What does ex-cathedra mean?

[ALLFORHIM]

Hi,

I keep hearing people say the Pope is not infallible when speaking ex-cathedra.

What is ex-cathedra?

Thanks for responses

 

[FCEGM]

Hi,

I keep hearing people say the Pope is not infallible when speaking ex-cathedra.

What is ex-cathedra?

Thanks for responses

It literally means “from the chair” (of St. Peter). This denotes his authority as the successor to the Chair of Peter (his authority as Bishop to the universal Church).

 

[Verbum]

Hi All__,

This is what an ex cathedra declaration looks like :

1. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: **that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.**45. Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.
2. In order that this, our definition of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven may be brought to the attention of the universal Church, we desire that this, our Apostolic Letter, should stand for perpetual remembrance, commanding that written copies of it, or even printed copies, signed by the hand of any public notary and bearing the seal of a person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, should be accorded by all men the same reception they would give to this present letter, were it tendered or shown.
3. It is forbidden to any man to change this, our declaration, pronouncement, and definition or, by rash attempt, to oppose and counter it. If any man should presume to make such an attempt, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.
4. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, in the year of the great Jubilee, 1950, on the first day of the month of November, on the Feast of All Saints, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.
   I, PIUS, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed, so defining.

This is from Munificentissimus Deus proclaiming the dogma of the Assumption. You can find the full text at
ewtn.com/LIBRARY/PAPALDOC/P12MUNIF.htm

Verbum

 

[NotWorthy]

This comes from the Jewish Tradition of the Rabbi’s being able to teach from the “Chair of Moses”. It is a symbol of teaching authority.

Incidentally, the Jewish leaders also had “binding and loosing” authority as well.

 

[Mommyof02green]

What is Ex Cathedra?

What is Infallibility?

The teaching of the Vatican Council is to be found in Session III, cap. 4, where it is declared that “the doctrine of faith, which God has revealed, has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent, but has been committed as a Divine deposit to the spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted by her”; and in Session IV, cap. 4, where it is defined that the Roman pontiff when he teaches ex cathedra “enjoys, by reason of the Divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith and morals”.

Is in short the pope is ONLY infallibile when teaching ex cathedra

 

[mtr01]

Hi,

I keep hearing people say the Pope is not infallible when speaking ex-cathedra.

What is ex-cathedra?

Thanks for responses

And just a clarification, the Pope IS infallible when speaking *ex cathedra *(concerning an issue of faith and morals which is to be held by all the faithful everywhere, and for all time).

 

[Charlie_Zeaiter]

This is what an ex cathedra declaration looks like…

I’m Catholic… and I love it. But I can understand why the Protestants would shriek at paragraph 47 (in Verbum’s post above)…

1. It is forbidden to any man to change this…

It really takes a lot of faith (stupidity?) to believe paragraph 47. But, I gues I am stupid and faithful.

Could a future Pope change a declaration that a past Pope declared ex-cathedra? Or are we stuck with the original declaration until the end of time?

 

[Mommyof02green]

Could a future Pope change a declaration that a past Pope declared ex-cathedra? Or are we stuck with the original declaration until the end of time?

newadvent.org:

Moreover, as in a well ordered state there remains within the law a large margin for the exercise of personal freedom, so in the Church there is a very extensive domain which is given over to theological speculation; and even in regard to doctrines that have been infallibly defined there is always room for further inquiry so as the better to understand, explain, defend, and expand them. The only thing one may not do is to deny or change them.

For more read Infallibility

 

[Ron_Conte]

Could a future Pope change a declaration that a past Pope declared ex-cathedra? Or are we stuck with the original declaration until the end of time?

To be infallible, an ex cathedra teaching has to meet certain criteria. If it meets that criteria then the teaching is infallible and irreformable. It cannot be changed even by a future Pope. It is not so much a declaration, as a teaching. Temporal decisions (i.e. of the prudential order) are non-infallible.

Ron

 

[Mommyof02green]

Q: As Catholics, do we have to accept everything the Church teaches?
A: click here.

What is Ex Cathedra?

What is Infallibility?

The teaching of the Vatican Council is to be found in Session III, cap. 4, where it is declared that “the doctrine of faith, which God has revealed, has not been proposed as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent, but has been committed as a Divine deposit to the spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infallibly interpreted by her”; and in Session IV, cap. 4, where it is defined that the Roman pontiff when he teaches ex cathedra “enjoys, by reason of the Divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith and morals”.

Is in short the pope is ONLY infallibile when teaching ex cathedra