New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-05-23
THE CATHALIC STANDPOINT
A Short Chapter on What Constitutes the
Infallible Authority.

fitting close to this protracted discussion.
i have referred to this Infallible Author
ity so frequently and depended on it so
much that unless I give it "local habi-
tation and a name' many readers of the
Review may be led to think that it has
no real existence And it is only just
that they should be given clear idea OF
what it means and the reasons why cath
olics believe IN such dogma. More
particularly should these reasons be
known now since in our time the incon-
trovertible logic of facts is daily bring
ing into clearer light the truth which the
Catholic Church has ever insisted on,
namely, that Christianity to maintain its
rightftl hold on the reason and con-
science of men, needs living infallible
Witness to it's truths and principles; a
living infallible Guardian of its purity
and integrity, and living, infallible In
tcrpretcr of its meaning.
The question therefore arises, Did God
appoint for all time living, infallible
Witness, Guardian and Interpretre of the
Apostolic Revelation? If he appointed
such an authority, at once there is an end
to all controversy, difficulty, dolbt and
uncertainty on religious matters. An
infalllble Authority cannot teach error;
it canEot mistake the teaching of Revel-
alton or its genuine meaning. Whatever
it teaches must be true; and whatever it
condemns must be false. The truth,
then, will be known by simply listening
to the voice of the Infallible Teacher,
But if God did not appoint such an
authority, then the history of non-Cath-
olic Christianity with it's manifold con-
fusions and contradictions Enthusiastically
points to the conclusion that the Christ
ian controversy is quite insoluble. Re-
ject the doctrine of Infallibility and
your path, as a believer in Christianity
is beset with insuperable difficulties.
Without such guide the logical mind
is driven out of the Christian fold. If
nou-Catholic Christians have not been so
driven, it is because they refuse to fol-
low their adopted principles to their ul-
innate conclusions or. if some thus pur-
sued them. they do not act on those con-
sequences. To my mind there is moth
ing more blind. more illogical, more ab-
surd than such so-callcd Christian lives
wholly at the mercy of that ever-veering
compassionate, Judgment. If I cannot
have as much certainty in my religious
belief as in my scientific belief, then in
the name Of honesty would discard
Christianity at once. would battle no
longer for fragmentary Scripture out
of which any belief may be privately
spun.
What, then, does Infallibility really
mean? The word, infallibilty, means
freedom or exemption from the liability
to err. 1t means not only freedom
from actual error, but also freedom from
the possibility of erring. freedom from
the very liability to err. Infallibili:y is
not impcccability, nor is it to be COM
pounded with it; the former excludes the
possibility of error in the Interpretation
of the law, whereas the latter excludes
the possibility of sin in the observance of
the law. Between lnfallibility and i'm
peccability there is no necessary connec-
ton or dependence; for tie Pope can sin
and in history has sometimes been a great
criminal, yet his non-observance of the
law affects in no way. his Interpretation
of it. Take a parallel case: A Judge on
the bench may have in his previous lite
broken the civil laws or he may be secret
ly breaking them at the very moment
when he is interpreting the same laws to
jury. Does his violation of them affect
the interpretations Not in the least. It
will he seen at once that there is no con-
nection or dependence between those
two acts.
The Catholic dogma of Infallibility
means that the Pope, by virtue If spec
ial supernatural assistance of the Holy
Spirit of Truth promised to him in and
through St. Peter, is exempt from all
liability to err when, in the discharge of
his Apostolic Office of Supreme Teacher
in the Universal Church, he defines or
declares, in matters of or pertaining to
Christian faith or morals, what is to be
believed and held or what is to be re-
jected and condemned by the faithful
throughout the world.
Infanibility dill not originate in the
Vatican Council (July 18. 187OO. The