The M-Word

The M-Word

Dom Bede Griffiths

We hear a great deal today about the magisterium of the Church, and those who have a position of authority in the Church are even required to take an oath of loyalty and make a solemn profession of faith in the teachings of the magisterium. It is important, therefore, to understand exactly what is meant by this word magisterium.

Many people today think that the magisterium consists of the pope, and the Roman Curia, but this is mistaken. “Magisterium” comes from the Latin magister, a master, and signifies authority to teach. Strictly speaking there is only one such authority in the Church and that is the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to his disciples to “lead men into all truth”. The apostles, as St Paul says, were commissioned by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel in the name of Christ, and it is generally believed that the apostles commissioned others named presbyters (elders) and bishops (overseers) to succeed them. Thus it is generally recognised today that the bishops who derive this authority from Christ through the apostles constitute the magisterium of the Church.

But there are in fact four organs of the magisterium. The first is that of the pope and the Roman Curia, which is concerned with the day-to-day administration of the Church. But that is subordinate to the authority of the bishops in communion with the pope who constitute the magisterium properly speaking. This was made clear at the Second Vatican Council.

But it is here that a third organ of the magisterium came into play. The bishops were accompanied by periti, or expert theologians, who advised the bishops and were actually responsible for developing the understanding of the Church which emerged at the Council. In a sense it is to the theologians that the word magisterium properly applies, since a theologian is a magister sacrae doctrinae, a master of sacred doctrine, who has been commissioned to teach theology in the name of the Church. The theologian, of course, does not speak or act on his own, but as a member of the Church in co-operation with his fellow theologians.

There is still another organ of the magisterium, perhaps the most important of all, and that is the laity. The laity consists of the people (laos) of God....

The Promised Infallibility

The issue of infallibility is thus defined:

890 The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms:

891 "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals. . . . The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter's successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium," above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the obedience of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.

The doctrine of infallibility operates on two levels: definition and inclusiveness. The definition of infallibility is a negative definition: being preserved from "deviations and defections", teaching doctrine "without error". For instance, to say "the sun is a star" is to say an infallible statement, a statement that is error-free. The statement "the sun is big" can also be seen as infallible, without error, since the sun is indeed big under many standards of measurement. Even though the sun may not look big when seen from earth, or when compared to even larger celestial objects, to say "the sun is big" is not to say something in error. Thus, an infallible statement is true, but an infallible statement is not necessarily the last word on the subject.

And that leads to the second level of infallibility: inclusiveness. An infallible statement, though without error, is not exclusive, or exhaustive. An infallible statement may be without error, but being without error is different from being an exhaustive statement that says everything that can be said about the subject. To say "humans are animals" may be without error, but it doesn't say everything that there is to say about humans, or animals, for that matter. An infallible statement need not be the last word on an issue.

So, the Church's doctrine of the infallibility of, say, the Roman Pontiff, is restricted to issues concerning "matters of faith and morals". Whatever the Pontiff says about faith and morals need not be infallible, though. Only certain statements concerning faith and morals, under defined conditions, are considered infallible. And even these infallible statements, though without error, are not the final words on the subject.