The Charism of Infallibility: The Magisterium

Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff

are to be respected by all

as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth.

In matters of faith and morals,

the bishops speak in the name of Christ, and

the faithful are

to accept their teaching and

adhere to it with a religious assent of souls.

This religious submission

of will and

of mind

must be shown in a special way

to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff,

even when he is not speaking ex cathedra ...

his supreme magisterium is acknowledged ...

the judgments made by him ... adhered to ...

known chiefly

from the character of the documents,

from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine,

from his manner of speaking.

... the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility,

they can ... proclaim Christ's doctrine of infallibility...

when they are dispersed around the world ...

maintaining the bond of unity

among themselves and

with Peter's successor,

while teaching authentically on a matter of

faith or

morals,

concur in a single viewpoint as the one which must be held ...

This authority is even more clearly verified when,

gathered together in an ecumenical council,

they are teachers and judges of

faith and

morals for the universal church.

Their definitions must be adhered to with the submission of faith.

This infallibility

with which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to be endowed

in defining a doctrine of

faith and

morals

extends as far as the deposit of divine revelation which must be

religiously guarded and

faithfully expounded.

This is the infallibility

which the Roman Pontiff, the head of the college of bishops

enjoys in virtue of his office, when

as the supreme

shepherd and

teacher of all the faithful,

who

confirms his brethren in their faith,

proclaims ... some doctrine of

faith or

morals.

Therefore his definitions,

of themselves, and

not from the consent of the Church,

are justly styled irreformable, for they are

pronounced with the assistance of the Holy Spirit,

assistance promised to him

in blessed Peter ...

need no approval of others,

nor do they allow an appeal to any other judgment.

... the Roman Pontiff is not pronouncing judgment

as a private person ...

but rather as the supreme teacher of the universal Church,

as one in whom

the charism of infallibility of the Church herself is individually present,

he is

expounding or

defending a doctrine of Catholic faith.

The infallibility

promised to the Church

resides also in the body of bishops

when that body exercises supreme teaching authority

with the successor of Peter ...

When either

the Roman Pontiff, or

the body of bishops together with him

defines a judgment

they pronounce it in accord with Revelation itself ...

Under the guiding light of the Holy Spirit, Revelation is thus

religiously preserved and

faithfully expounded in the Church.

The Roman Pontiff and

the bishops, strive painstakingly and by appropriate means

to inquire properly into that Revelation and

to give apt expression to its contents.

... they

do not allow that there could be any new public revelation

pertaining to the divine deposit of truth.

Last Updated: January 3, 1997