USMC:
The fallible must be interpreted in accord with the infallible.
Catholic2003:
That is exactly what Protestants say when they claim to have the authority to judge the Catholic Church against their personal interpretation of Scripture.
Not quite. The Bible is inspired and infallible, yes, but each person’s interpretation of it is not. The Protestants are using their fallible interpretation of the Bible, to argue against the Church.
The Church has given us many infallible declarations which are very clear, easy to understand, and in perfect agreement with all magisterial documents and catechisms prior to 1960. These infallible dogmas are the foundation of the Catholic faith. It is to these infallible dogmas that Catholics must give their complete assent.
The Church also speaks on the level of the ordinary magisterium, which is not always protected by the charism of infallibility. The faithful are required to submit to these teachings as well.
Normally, the teachings of the ordinary magesterium are in perfect harmony with the infallible teachings of the extra-ordinary magisterium.
But if it ever happens that the Church begins to teach new things which are contrary to what the Church has always taught, and contrary to the infallible dogmas, a Catholic is bound to hold fast to what has always been taught, and infallibly defined as true.
No one - not even the Pope - has the authority to change any doctrines of the Church. In fact, I will go further than that: Not only can a Pope not
change a doctrine, he cannot even teach anything
new. The Pope, just as all other Catholics, is bound to submit to the infallible declarations of his predecessors.
The first Vatican Council, which defined Papal Infallibility stated that the Holy Ghost was not promised to the Pope so that he could define
new doctrines; but that he could guard and protect the deposit of faith:
**First Vatican Council:
"The Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard sacredly the revelation transmitted through the apostles, and the deposit of Faith, and might faithfully set it forth." (Db 1836 in The Sources of Catholic Dogma, p. 456).
The Popes primary duty is to guard and protect the deposit of faith. This includes, among other things, to define doctrines that have been handed down from the apostles. The Church teaches that public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, and as such, no new doctrine will be revealed. Thus, the job of the Pope is not to reveal anything new, but to guard, protect, and define what has always been believed.
Neither is the Pope is allowed to depart from the meaning and understanding of dogmas that the Church has held. Understanding can deepen, yes, but the understanding and meaning must always remain the same.
First Vatican Council:
“For the doctrine of the faith which God has revealed is put forward not as some philosophical discovery capable of being perfected by human intelligence, but as a divine deposit committed to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully protected and infallibly promulgated.
“Hence, too,
that meaning of the sacred dogmas is ever to be maintained which has once been declared by holy mother church, and there must never be any abandonment of this sense under the pretext or in the name of a deeper understanding.
“May undetstanding, knowledge and wisdom increase as ages and centuries roll along, and greatly and vigorously flourish, in each and all, in the individual and the whole church: **but this only in its own proper kind, that is to say, in the same doctrine, the same sense, and the same understanding”. (First Vatican Council, Chapter 4, 13-14)
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