The infallible

[CMatt25]

I apologize if this has been asked before as I’m almost certain it has. But I hear Catholics saying the Pope is not infallible in all but only infallible when speaking ex cathedra from the chair of St Peter and this has not been done a great deal in history.

But then I hear Catholics saying the Church is infallible in all She teaches.

What exactly are the infallible parts of Catholicism?

 

[FCEGM]

I apologize if this has been asked before as I’m almost certain it has. But I hear Catholics saying the Pope is not infallible in all but only infallible when speaking ex cathedra from the chair of St Peter and this has not been done a great deal in history.

But then I hear Catholics saying the Church is infallible in all She teaches.

What exactly are the infallible parts of Catholicism?

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

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.

scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p4.htm

 

[Abu]

CMatt25
I hear Catholics saying the Pope is not infallible in all but only infallible when speaking ex cathedra from the chair of St Peter and this has not been done a great deal in history.

Those Catholics confuse the infallibility of papal dogmas (The Immaculate Conception, The Assumption) with papal infallible doctrine (as in Humanae Vitae, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

The Vatican I dogma on papal infallibility declares:

Vatican I (Pastor Aeternus, Chap 4, #9, an infallible dogma) is the basis for understanding infallibility.

“9. Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our saviour, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman Pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable.

Vatican II, reiterated the teaching of Vatican I on papal infallibility, and its documents are readily available [from the EWTN Library (http://www.ewtn.com/vlibrary/search.asp) or the Vatican Library].
Infallibility for dogmas or definitions by Bishops in an Ecumenical Council is dependant on the approval of the Pope.

For infallibility to be exercised the Pope must teach:
(a) ex cathedra (from the Chair of Peter), that is as Shepherd and Teacher of all Christians,
(b) speaking with Peter’s apostolic authority to the whole Church,
(c) defining a doctrine of faith and morals.

Therefore only dogmas or definitive doctrinal teaching are infallible, not arguments nor any other declarations outside of definitive statements.

With the 1997 update of the CCC, # 88 reads: “The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes truths contained in divine Revelation or having a necessary connection with them, in a form obliging the Christian people to an irrevocable adherence of faith, or also when it proposes in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.”

Please advise if you have any further questions.

 

[Abu]

CMatt25

Further truths:
The updated CCC #88 is complemented by Canon 750 #2 for a truth proposed definitively (definitive proponuntur) which must be firmly accepted and held. Ad Tuendam Fidem, John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, Motu Proprio, 1998].

Thus CCC #88 clearly combines exactly with Pope John Paul’s Motu Proprio Apostolic Letter Ad Tuendam Fidem, 1998 (ATF) which requires the assent of divine and Catholic faith to believe (credenda sunt) dogmas (a category one truth) (Canon #750.1). A category two truth requires the assent of ecclesial faith, as a secondary truth, “proposed definitively” (definitive proponuntur) to be “firmly embraced and held” (now Canon 750.2). So both the dogmas, and the infallible (definitive) doctrines that are secondary truths, require an assent of faith, though there is a distinction between theological faith and ecclesial faith. The category three truths are non-definitive (non-infallible) and require intellectual assent (“loyal submission of the will and intellect”, Lumen Gentium 25), not an assent of faith. [See the Explanatory Note on ATF by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ***].
Also, the 1983 revision of Canon Law replaced in Canon 749:3 “dogmatically (‘dogmatice’) declared or defined” with “infallibly defined”. This removes any occasion for equating “infallible” with “dogmatic”, an equation which unduly limits papal infallibility. Such a limitation is clearly not contained in the Vatican I dogma on papal infallibility.
***** ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM

From EWTN Q&A: Answer by David Gregson on Nov-22-2002:
“You are correct in stating that the Pope exercises his charism of infallibility not only in dogmatic definitions issued, ex cathedra, as divinely revealed (of which there have been only two), but also in doctrines definitively proposed by him, also ex cathedra, which would include canonizations (that they are in fact Saints, enjoying the Beatific Vision in heaven), moral teachings (such as contained in Humanae vitae), and other doctrines he has taught as necessarily connected with truths divinely revealed, such as that priestly ordination is reserved to men.”

 

[Pax]

CMatt25 in Christ,

In summary we can look to what Paul says to Titus concerning the bishop in the following passage of scripture:

Titus 1:9-11

…he[the bishop] must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it. For there are many insubordinate men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision party; they must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for base gain what they have no right to teach:.

How can we know and how do we know the “sure word” AS TAUGHT? There is a guarantee and that guarantee is the Church guided by and protected from error by the Holy Spirit. We all recognize the bible as the inspired word of God, but there are literally thousands of different interpretations of that inspired word that conflict with one another. Fortunately, Jesus did not leave us as orphans and there is the “sure word as taught.” Only the Catholic Church can offer the fullness of the faith and truth and the Church presents and protects the “true word as taught.”

God bless.

 

[Ron_Conte]

I apologize if this has been asked before as I’m almost certain it has. But I hear Catholics saying the Pope is not infallible in all but only infallible when speaking ex cathedra from the chair of St Peter and this has not been done a great deal in history.

But then I hear Catholics saying the Church is infallible in all She teaches.

What exactly are the infallible parts of Catholicism?

Infallible:

1. all that is taught explicitly or implicitly by Sacred Tradition
2. all that is taught explicitly or implicitly by Sacred Scripture
3. all that is taught by the Magisterium under any of the three ways that the Magisterium teaches infallible:
   a. solemn definitions of the Pope
   b. solemn definitions of an Ecumenical Council
   c. the Universal Magisterium

Non-infallible:
All other teachings of the Magisterium; these teachings are called non-infallible or non-irreformable. They are subject to a limited possibility of error and correction.

Fallible:

1. Theological opinions of the Pope, the Bishops, and any other members of the faithful
2. The decisions of the temporal authority of the Church.

The Magisterium is the spiritual (teaching) authority of the Church.
The Church has two types of authority, spiritual and temporal.