The Irish standard., 1892-05-07
CLEARLY DEFINED
The Dogma Of Papal Infallibility
Explained by a Professor Of
the Catholic University.
DR.. SCHROEDER'S EXPOSITION
The Pope Infallible When He De-
fines a Doctrine Relating TO
Faith and Morals.


Faith and Morals.
According to the Catholic doctrine
Jesus Christ has instituted in His
Church an apostolic succession, teach
ing body, invested with the mission ot
announcing to all people the revealed
truth, and speaking to the faithful with
divine. authority, based on the formal
promise of the special protection of the
| Divine Saviour, and the assistance of
the Holy Spirit cf Truth. This protec-
tion Of Christ, assured to His apostles
'untll the consum nation of ths ages, -
this assistance of the Spirit Of Truth,
| who was to remain with them "until Che
end" guaranteed to the teaching of au-
thority the gift Of infalIibility in the ex-
ercise of It's mission, and imposes upon
the faithful what 81, Paul calls in his
energetic language, ''the obedience of
faith"
There exists then, in the Church of
Jesus Christ, 81 living, perpetual and in
fallible authority constituted according
to the Will of Christ, by the successors of
Peter, and of the apostles the Pope and
the bishops of the Catholic Church.
The Pope and the episcopate unlted to
him, whether they assembled in coun-
Gil or not, are the subjects of the infalh-
bility of the Church; they form the
"Ecclesia Docens.'' This doctrine is
the fundamental one in the controversy
between Catholics and Professionals.
The question proposed at the council
Of the Vatican was this: Has Jesus
Christ, in building His Church upon
Pe,er, in giving him the charge al, eeye,,saE
|frmiug his brethern in the faith, and in
charging him 10 feed His lambs and His
sheep, thereby promised iLfallibility to
Peter himself and his successor? In
other words, is the Pope, by himself
alone, also the subject Of infallibihty?
Has it been promised to him in the per-
son of ST. Peter, the first Pope.
The council answered in the atfirma~
tive by defining that ''the Pope, defining
'ex-cathedra,' enjoys the same infallibility
as that with which Christ has been
pleased to invest His Church "
Infallibility, accordingly, is not gift
communicated by infusion; it gives
neither the bishops OF council nor to a
Pope an infused knowledge. The gift of
infallibillty consists only in this: That
the Holy Spirit assists the teaching
Church and prevents it from falling into
error. So, in the words of the council,
the Pope is infal]ible, "by the divine as
sistance which has been promised to him
in the person of Blessed Peter"
The Pope has, like the eotire teaching
Church, the charge of ''guarding the de-
posit of faith" This deposit is con-
tanned in Holy Scripture and tradition.
He is, then, like the council, infallibie
only when there is question of preserv~
ing this deposit in all it's integrity, of ex-
planning it's true sense, and of defending
it against errors. Hence, it is said that
Holy Scripture and tradition are for
every Catholic the remote rule of faith.
The Church proposes infalibly the
truths contained in them, as the infalli
bility of faith may require. These
truths proposed by the Church as re-
vealed truths, are called dogmas, and
Catholics are bound to believe all of
them with divine faith r'fde divina.'')
Hence, there is no essential difference
between definition emanating from the
Pope alone, aud the definition of gem
eral council (which cannot be such with
out union with the Pope; that is to say,
the value of the judicial sentence is the,
same, and the teaching authority is the
same III the two cases, and consequently
Catholics are obliged to submit them
selves to them equally, The difference
can only be accidental; docrinal deci-
sion emanating from the united magis-
terium of the Pope and the bishops has
naturally more solemnity and eclat, as
we'll in itself as in it's effect.
But it follows, in order to be obliged
to submit themselves to q Judgment of
Pope ex-cathedra, Catholics must know
with certainty that there is question of
doctrine that all must hold, and that it
is proposed in virtue Of an infallible au-
thority; in other words that the Pope has
the intention of exercising his supreme
authority of doctor of the faithful by
such decree. This criterion is con-
tanned in the definition Of the council.
It is notified to the faithful that the
Pope teaches in virtue of his supreme
and infallible authority, when he teaches