In this essay we will be heavily quoting from Papal proclamations as well as ecumenical Church councils. The reason for this is because the Catholic Church has decreed that these instruments, when speaking on "faith and morals" are infallible.
In short, if you want to know what the Roman Catholic Church officially teaches about something, and what Roman Catholics are supposed to believe, you look to the papal proclamations and ecumenical councils.
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines "infallibility" as:
In general, exemption or immunity from liability to error or failure; in particular in theological usage, the supernatural prerogative by which the Church of Christ is, by a special Divine assistance, preserved from liability to error in her definitive dogmatic teaching regarding matters of faith and morals... more than exemption from actual error; it means exemption from the possibility of error. [1]
The first Vatican Council decreed the following:
We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable. [2]
Here we see very clearly that the Pope, when he speaks ex cathedra, miraculously is preserved from even the possibility of error. Also important to note is that the decrees are irreformable; i.e. they can't be legitimately changed later.
In regard to the councils, the Catholic Encyclopedia asserts:
All the arguments which go to prove the infallibility of the Church apply with their fullest force to the infallible authority of general councils in union with the pope. [3]
That an ecumenical council... is an organ of infallibility will not be denied by anyone who admits that the Church is endowed with infallible doctrinal authority. [4]
So when testing the claims of the Roman Catholic Church, let us take great care to determine what Rome teaches based on official papal decrees and official ecumenical councils.
Next: Roman Cahtolic Plan of Salvation
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© 2006, Mark Edward Sohmer. Please feel free to quote from it in context, and distribute it in its entirety without profit.
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