Do the writing of these fall under the clause of infallibility? Similar to the pope?

-- JBC (JRA@JRA-ARCHITECTS.COM), December 29, 1998

Answers

Response to The catechisms?

Dear Jamey, The authortiative catechism is the one put out by the pope and bishops, and that can be found at http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/ccc.html It contains mostly only things that have been defined infallibly. Some of the things in it have been defined by the ordinary magisterium (regular popes' encyclicals), which still requires an assent of the will and intellect. The Catechism itself is authorized by the pope in the beginning with an apostolic constitution, and so all the faithful have to abide by the contents. Other catechisms you might run across can be very helpful, and do pretty much the same thing (confine themselves to things that have been authoritatively taught), but they do not have the same authority as the official Catechism of the Catholic Church. Hope this helps. Yours in Christ, Chris

-- Chris B -- December 29, 1998.

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Response to The catechisms?

Chris,

Would these you gave from the net be infallibly stated?

Jamey

-- JBC (jra@jra-architects.com), January 04, 1999.

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Response to The catechisms?

Dear Jamey, I'm sorry, I didn't understand the question. What's the "these" you're referring to? I give one web-site above, which is the Catechism of the Catholic Church authorized by the pope and the worldwide bishops. Yours in Christ, Chris

-- Chris B -- January 04, 1999.

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Response to The catechisms?

Chris,

"These" would be the web site that you list on this thread.

Thanks,Jamey

-- JBC (JRA@JRA-ARCHITECTS.COM), January 04, 1999.

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Response to The catechisms?

Dear Jamey, The Catechism is based on the Bible and Church documents. The most important Church documents are of two categories: extraordinary magisterium (infallible), and ordinary magisterium (true, but more prone to deeper development in the future). The definitions of faith and morals in an ecumenical council, or a pope speaking ex cathedra, are infallible, and that's the extraordinary magisterium. The definitions of faith and morals in a papal encyclical, and certain other important church documents, are part of the ordinary magisterium, and require assent of the will and intellect, but with the awareness that a deeper understanding of the issues involved can occur in the future. The vast majority of the Catechism is from the inerrant Bible and from the infallible propositions of the extraordianry magisterium. Here and there throughout, often as explanation for other things, and to make things clearer, we have propositions from the ordinary magisterium. Many Catholics aren't called to go into all the theological details of this (though they are warmly encouraged to), and they know that if it's in the catechism, they have to follow it. Hope this helps. Yours in Christ, Chris

-- Chris B -- January 04, 1999.

-- The Thread Restorer (Thread@Restoration.com), December 01, 2003

Answers

The simple answer to the original question is "no". While the official catechism of the Church (or the official catechism of a Bishops' Conference for that matter) contains many dogmas of the Church that have been infallibly taught it also contains things that would not be considered infallible teaching.

Now, that being said; we as Catholics are obliged to submit to all that the Church teaches whether or not it's an infallible teaching. This comes as a suprise to many. The First Vatican Council defined this dogmatically (infallible);

DECREES OF THE FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL

Chapter 3. On the power and character of the primacy of the Roman pontiff.

"Wherefore we teach and declare that, by divine ordinance, the Roman church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that this jurisdictional power of the Roman pontiff is both episcopal and immediate.

"Both clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, AND THIS NOT ONLY IN MATTERS CONCERNING FAITH AND MORALS, BUT ALSO IN THOSE WHICH REGARD THE DISCIPLINE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD." (Emphasis mine)

-- John Miskell (RomanRite@aol.com), January 17, 2004.

it also contains things that would not be considered infallible teaching.

John, can you please give examples?

-- mvkzr (mvkzr@n.t), January 17, 2004.

The last part of the clause is not about infallible teaching, but OBEDIENCE. A Catholic obeys, even when his differences with the Church are over ordinary teaching with no claim to infallible truth. This is the Christian deference to a higher authority. It may not settle the differences, but there are more important things than settling a question. We leave that to God, because we keep the faith.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), January 17, 2004.