Papal Infallibility

Dear Catholic Exchange:

I am a member of the Catholic Women's Bible Study in New Jersey. We are currently studying Galatians using Catholic Scripture Study materials. Our group has several questions regarding Papal Infallibility, and we thought you might be able to help us understand this. Is there a list indicating the matters on which the Pope has spoken infallibly?

Although we don’t know, we believe infallible teachings are limited to dogmas on things such as the Creed, The Assumption of Mary and The Immaculate Conception. How are teachings such as Humanae Vitae and the reservation of the priesthood for males only explained in regard to infallibility? We are confused about this because it seems the aforementioned teachings are binding on Catholics, but were they infallible teachings?

Sincerely,

Joan Piasio

Dear Joan,

Peace in Christ! I hope this response will adequately address your questions. The Church has not compiled a list of teachings infallibly proposed by the Pope. The substance and content of our faith is more than the things we can say about it. Catechism, no. 170, quoting St. Thomas, teaches that our faith reaches past the formulas and propositions to the realities to which they refer. Nonetheless, we “approach these realities with the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more.” The charism of infallibility gives us confidence that, while no formulation can exhaust the truth, the Church’s formulations of faith are true statements.

Infallibility is a part of the “living” teaching office of the Church (the Magisterium). The Magisterium was established by Christ Himself that the mystery of faith may be faithfully passed on (see Catechism, nos. 85-87). Infallibility is exercised in numerous ways. For example, you mentioned the Creed. The Creed is the result of the exercise of infallibility by all the bishops in an ecumenical council. The Assumption of Mary and the Immaculate Conception are instances of the Pope’s infallibility exercised ex cathedra (“from the chair”).

However, the contents of the deposit of faith are frequently taught infallibly without recourse to the relatively rare ex cathedra and conciliar decrees. In fact, infallibility is rarely exercised in this fashion. For more information about the different ways in which the charism of infallibility is exercised, read nos. 888-92 of the Catechism. In addition, see our Faith Fact, No Bull: Papal Authority and Our Response.

If infallibility is understood not to be reducible to ex cathedra pronouncements, then how infallibility applies to other teachings (such as expressed in Humanae Vitae or Ordinatio Sacerdotalis ) becomes clearer. For example, after the release of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (OS), Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, released a statement that the teaching of OS was, indeed, infallibly proposed.

In Cardinal Ratzinger’s comments, he noted that long before the Pope wrote OS, the teaching that the priesthood is reserved for males only had already “been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.” The Pope, the Cardinal said, merely handed the teaching on in a “formal declaration explicitly stating” that to which faithful Catholics must give their assent.

The same case can be easily made for the teaching on contraception as contained in Humanae Vitae and earlier encyclicals on the subject (e.g., Casti Connubii). Pope Paul VI proposed nothing new, but reaffirmed in a definitive manner that which was already infallibly taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. To be sure, he added some new dimensions to the arguments (e.g., the stronger focus on the unitive meaning of marriage), but the teaching itself and the arguments for it must be distinguished. For further reading on the infallibility of Humanae Vitae, see chapter 5 of “Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later” by Janet E. Smith (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1991). See also the article by Russell Shaw that appears as chapter 14 of the collection edited by Janet Smith, “Why Humanae Vitae was Right: A Reader” (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1993).

I hope this answers your question. If you have further questions on this or would like more information about Catholics United for the Faith, please contact us at 1-800-MY-FAITH (693-2484). Please keep us in your prayers as we endeavor to “support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.”

United in the Faith,

David E. Utsler

Information Specialist

Catholics United for the Faith

827 North Fourth Street

Steubenville, OH 43952

800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)