# Petri Privilegium/III/Appendix 7

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VII.
PASTORAL OF THE GERMAN BISHOPS ASSEMBLED AT FULDA.
'The undersigned Bishops to the reverend clergy and faithful, greeting, and peace in the Lord.
'Having returned to our respective Dioceses from the Holy Œcumenical Council of the Vatican, we, in union with other German Bishops who were prevented attending the Council, consider it our duty as your chief pastors to address to you, dearly beloved in the Lord, a few words of instruction and exhortation. The occasion and reason for our doing so, and that unitedly and solemnly, is found in the fact that many erroneous ideas have for several months been disseminated, and still, without any authority, are striving in many places to gain acceptance.
'In order, then, to maintain the divine truths which Christ our Lord hath taught mankind in their entire purity, and to secure them from all change and distortion, He has established in His Holy Church the office of infallible teaching, and has promised and also given to it His protection and the assistance of the Holy Ghost for all times. On this office of infallible teaching of the Church reposes entire the security and joy of our faith.
'As often as in the course of time misunderstandings of, or oppositions to, individual points of teaching have sprung up, this office of infallible teaching has in various ways, at one time in greater Councils, at another without them, both exposed and foiled the errors, and declared and established the truth. This has been done in the most solemn manner by the General Councils, that is, by those great assemblies in which the Head and the members of the one teaching body of the Church combined for the deciding of the doubts and controversies in matters of faith which then prevailed.
'These decisions, according to the unanimous and undoubted tradition of the Church, have always been held to be preserved from error by a supernatural and divine assistance. Hence the ​faithful in all times have submitted themselves to these decisions as to the infallible expressions of the Holy Ghost Himself, and, with undoubting faith, have held them to be true. They have done so, not, as persons might suppose, because the Bishops were men of mature and extended experience, not because many of them were versed in all sciences, not because they had come together from all parts of the world, and therefore, in a certain sense, brought together the human knowledge of the whole earth; not, lastly, because through a long life they had studied and taught the Word of God, and hence were trustworthy witnesses of its meaning. All this indeed gives to their declarations a very high, indeed perhaps the highest possible, degree of mere human trustworthiness. Still this is not a sufficient ground on which to rest supernatural faith. For this act, in its last resort, rests not on the testimony of men, even when they are most worthy of confidence, and even if the whole human race by the voice of its best and most noble representatives should bear witness to it; but such an act always rests wholly and alone on the truth of God Himself. When therefore the children of the Church receive with faith the decrees of a General Council, they do it with a conviction that God the Eternal and alone of Himself Infallible Truth co-operates with it in a supernatural manner, and preserves it from error.
'Such a General Council is the present one which our Holy Father Pius IX., as you know, convoked in Rome, and to which the successors of the Apostles, in larger numbers than ever before, have hastened from all parts of the world, that they might, with the successor of St. Peter and under his guidance, consult for the present urgent interests of the Church. After many and serious debates the Holy Father, in virtue of his Apostolical authority as teacher, on April 24 and July 18 of this year, with the consent of the holy Council, solemnly published several decrees relating to the true doctrine about faith, the Church, and its supreme head.
'By this means, then, the infallible teaching authority of the Church has decreed, and the Holy Ghost by the vicar of Christ and the Episcopate united with him has spoken: and therefore all, whether Bishops, priests or laymen, are bound to receive their decrees as divinely revealed truths, and with joyful hearts lay hold of them and confess the same, if they wish to be and remain true members of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. When, then, beloved in the Lord, objections are raised, and you hear it maintained that the Vatican Council is no true General ​Council, and that its decisions are of no authority, do not allow yourselves to be led astray thereby, so as to falter in your devotion to the Church and in your belief and acceptance of its decrees; for such objections are wholly unfounded.
'Bound together in the unity of faith and love with the Pope, have the assembled Bishops, both those who in Christian lands administer well-established sees, and also those who are called to extend the Kingdom of God among the heathen in apostolic poverty, Bishops, whether they tend a larger or a smaller flock— these, as legitimate successors of the Apostles, have all with the same right taken part in the Council and maturely considered everything.
'As long as the discussions lasted, the Bishops, as their consciences demanded, and as became their office, expressed their views plainly and openly, and with all necessary freedom; and, as was only to be expected in an assembly of nearly 800 Fathers, many differences of opinion were manifested. These differences of opinion can in no way affect the authority of the decrees themselves; should even we not take into consideration the fact, that almost the entire body of the Bishops who, at the time of the Public Session, still maintained an opposite opinion, abstained in the said Session from expressing dissent.
'However, to maintain that either the one or the other of the doctrines decided by the General Council are not contained in the Holy Scripture, and in tradition of the Church—those two sources of the Catholic faith—or that they are even in opposition to the same, is a first step, irreconcilable with the primary principles of the Catholic Church, which leads to separation from her communion. Wherefore, we hereby declare that the present Vatican Council is a legitimate General Council; and, moreover, that this Council as little as any other General Council, has propounded or formed a new doctrine at variance with the ancient teaching; but that it has simply developed and thrown light upon the old and faithfully-preserved truth contained in the deposit of faith, and in opposition to the errors of the day has proposed it expressly to the belief of all the faithful; and, lastly, that these decrees have received a binding power on all the faithful by the fact of their final publication by the Supreme Head of the Church in solemn form at the Public Session.
'While, then, we ourselves with full and unhesitating faith adhere to the decrees of the Council, we exhort you as your divinely appointed pastors and teachers, and beseech you in love to your souls, to give no ear to any teaching contrary to this, ​whencesoever it may come. Cling all the more unwaveringly, in union so with your Bishops, to the teaching and faith of the Catholic Church; let nothing separate you from the Rock on which Jesus Christ has founded His Church, with the promise that the "gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In view of the excitement which exists in consequence of un-ecclesiastical manifestations and movements against the decrees of the Council in several places, and which undoubtedly forms no small trial and danger to many souls, as well as considering the tremendous war which has been forced upon our German Fatherland, and which claims at the same time our intense interest and watchfulness, and which has already plunged innumerable families into sorrow and mourning, we cannot forbear from earnestly calling all the faithful to fervent prayer for the present great necessities of Church and State. Lift up, then, your hearts in faith and confidence to our Father in Heaven, Whose wise and loving Providence guides and rules everything, and whose Divine Son has promised most surely to hear us when we ask in His name.
'Pray also with faith and trust that this sanguinary war, by a complete triumph of the right cause, and a true and lasting peace, may quickly end. Pray for the wants of Holy Church, especially for all who err or hesitate in their faith, that they may have the grace of a firm, decided, and living faith. Pray for the Supreme Head of the Church, the holy Father, who most likely at this very moment is more than ever before in distress and embarrassment. Pray with confidence in the merits and infinite love of the Divine Heart of Jesus Christ, invoking the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God.
'And may the blessing of God Almighty descend upon you and remain with yon all, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.—Amen.
'At the end of August, 1870.