The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-09-30
OF THE POPE

THE DoGMA--MUST NOT BE
COMPOUNDED WITH IMPEccA-
RlLlTY, REVELATION OR IN
sPIRATIoN.
Many who have little or no difficulty
in accepting the infallibility of the
Church of Christ, shrink with alarm
from the doctrine of the infallibility
of the Pope, writes Rev. G. f.. Cremin
of st. Paul Seminary in Extension
Magazine" Why such is the case Is
hard to explain, as though Col could.
not as easily, nay, more easily, i'm
part the gift OF truth to an individual
as to "a multitude. Still, with many
Christians who reject papal infalli
bility, the first consideration is not
what God does or does not do, but
what He should do, and in this age Of
indiVidualism and democracy, for
sooth, God should not, and conse-
quently does not (for such is their
logic, endow any one man with such
colossal powers as would make him
supreme over his fellow men even in
the realms Of the spiritual. This, if
we are not greatly mistaken, consti-
tutes the fundamental prejudice of
Professionalism, and of it's offspring,
modern secularism, against the pa
pacy. This mental attitude springs
from a false intellectual pride which,
forgetful Of the absolute duty of sub
mission to the revealed Will Of God,
would fain dictate to the Creator what
economy of truth and salvation He
should establish if He would secure
the attention and the service of His
own creature! Could the pride of
Lucifer go farther? Still other more
sincere and docile souls whose chief
desire is to learn the Will of God that
they might follow it, are held back
from the Catholic Church because of
what they regard as the exaggerated
or, in the light of history, indefensible
claims Of papal infallibility.
What lnfalIibilty Is.
Infallibility, in general means i'm
munity from error He is infallible
who never makes a mistake, and who
never can make a mistake in regard
to the truths he believes and teaches.
When we say the Church is infallible
we mean that the Religious Society
commissioned by Christ to preach His
Gospel to all nations cannot go astray
in her belief and in her teaching of
| revealed truth, because of the abiding
presence Of her Divine Founder and
of the Spirit of Truth. She is the
pillar and ground of truth, and be-
cause endowed with special divine
assistance she will lead men with alb
solute assurance of success along the
path of supernatural truth to eternal
salvation.
This dogma of the infallibility of the
| Church has been so plainly taught in
the Sacred Scriptures, and so unani
mously accepted by Christian tradi
ton, that the Church never deemed
| it necessary to formulate and pro
pound it in a special definition. Not
so the infallibility of the Pope
| Though this truth is also clearly
taught in the Sacred Scriptures, and
accepted in Christian Scriptures, and
practice with ever-groWing c1earness
| from the cradle of Christianity down
through the centuries, yet, because in
dividuals, local and even national
groups, in the heat of controversy
and aroused by the spirit of revolt
which human passion manifests al
times against even legitimate and
recognized authority, sought to evade
it's control, some were found to deny
formulated and issued as an irrevoc.
able definition, in the year 1870 A. D..
by the General Council of the Vatican
Henceforth it must be believed as an
article of Divine Faith, to doubt or
deny which would be to sin against
the light Of infallible truth and to
cease to be a member of the Church
of Christ
In order to obtain true view of the
nature and scope of the great preroga.
tive of the Roman Pontiff, we had best
review the words of solemn and mo.
mentous import in which the doctrine
| is defined. 1--WE teach and define, "
say the Fathers of the Council, that
| it is dogma revealed, that the Roman
Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra
that is, when discharging the office
of Pastor and Teacher of all Chris.
tians, by reason of his supreme apos.
tolic authority, he defines a doctrine
regarding Faith or morals to be held
| by the whole Church-in virtue of the
divine assistance promised to him in
the Blessed Peter, possesses that in
fallibility with which the Divine Re.
| deemer Willed that His Church should
be endowed in defining doctrine re-
garding Faith or morals, and that
therefore, such definitions of the said
Sovereign Pontiff are unalterable of
themselves, and not from the consent
of the Church. But if any one-which
may God avert-presume to contradict
this, our definition, let him be
anathema"
Not New Power.
Now, bear in mind that when the
Vatican Council defined the papal in
fallibility it did not thereby confer a
new and previously unheard-of power
of truth on the Pope. The whole