1) The Concept of Infallibility
Infallibility means immunity from error.
It may be understood in two senses:
a) Inerrancy: The immunity from all possibility of error, and from all error in fact (de facto).
b) Infallibility: Exemption or immunity from error or failure.
In the
strict sense, it can be divided into:
i) Essential: pertains properly to God alone.
ii) Participated: communicated by God to rational creatures according to His will.
iii) Supernatural: an immunity to error that exceeds natural human capacity.
2) The Fact of infallibility
a) The Church possesses, by divine right, the office of safeguarding revealed doctrine
'For the Church, from her divine institution,
has the duty both to hold most diligently to the deposit of faith, whole and
inviolate, and to watch continually with great earnestness over the salvation
of souls, and with the greatest care to remove and eliminate all those things
which can be opposed to faith or can in any way endanger the salvation of
souls.' (Pius IX, Gravissimas inter, 11
December 1862, D.1675)
'The Holy Spirit was promised to the
successors of Peter so that, by His help, they might guard the revelation
transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith, and might faithfully
set it forth.' (Vatican council, Fourth Session, Chapter 4, D. 1839)
b) The Church teaches infallibly
Further, the Church has also the right and
duty of proscribing "knowledge falsely so called" [I Tim. 6:20],
"lest anyone be cheated by philosophy and vain deceit" [cf. Col. 2:8;
can. 2]. Therefore, all the faithful are strictly forbidden to hold opinions
that are contrary to the Catholic faith and have been condemned by the Church.
(Ibid., Session III, Chapter 4, D. 1798)
The doctrine of faith has been entrusted to
the Church as a divine deposit, to be faithfully preserved and infallibly
interpreted. Consequently, sacred dogmas must be understood in the same sense
in which Holy Mother Church has defined and declared them. (Ibid., Session III,
Chapter 4, D. 1800)
3) The Subject of infallibility
God alone is essentially infallible, while man, by nature, is subject to error. However, the infallibility ascribed to the Church is both participated and supernatural. It is defined as 'a privilege granted by Christ to the Church, by which, in matters of faith and morals, she can neither be deceived nor deceive.'
a) Passive infallibility (in credendo): This belongs to the universal Church, which is therefore called the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim. 3:15), and built upon the rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt. 16:18).
b) Active infallibility (in docendo): This is held by the pastors and teachers whom Christ appointed for the edification of His Mystical Body.
i) The Roman Pontiff: The Bishop of Rome, when he speaks ex cathedra on questions of faith or morals, has infallible divine assistance. His definitions are irreformable even before the consent of the Church. The Popes have never erred in matters of faith or morals. Assent and obedience are due even to his non-definitive teachings.
ii) The Body of Pastors United with Him:
(1) Individual bishops—excluding the Roman
Pontiff—do not possess infallibility.
(2) Collectively: Infallibility may be
ascribed to them solely as a Corpus pastorum, that is, the body of apostolic
successors taken as a whole.
This
body of pastors may be understood either as:
(a)
Individual bishops, when taken collectively but separated from the
Roman Pontiff, do not possess infallibility.
(b) Pastors In union with and subordinated to
the Roman Pontiff: The college of bishops, united with the Pope, possesses
infallibility.
Ecumenical Councils, when confirmed by the Pope,
represent the universal Church and are assisted by the Holy Spirit; they are
therefore infallible in matters of faith and morals (D.1723).
In contrast, diocesan and national councils
do not possess infallibility; their judgments on faith and morals are therefore
not irreformable.
4) The Nature of Infallibility
Infallibility is the supernatural assistance
of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, by which the teaching Church, when
defining matters of faith and morals, is preserved from all error.
a) Assistance: This gift does not entail a new revelation; rather, it is a special act of divine providence by which the Church is preserved from error.
b) In defining doctrines of faith and morals: The Vatican Council teaches (Dei Filius, Chapter 3): 'By divine and Catholic faith, all those things must be believed which are contained in the written Word of God and in Tradition, and those which are proposed by the Church—either by a solemn declaration or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium—as divinely revealed.'
5) The Object of Infallibility
The Vatican Council teaches that the Roman
Pontiff 'is endowed with that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer
willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine concerning faith or
morals.' Therefore, the object of infallibility is doctrine concerning faith or
morals.
a) Direct object of infallibility: This refers to all revealed truths which, whether explicitly or implicitly, are contained in the written Word of God or in Tradition, and which are to be believed with divine faith.
This infallibility extends to the following:
- The canon of Sacred Scripture: Since the
Church is infallible in defining revealed truth, she must likewise be
infallible in determining which books belong to Holy Scripture.
- The authentic sense of revealed truth: The
Church is infallible both in teaching and interpreting divine revelation.
- The condemnation of errors that contradict
revealed truth.
- The interpretation of divine laws and
precepts, as well as the Evangelical Counsels.
b) Indirect Object of Infallibility: This refers to those truths which, though not themselves revealed, are so intimately connected with divine revelation that their denial would jeopardise revealed doctrine.
It extends to the following:
i) Theological conclusions: That is, truths which necessarily follow from one revealed premise and one premise known by reason.
Christ is a true man (revealed truth)
Man is composed of body and soul (known by
reason)
Therefore, Christ has a human body and a
human soul (theological conclusion)
ii) Truths of the natural order: These are truths known by reason which are intimately bound to revealed dogma, such as:
- The spirituality of the soul.
- The possibility of divine revelation and miracles.
- The doctrine of transubstantiation.
iii) Dogmatic facts: Historical facts intrinsically linked to revealed truth, such as:
- The legitimacy of Pope Pius XI.
- Whether a particular book or statement is heretical or orthodox.
iv) Disciplinary matters: Infallibility also extends to certain aspects of the Church’s general discipline, including:
- The norms of divine worship.
- The approval of religious orders.
- The canonisation of saints.
- The authentication of relics.
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🔎SEE ALSO:
✅ The Hermeneutic of Absurdity
✅The Mystery of Iniquity: A Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2
Berry, E. Sylvester. The
Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise. St Louis, MO and London:
B. Herder Book Co., 1927. Part II, chs. XIII–XVI, pp. 426–505.
Denzinger, Heinrich. Enchiridion
Symbolorum, Definitionum et Declarationum de Rebus Fidei et Morum. 13th ed.
Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1911.
Mazzella, Camillus. De Religione et Ecclesia: Praelectiones
Scholastico-Dogmaticae. Romae: Ex Typographia Polyglotta S.C. de Propaganda
Fide, 1880. Disp. IV, Art.
VII-VIII, pp. 599–632 (nn. 780–826).
Parente, Pietro.
Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1951, pp. 142–143.
Toner, P. Infallibility. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07790a.htm [accessed 19 May 2025].
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