The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1907-01-11

us true understandings ond know bow
to discern truth uan ais.h0od Since
natural prudence. alone. Hs W, see from
thc continual mulng NJ the sscts is
not sufficient for this .nd 20 supeml-
tur8l assistance ie necessary The
true church must pos unity off faith
which cau Doe attained only by the as-
sent of am to doctrines proposed by The
Cnurohs authority EuI mon are bound
Co believe only when they have absolute
certainty that what o. proposed to this
belief ls revealed truth. Sow, how
can they have this -1iute certainly
only in the case that cod preserves The
official teachers of the church from ere
ror.
The Catholic church has always
claimed Co Doe uflHiblc m ts DEGREES
The church does not conhne itself to
proposing its doctrines as probable; &C.
obliges fits children 90 believe as abso-
lutely true whatever it declares as such
and excludes from its communion who
ever refuses 10 believe teaching. This
clearly shows that it claims nfallibi-
ity I'm its DEGREES. The church, further
more, demands of it's children to ack-
nowledge its right to decide the true
meaning and Interpretation Of the
scriptures. Such a claim manifestly
supposes the absence Of all danger of
error, or infallibnity, on the part of
the church. Hence the Fathers of the
church (cf. Athan. ep, ad episc. Afr)
call the DEGREES Of general councils,
Gods own words"
Finally, if the church erred in its
teaching God would compel us under
pain of damnation to accept error for
revealed truth. He would accredit a
teacher of error as His own envoy; for
He has in numberless ways testified,
for centuries, that the church is His
messenger, sent to teach all nations.
But as God cannot thus be made res
ponsible for error, the church must be
infallible in its teaching.
The church exercises it's infallible
doctrinal authority in diverse ways: %
through general councils; C2) through
the unanimous voice of the bishops dis
persed throughout the universe, but
united with the pope; go through its or
binary and uniform preaching; "a
through the pope alone teaching eX
cathedra /. e., when as the supreme
head and teacher of the whole church
he pronounces decisions in matters Of
faith and morals binding the universal
church.
This doctrinal infallibility does not
exempt the pope from the weaknesses
incidental to human nature, does not
make him improbable, does not prevent
him from committing errors every day
in hundred different matters. The only
thing claimed is infallibility in deciding
points either Of faith or morals but not
n other matters. In practice it comes
to answering the question formulated
as follows: Is such a point of doctrine
(for instance: that the Blessed Virgin
Mary in the first moment of her con-
ception was preserved from the stain
of original SIM contained in the trea-
sury of divine revelation? Such a
statement i'm the affirmative is called a
dogma of the church. 1t does not mean
a new truth, but it means that the said
point contained in Holy Scripture, and
having been believed i'm the past gem
orally, but not so clearly and expressly
that there have not been heard soli-
tary voices expressing doubts about it
or affiring the contrary Now that this
matter has been officially examined and
pronounced to be true it is a dogma to
be believed by the faithful under penal
ty of communication.
In matters of morals the question is
put and decided whether it be lawful or
not to do certain action the moral good
ness of which is controverted The pa
pal infallibility is, therefore, the gift
the pope enjoys to answer those ques-
tions, which regard the universal
church without any danger of error.
Instances cited by adversaries Of the
Catholic church to prove that popes
have actually erred in doctrinal deci-
sions are either historical misrepresen-
tations or rest upon a misunderstand-
ing of the object and nature of the
DEGREES or decisions in question.