The infallible papal Magisterium: A beautiful gift for the Church

By Christopher Wells

On July 19, 1870, French representatives delivered a declaration of war against the northern German state of Prussia, marking the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War. Hostilities disrupted the balance of power in Europe, and French troops protecting the Papal States were withdrawn to fight in the war.

In Rome, the First Vatican Ecumenical Council, which had convened just seven months earlier, was suspended, destined never to meet again.

Only one day earlier, the Council Fathers had voted to approve the First Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, known from its opening words as Pastor Aeternus. The vote marked the end of months of tumultuous, and at times heated debate, focused especially on the doctrine of papal infallibility. During a preliminary vote on July 13, a significant minority of Council had voted against the document, and a number of Bishops chose to leave Rome rather than take part in the final vote.

On the 150^th anniversary of Pastor Aeternus, Vatican News spoke with Dr Michael Sirilla, Professor of Dogmatic and Systematic Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, about the Council’s teaching.

The infallible teaching authority of Pope

“What’s most well-known from Vatican I is the dogmatic definition of papal infallibility in chapter four” of Pastor Aeternus, says Dr Sirilla.

Papal infallibility does not mean that popes cannot sin, or that “whatever they say on any topic at all is without error.” What papal infallibility does mean, he explains, “is that in very specifically circumscribed conditions… a pope enjoys a share in this gift, this charism, that Jesus promised to the Church, to lead the Church… into all truth” through the Apostles and their successors, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit

So, Sirilla continues, when a pope “exercises the charism of infallibility, when he defines a matter of faith and morals, speaking with his supreme Apostolic authority, and he defines a matter of faith and morals to be held by the whole Church, those definitions are infallible.”

The Pope’s office of teaching – the papal Magisterium – is extremely important, says Sirilla. “It’s a great visible sign of the unity of a gargantuan body of believers… it’s a beautiful gift.”

Papal Primacy

Pastor Aeternus also definitively proclaimed the Church’s teaching on the power and nature of the Pope.

At Vatican I, the Council Fathers, basing themselves on the Sacred Scriptures, showed that Peter was given a certain primacy among the Apostles, and that this primacy was passed on to his successors, the Roman Pontiffs. This primacy is not simply “one of honour,” says Sirilla, but a real primacy of jurisdiction: the pope “can legislate, he can bindingly teach, and he can discipline in virtue of his office.” 

It’s “a great gift from Christ to the Church,” he says, “to have this visible sign of Christ’s presence in His visible representative.” The Church recognizes that all popes have been sinners, “from Peter all the way up.” But, Sirilla says, “God also uses them to visibly manifest his truth of doctrine, and the goodness and amazing grace of the Sacraments, and the charity of his discipline, his governance.”

A teaching that is still relevant

The dogmas proclaimed at the First Vatican Council “are as relevant today as the teachings on the Trinity are, from Nicaea, from the New Testament,” says Sirilla. They are still relevant “because these are the great mysteries of our faith for the pilgrim Church on earth, as we make our way to our homeland in heaven.”

For Sirilla, “the most relevant aspect of it is this: Jesus left us with a visible head in Peter and his successors, that Jesus willed this, [He] willed to give this to us, meeting us where we're at on the level of the senses. We need something sensible, audible, tangible, so to speak, and He gave us this visible head, this person who, if we see him, we see Jesus… He's the vicar or representative of Christ.”