How does the Magisterium know when they are Infallible?

[nfinke]

Obviously the Magisterium has the ability to teach infallibly when it needs to. But much more often they say things that are (taken with weight as important people in the church, but still) fallible like the rest of us.

When they do get together like they did at the council of Trent for example, for some serious business…I guess the question boils down to how do they know their infallibility is infallible? How can they discern “ok this statement is absolute truth, and we all agree this other statement is true, but it’s not infallibly true.”

Like do they have to agree unanimously? Do they hear the holy spirit speaking to them? Is it just a feeling they get in their gut? I mean I’m sure the Holy Spirit has moved me to do something in my life, but I wouldn’t be willing to stake my life on when it was. How do they know something they think the spirit is moving them in infallibly is just something they all agree on?

 

[PatK63]

My understanding is in a council when deciding a matter of faith and morals, concerning the whole church, a decision is infallible if a majority agree and the Pope is in the majority. Each bishop may not know that their vote will turn out to be an infallible teaching. The Holy Spirit will work His will!

 

[stpurl]

What do you understand by 'Magisterium"?

 

[nfinke]

The Pope and the other bishops right? What do you mean?

 

[Genesis315]

It doesn’t matter whether or not they know it. What matters is if they intended to make a definitive (ie irreformable) judgment for the whole Church to believe or hold some particular doctrine. One where, if the whole Church were to definitively hold or believe it, the Church would definitively defect from the truth if it were an error.

Since such a defection is impossible, those judgments must be infallible.

 

[RaisedCatholic]

This may be somewhat unrelated, but is the Magisterium involved in the decisions of Ecumenical Councils? Because I have noticed even Ecumenical Councils have disagreed with each other, such as whether a council (even an ecumenical one) is above the authority of a pope and vice versa, and even what books belong in the Biblical canon. Was the Magisterium involved in the decisions of these Ecumenical Councils or do they simply affirm them later?

 

[1Lord1Faith]

Like do they have to agree unanimously?

Not unanimously, but a large majority. And, whatever teaching it is needs to have some sort of continuity with past teaching.

Also, the language, or words, that these teachings are articulated in is important. The more the teaching is articulated as being definitive, the more likely it is to be an infallible teaching.

The bishops or priests may write some of the magisterial documents which contain infallible teachings, but an infallible teaching must be contained in a document that’s been approved by the pope.

That’s my understanding of it.

 

[Nihilo]

The Church is Apostolic. The only infallible teachings are those generated first by the Apostles, because they were generated first by Jesus, the Word of God, and the Spirit brought their teachings to the minds of the Apostles, as the Lord promised His Apostles that He would. The Apostles taught in spoken and written word at minimum, we have all their writings in the New Testament, and those tasked with preserving and transmitting what the Apostles taught in spoken word are the first generation of bishops, consecrated by the imposition of the Apostles’ own hands, and those bishops transmitted what the Apostles taught to new bishops, lather-rinse-repeat for centuries, and when all the bishops gather together and “compare notes” that is when the Magisterium can know that a teaching is Apostolic, which is infallible.

 

[JimG]

The magisterium hands down the deposit of Faith which was handed down to them from the beginning by the apostles. If they do that, they are protected from error.