Year: 1870

E109 4E4GA ~ IN \ u ~ IA6 GA4AOs


Lie CHURCH.


Infallibility Explained The Bishops


Subject to the Pope in Church Dis


ctpline as Well as in Faith and


Morals.


The following is translation of
the dogma of Infalhbility:


PIUs BISHOP, Servant Of SERVANTS Of


God Nth the Appro5at,on Of the


Holy Council, for an Everlasting


Remembrance Of the Event: o


The eternal pastor and bishop of
our souls, to make perpetual the
salutary work of his redemption, re-
solved to build up the holy church,
in which, as in the house Of the liv-
| ing God, all the faithful should be
united by the hand of one faith, and
one charity. Therefore, before being
glorifed, he asked the Father, not
only for the Apostles, but also for
those who through their word would
believe in Him, in order that all
mighSbe one as the Son Himself
and the Father are one. Therefore
| in the same way as he had sent the
Apostles whom he had chosen from
1.-THE world as He himself had been
sent from the Father; thus he wish
ed pastors and teachers to remain
in his Church until the cOnsumma-
ton of the age. But in order that
the Episcopate itself might be one
and undivided, and in order that the
entire 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 instituted in
him the perpetual principle and vis-
ibIe foundation of this double unity,
in order that upon his fortitude an
everlasting temple might be built,
and that upon the frmness Of his
faith might rise the faith, the lofti-
ness of which shall even touch the
skies. And because the gates of
the hell are standing upon all sides,
with a hatred every day increasing
against the divinely laid foundation
of the Church, in order to overthrow
it if it were possible. Therefore
we, with the appreciation of the Ho-
ly Council, deem it necessary for the
preservation, the salvation and the
increase of the Catholic flock to pro-
pound, in accordance with the an
cient and the constant faith of the
Universal Church, the doctrine con-
cerning the institution, the perpetu-
| ity and the nature Of the Holy Ap-
ostolic Primacy in which consists the
strength and solidity of the whole
Church, as q doctrine which must be
believed and held by all, and to pro-
scribe and condemn the contrary er-
rors so pernieious to the flock Of
the Lord. 11a


CHAPTER 1.


on THE INSTITUTION OF APOSTOLIC PRI-


MACY IN THE PERSON OF BLESSED


PETER.


We therefore teach and declare,
in accordance 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 byI
our Lord Jesus Christ. For to ST.
mon alone to whom he 'had said:
Thou shalt be called Cernas after he
had publicly made his confession
to Simon alone the Lord addressed |
the words: Blessed art thou Simon
Bar ions, because flesh and blood
did not reveal this to thee but my
father who art in heaven; and say
unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon
this rock l shall build my Church, |
and the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against her, and to thee / shall |
give the keys ofthe kingdom Of |
heaven; and whatever thou shall |
bind upon earth, shall be bound al |
so u heaven; and whatever thou
shall loosen on earth, shall be loos-
ened also in heaven. And upon ST. |
mon Peter alone, Jesus conferred af-
ter his resurrection 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 Scrip
ture as it has always been under
stood 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 and pro
per primacy Of jurisdiction above the
other apostles, whether viewed indi
or all taken together; or
who assert that this same primacy
was not Immediately and directly
upon the blessed Peter,
but upon the Church, and that the
latter transferred it to him as the
minister to the same Church.


If, therefore, any one should say
that the blessed Apostle Peter, was
not constituted %aour Lord Jesus
Christ the Prince of all his Apostles,
and the visible chief of the whole
Church Militant, or that the same
Peter had received directly and i'm
from our Lord Jesus
Christ only primacy of honor and
not veritable and proper jurisdie-t
tion-let him De anathema.


CHAPTER II.


on. THE PERPETUITY OF THE PRDIACY OF


PETER IN THE ROMAN PONTIFFs.


1t is necessary that that which the
Prince of Pastors and the Supreme
Pastor of the Sheep, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, has established in the per
son of the blessed Apostle Peter, for
the everlasting salvation and the
permanent good Of the Church,
should. through him, remain forever
also in the Church which, founded /
NON a rock. is to remain firm even /