last of continued posts;
“Infallibility is not attributed to every
doctrinal act of the
pope, but only to his
ex cathedra teaching; and the conditions required for
ex cathedra teaching are mentioned in the Vatican
decree: The pontiff must teach in his public and official capacity as
pastor and doctor of all
Christians, not merely in his private capacity as a
theologian, preacher or allocutionist, nor in his capacity as a temporal prince or as a mere ordinary of the Diocese of
Rome. It must be clear that he speaks as spiritual head of the
Church universal. 2. Then it is only when, in this capacity, he teaches some
doctrine of
faith or
morals that he is infallible (see below, IV). 3. Further it must be sufficiently evident that he intends to teach with all the fullness and finality of his supreme Apostolic authority, in other words that he wishes to determine some point of
doctrine in an absolutely final and irrevocable way, or to define it in the technical sense (see DEFINITION). These are well-recognized formulas by means of which the defining intention may be manifested. 4 Finally for an
ex cathedra decision it must be clear that the
pope intends to bind the whole Church. To demand internal assent from all the
faithful to his teaching under pain of incurring spiritual shipwreck (
naufragium fidei) according to the expression used by
Pius IX in defining the
Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin. Theoretically, this intention might be made sufficiently clear in a
papal decision which is addressed only to a particular Church; but in present day conditions, when it is so easy to communicate with the most distant parts of the earth and to secure a literally universal
promulgation of
papal acts, the presumption is that unless the
pope formally addresses the whole Church in the recognized official way, he does not intend his
doctrinal teaching to be held by all the faithful as
ex cathedra and infallible.”
Refer to:
newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm for more complete information.
