. Examples of these are the teaching of the Assumption of Mary, and the documents of Vatican II.

Next there is another level of infallible Magisterium classed as Ordinary - the Pope and all the Bishops in the world teaching in unison on something. An example of this would be certain Papal encyclicals and the Catechism.

These three upper levels of Infallible Magisterium require the full assent of faith of all the People of God.

The next two levels are the Ordinary Magisterium - Papal teaching such as Encyclicals and Bulls.
These require a religious assent - that is, a religious assent of the mind, intellect, and will. These are not strictly infallible, however, but they are authoritative.

The final level is the teaching office of every Bishop, which has the same level as the Ordinary Papal teaching - it is authoratative but not strictly infallible and requires religious assent.

There is a common misconception that Catholics can simply ignore the teaching of Popes and Bishops that they don’t like if they aren’t infallible - but I’ve illustrated that that is wrong.

So, there are two levels of Extraordinary Infallible Magisterium, and three levels of Ordinary Magisterium - one is infallible, the other two are authoratative but not infallible.

From highest to lowest, most authoritative and infallible to least and non-infallible:

Extraordinary and Infallible:

Ecumenical Councils
Papal ex Cathedra

Ordinary and Infallible:

Papal teachings in union with all the Bishops

Ordinary and authoratative but technically fallible:

Papal teachings
Bishops teachings
 
Thank you again so if an encyclical ever taught against dogma the hope would be that it is refuted by the larger council?
 
Yes, but so far as I know a Pope has never issued an encyclical which teaches heresy.

A couple Popes have fallen personally to heresy, or taught heresy from the pulpit - but none have ever promulgated heresy to the Church in a way which would contradict the Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility.

The encyclicals of Pope Francis are 100% Orthodox, in spite of what his detractors may say to the contrary.
 
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Struggling1 said:
Ok so what happens if a pope does legitimately make an untrue change to dogma? What happens? I know the papal infallibility won’t let him but we have free will so theoretically he could do that?
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There is a joke where someone talks about his “research” on training a horse not to eat: “The experiment has almost succeeded. It’s just that then it was interrupted by the death of the horse.”.

A Pope cannot proclaim a false dogma ex cathedra, just like a horse can’t be trained not to eat. But sure, a Pope can try to proclaim such a dogma. It’s just that he wouldn’t succeed. Maybe he would lose a pen, maybe he would be distracted by something, maybe he would get ill… God has many options.
 
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