Ad Tuendam Fidem: Hoping for a Golden Silence

Pope John Paul II’s most recent apostolic letter, Ad Tuendam Fidem, represents new legislation issued by the Holy Father in order to bring the universal laws of the Church up to date with the profession of faith promulgated in 1989. This is the profession of faith that, in addition to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Apostolic See requires of certain people serving the Church in particular offices.

The profession of faith enunciates three categories of truths. In an effort to forestall theological opinions recently raised against truths of the second category, the Holy Father promulgated this apostolic letter to establish in canon law precise juridical and disciplinary norms regarding this category of truth. Amending both the Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in order to protect “the Catholic faith against errors arising from certain members of the Christian faithful, especially from among those dedicated to the various disciplines of sacred theology,” the pope has made two additions. The first addition stipulates that Catholics must embrace and keep definitive teachings on faith and morals, even if those teachings have not been proposed as formally revealed. The second provides for a “just penalty” for anyone who “pertinaciously,” or resolutely, rejects doctrines that are supposed to be definitively held.

While filling a gap in canon law, this letter counters those theologians who argue that certain definitive Church teachings are not infallible and so may be reversed some time in the future, either by a pope or a Church council. Fr. Richard P. McBrien, for example, in columns written for the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, has accused the pope and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of “smudging the traditional theological distinction between infallible and non-infallible teachings by insisting non-infallible but definitive teachings are to be treated as if they were infallible too.” By so speaking, McBrien suggests that only those doctrines that have been solemnly defined by a Church council or pope qualify as infallible teachings or require the religious submission of Christ’s faithful. If this were so, then Catholics would be free actively to dissent from those doctrines that have not been formally declared by a pope or council to be divinely revealed. This letter conclusively ends all such argument.

Unlike McBrien, the Church does not speak of non-infallible but definitive teachings. First, it would make little sense for the Magisterium to ask the faithful to assent to a doctrine definitively if the meaning of that doctrine were somehow reversible. But even more to the point, in Lumen Gentium the Council Fathers at Vatican II taught that the bishops together with the pope could teach infallibly even outside an ecumenical council when “they are in agreement that a particular teaching is to be held definitively.” This is what is known as the infallibility of the ordinary and universal Magisterium. If we adhere to this doctrine there can be no opposing definitive teachings against those that are infallible. Ad Tuendam Fidem forcefully reaffirms that the Church can and has taught doctrines as definitive and infallible without a solemn proclamation of infallibility that is found in a papal or conciliar definition. Above all, the apostolic letter is a reminder that embracing the definitive teachings proposed by the Magisterium is first and foremost about sharing fully in the living faith of the Church.

The Teaching

In the Code of Canon Law, the profession of faith consists of the traditional Nicene Creed plus three paragraphs that aim to distinguish clearly the order of truths that the faithful are called to embrace. The letter explicitly cites these three paragraphs found in the profession of faith and the canons corresponding to them.

The first of these paragraphs, corresponding to Canon 750 in the Latin Code, concerns truths that have been divinely revealed and taught either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary universal Magisterium. The third paragraph deals with authentic but non-definitive Church teachings, corresponding to Canon 752 in the Latin Code. The second paragraph—regarding teachings connected to revelation either by historical reason or by logical consequence—addresses each and every thing that the Church’s Magisterium teaches regarding faith and morals. Because this paragraph has no corresponding canon in the Code of Canon Law, the pope has filled this lacuna by adding the following paragraph to Canon 750:

Each and every thing set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; namely those things required for the holy keeping and faithful exposition of the deposit of faith; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church.

The second addition to the Latin Code stipulates just penalties for those who pertinaciously reject definitive doctrines. Similar norms are added to the Eastern Code, thus ensuring that the second category of truths mentioned in the profession of faith is fully covered by canon law.

The Holy Father explains in his apostolic letter that truths of the second category are definitive on account of an historical or a logical connection with divinely revealed truths. Such truths must be definitively held even though the Church has not proposed them as formally and strictly revealed. They are, nonetheless, truths that are necessary to the deposit of faith. Examples given by the official commentary on the apostolic letter by Cardinal Ratzinger include dissident teachings on euthanasia, prostitution, fornication, and the male priesthood.

These are instances of definitive teachings that are connected with revelation by logical necessity. It should be noted, however, that in the future the Church might teach such a doctrine as divinely revealed. In other words, as the Church progresses in her understanding of the faith, truths in the second category might be “bumped up” so to speak into the first category of truths. The official commentary explains that something like this occurred at the First Vatican Council which defined the dogma of papal primacy and infallibility as a truth to be believed as divinely revealed. Prior to Vatican I the doctrine of papal primacy and infallibility was definitively accepted but remained something of an open question as to the meaning of its precise relationship with revelation. But with the definition at Vatican I, which enshrined the Church’s more developed understanding of papal primacy and infallibility, it became necessary to believe this truth as formally revealed.

Instances of definitive teachings that are connected to revelation by historical necessity but are not proclaimed as divinely revealed include the legitimacy of the election of a pope and the ecumenicity and universality of a Church council. These are historical facts, called dogmatic facts by theologians. Although not revealed truths, such facts have a very close relationship to the teaching authority of the Church and are linked to revelation by a certain historical necessity. The validity of the definition of the bodily assumption of the Blessed Mother into heaven, for example, depends upon the legitimacy of the papal election of Pius XII. The canonization of saints and the declaration of certain saints as doctors of the Church are other examples of definitive teachings connected to revelation by historical necessity. A recent example, not mentioned by the official commentary, is the declaration of Therese of Lisieux as a doctor of the Church. This declaration by Pope John Paul makes it unambiguously clear that her teachings conform to the Catholic faith in an excellent way and represent a true path to holiness.

Author

  • Lawrence J. Welch

    Dr. Lawrence J. Welch is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Kenrick School of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri.

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