The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-05
THE NEW DOGMA.
Text of the InfaIHbiiity Decree.
The following is the full text of the decree

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P1Us, BISHOP, SercdRt Of the Servants Of
God, coith tie ApprObdtj0a IF tie Holy Coup-
ca, tor an Everlasting Remembrance Of tie
E0ent.-The eternal pastor and bishop of
our souls, to make perpetual the ~salutary work
of his redemption, resolved to build up the
holy Church, in which, as in the house of the
living God, all the faithful should be united
by the bond of one faith and one charity.
Therefore, being g%lorified, he asked His
Father, not only for the Apostles, but also
for those who through their word would be-
lieve in Him, in order that all might be one
as the Son himself and the Father are one.
Therefore in the same way as be had sent the
Apostles whom he had chosen from the
world as he himself had been sent from the
Father; thus he wished pastors and teachers
to remain in his Church until the consumma-
ton of the age. But in order that the Epis-
copate itself might be one and uu-
divided, and in order that the en-
tire multitude of the faithful, through
priests in communion with each
other, might be preserved in the oneness of
faith and communion, he placed the Blessed
Peter above the other Apostles, and insti-
tuted in him the perpetual principle and
visible foundation of this double unity, in
order that upon his fortitude the everlasting
temple might be built, and that upon the
tirmness of his faith might rise the Church,
the l~oftiness of which shall even touch the
bhlCbs ANU bSSduOO bAO HNbCo III nv
standing upon all sides, with q hatred every
day increasing against the divinely-laid foun-
dation of the Church, in order to overthrow
it if it were possible. Therefore we, with the
appreciation of the Holy Council, deem it
necessary for the preservation, the salvation,
and the increase of the Catholic flock to pro-
pound, in accordance with the ancient and
constant faith of the Universal Church, the
doctrine concerning the institution, the per-
petuity, and the nature of the Holy Apostolic
Primary, in which consists the strength and
solidity of the whole Church, as a doctrine
which must be believed and held by all, and
to prescribe and condemn the contrary errors
so pernicious to the flock of the Lord.
CHAPTER 1.
On tile Institution Of tie Apostolic Prinsacy
in tie Person Of the Blessed Peter.
We therefore teach and declare in accor-
dance with the testimonies of the Gospel
that the primacy of jurisdiction over the
universal Church of God was Immediately
and directly promised to and conferred upon
the blessed Apostle Peter by our Lord Jesus
Christ. For to Simon alone, to whom he
had said:-Thou shalt be called Cephas,
after he had publicly made his confessiou-to
Simon alone the Lord addressed the words
Blessed art thou Simon Bar iona because
flesh and blood did not reveal this to thee,
but my Father who art in Heavens; and I say
unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock
! shall build my Church, and the gates Of hell
shall not prevail against her; and to thee [
shall give the keys of the kingdom of Hea-
ven; and whatever thou shalt bind upon earth,
shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatever
thou shalt loosen upon earth shall be loosened
also in Heaven. And upon Simon
Peter alone, Jesus conferred after his resur-
rection the jurisdiction of the chief pastor
and ruler over his whole sheep-fold, saying,
Feed my lambs; feed my sheep. To this so
clear doctrine of the sacred Scripture as it
has always been understood by the Catholic
Church are openly opposed the wicked
opinions of those who, perverting the form
of government instituted by the Lord Jesus
Christ in His Church, deny that Peter alone
was invested by Christ with a veritable aud
proper primacy of Jurisdiction above the other
apostles, whether viewed individually, or all
taken together; or who assert that this same
primacy was not Immediately and directly
conferred upon the Blessed Peter, but upon
the Church, and that the latter transferred it
to him as the minister of this same Church.
If, therefore, any one should say that the
Blessed Apostle Peter was not constituted by
our Lord Jesns Christ the Prince of all His
Apostles, and the visible chief of the whole
Church Militant, or that the same Peter has
received directly and Immediately from oul
Lord Jesus Christ only a primacy of homo,
and not a veritable and proper jurisdiction
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CHAPTER II.
On tie perpetuity Of the Primacy Of Peter ii
tie Roman P0ntttS.
1t is necessary that that which the Prince
of Pastors and the Supreme Pastor of the
Sheep, Our Lord Jesus Christ, has estab.
lished in the person of the Blessed Apostl,
Peter, for the everlasting salvation and tn
permanent good of the Church, should
through him, remain forever also in th'
Church, which, founded upon a rock, is t.
remain firm even to end of ages; for it is no
doubtful for any one, yea, it was known il
all centuries that the Holy and Most Blesset
Peter, the chief and head of the Apostles
and the pillar of faith and the foundation o
the Catholic Church, who from Our Lore
Jesus Christ and the Saviour and Redeeme
of the human race has received the keys o
the kingdom, lives, reigns, and judges ever
down to our times, and forever, in his sue
cessors the bishops of the Holy Roman See
which we established by him, and consecrateC
by his blood. Whoever, therefore, succeed
Peter in this See receives, according to tn
institution of Christ himself, the primacy O
Peter over the whole Church. The econom
of truth therefore remains, and the blesse
Peter, always retaining the frmness of tn
rock, which has not relinquished the helm @
the Church which had been given to hin
For this reason it has always been NJ
cessary that every church, that is to say
all the faithful, scattered in all places, shoul
put themselves in communion with til
Roman Church, because of its greater pr,
eminence, in order that this See, from whic
flow upon all the rights of the venerable con
munion, they may all coalesce into the struu
ture of one body, as the limbs are united