INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH.
The Church has authority from God to teach regarding faith and morals, and
in her teaching she is preserved from error by the special guidance of the
Holy Ghost.
The prerogative of infallibility is clearly deduced from the attributes of
the Church already mentioned. The Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic. Preaching the same creed everywhere and at all times; teaching
holiness and truth, she is, of course, essentially unerring in her
doctrine; for what is one, holy or unchangeable must be infallibly true.
That the Church was infallible in the Apostolic age is denied by no
Christian. We never question the truth of the Apostles’ declarations;(114)
they were, in fact, the only authority in the Church for the first
century. The New Testament was not completed till the close of the first
century. There is no just ground for denying to the Apostolic teachers of
the nineteenth century in which we live a prerogative clearly possessed by
those of the first, especially as the Divine Word nowhere intimates that
this unerring guidance was to die with the Apostles. On the contrary, as
the Apostles transmitted to their successors their power to preach, to
baptize, to ordain, to confirm, etc., they must also have handed down to
them the no less essential gift of infallibility.
God loves us as much as He loved the primitive Christians; Christ died for
us as well as for them and we have as much need of unerring teachers as
they had.
It will not suffice to tell me: “We have an infallible Scripture as a
substitute for an infallible apostolate of the first century,” for an
infallible book is of no use to me without an infallible interpreter, as
the history of Protestantism too clearly demonstrates.
But besides these presumptive arguments, we have positive evidence from
Scripture that the Church cannot err in her teachings. Our blessed Lord,
in constituting St. Peter Prince of His Apostles, says to him: “Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.”(115) Christ makes here a solemn prediction
that no error shall ever invade His Church, and if she fell into error the
gates of hell have certainly prevailed against her.
The Reformers of the sixteenth century affirm that the Church did fall
into error; that the gates of hell did prevail against her; that from the
sixth to the sixteenth century she was a sink of iniquity. The Book of
Homilies of the Church of England says that the Church “lay buried in
damnable idolatry for eight hundred years or more.” The personal veracity
of our Savior and of the Reformers is here at issue, for our Lord makes a
statement which they contradict. Who is to be believed, Jesus or the
Reformers?
If the prediction of our Savior about the preservation of His Church from
error be false, then Jesus Christ is not God, since God cannot lie. He is
not even a prophet, since He predicted falsehood. Nay, He is an impostor,
and all Christianity is a miserable failure and a huge deception, since it
rests on a false Prophet.
But if Jesus predicted the truth when He declared that the gates of hell
should not prevail against His Church—and who dare deny it?—then the
Church never has and never could have fallen from the truth; then the
Catholic Church is infallible, for she alone claims that prerogative, and
she is the only Church that is acknowledged to have existed from the
beginning. Truly is Jesus that wise Architect mentioned in the Gospel,
“who built his house upon a rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it
was founded upon a rock.”(116)
Jesus sends forth the Apostles with plenipotentiary powers to preach the
Gospel. “As the Father,” He says, “hath sent Me, I also send you.”(117)
“Going therefore, teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you.”(118) “Preach the Gospel to every
creature.”(119) “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.”(120)
This commission evidently applies not to the Apostles only, but also to
their successors, to the end of time, since it was utterly impossible for
the Apostles personally to preach to the whole world.
Not only does our Lord empower His Apostles to preach the Gospel, but He
commands, and under the most severe penalties, those to whom they preach
to listen and obey. “Whosoever will not receive you, nor hear your words,
going forth from that house or city, shake the dust from your feet. Amen,
I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city.”(121) “If he will not
hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican.”(122)
“He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be
condemned.”(123) “He that heareth you heareth Me; he that despiseth you
despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me.”(124)
From these passages we see, on the one hand, that the Apostles and their
successors have received full powers to announce the Gospel; and on the
other, that their hearers are obliged to listen with docility and to obey
not merely by an external compliance, but also by an internal assent of
the intellect. If, therefore, the Catholic Church could preach error,
would not God Himself be responsible for the error? And could not the
faithful soul say to God with all reverence and truth: Thou hast commanded
me, O Lord, to hear Thy Church; if I am deceived by obeying her, Thou art
the cause of my error?
But we may rest assured that an all-wise Providence who commands His
Church to speak in His name will so guide her in the path of truth that
she shall never lead into error those that follow her teachings.
But as this privilege of Infallibility was a very extraordinary favor, our
Savior confers it on the rulers of His Church in language which removes
all doubt from the sincere inquirer, and under circumstances which add to
the majesty of His word. Shortly before His death Jesus consoles His
disciples by this promise: “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you
another Paraclete, _that He may abide with you forever_.... But when He,
the Spirit of truth, shall come, _He will teach you all truth_.”(125)
The following text of the same import forms the concluding words recorded
of our Savior in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “All power is given to Me in heaven
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, ... teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am
with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”(126)
He begins by asserting His own Divine authority and mission. “All power is
given,” etc. That power He then delegates to His Apostles and to their
successors: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,” etc. He does not
instruct them to scatter Bibles broadcast over the earth, but to teach by
word of mouth. “And behold!” Our Savior never arrests the attention of His
hearers by using the interjection, _behold_, unless when He has something
unusually solemn and extraordinary to communicate. An important
announcement is sure to follow this word. “Behold, I am with you.” These
words, “_I am with you_,” are frequently addressed in Sacred Scripture by
the Almighty to His Prophets and Patriarchs, and they always imply a
special presence and a particular supervision of the Deity.(127) They
convey the same meaning in the present instance. Christ says equivalently
I who “am the way, the truth and the life,” will protect you from error
and will guide you in your speech. I will be with you, not merely during
_your_ natural lives, not for a century only, but all days, at all times,
without intermission, even to the end of the world.
These words of Jesus Christ establish two important facts: First—A promise
to guard His Church from error. Second—A promise that His presence with
the Church will be continuous, without any interval of absence, to the
consummation of the world.
And this is also the sentiment of the Apostle of the Gentiles writing to
the Ephesians: God “gave some indeed Apostles, and some Prophets, and some
Evangelists, and others Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the
Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of
Christ, until we all meet in the unity of faith, ... that we may no more
be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the wickedness of men, in craft, by which they lie in wait to
deceive.”(128)
Notwithstanding these plain declarations of Scripture, some persons think
it an unwarrantable assumption for the Church to claim infallibility. But
mark the consequences that follow from denying it.
If your church is not infallible it is liable to err, for there is no
medium between infallibility and liability to error. If your church and
her ministers are fallible in their doctrinal teachings, as they admit,
they may be preaching falsehood to you, instead of truth. If so, you are
in doubt whether you are listening to truth or falsehood. If you are in
doubt you can have no faith, for faith excludes doubt, and in that state
you displease God, for “without faith it is impossible to please
God.”(129) Faith and infallibility must go hand in hand. The one cannot
exist without the other. There can be no faith in the hearer unless there
is unerring authority in the speaker—an authority founded upon such
certain knowledge as precludes the possibility of falling into error on
his part, and including such unquestioned veracity as to prevent his
deceiving him who accepts his word.
You admit infallible certainty in the physical sciences; why should you
deny it in the science of salvation? The astronomer can predict with
accuracy a hundred years beforehand an eclipse of the sun or moon. He can
tell what point in the heavens a planet will reach on a given day. The
mariner, guided by his compass, knows, amid the raging storm and the
darkness of the night, that he is steering his course directly to the city
of his destination; and is not an infallible guide as necessary to conduct
you to the city of God in heaven? Is it not, moreover, a blessing and a
consolation that, amid the ever-changing views of men, amid the conflict
of human opinion and the tumultuous waves of human passion, there is one
voice heard above the din and uproar, crying in clear, unerring tones:
“Thus saith the Lord?”
It is very strange that the Catholic Church must apologize to the world
for simply declaring that she speaks the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth.
The Roman Pantheon was dedicated to all the gods of the Empire, and their
name was legion. Formidable also in numbers are the Founders of the
religious sects existing in our country. A Pantheon as vast as Westminster
Abbey would hardly be spacious enough to contain life-sized statues for
their accommodation.
If you were to confront those figures, and to ask them, one by one, to
give an account of the faith they had professed, and if they were endowed
with the gift of speech, you would find that no two of them were in entire
accord, but that they all differed among themselves on some fundamental
principle of revelation.
Would you not be acting very unwisely and be hazarding your soul’s
salvation in submitting to the teachings of so many discordant and
conflicting oracles.
Children of the Catholic Church, give thanks to God that you are members
of that Communion, which proclaims year after year the one same and
unalterable message of truth, peace and love, and that you are preserved
from all errors in faith, and from all illusion in the practice of virtue.
You are happily strangers to those interior conflicts, to those perplexing
doubts and to that frightful uncertainty which distracts the souls of
those whose private judgment is their only guide, who are “ever learning
and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth.”(130) You are not, like
others, drifting helplessly over the ocean of uncertainty and “carried
about by every wind of doctrine.” You are not as “blind men led by blind
guides.” You are not like those who are in the midst of a spiritual desert
intersected by various by-paths, not knowing which to pursue; but you are
on that high road spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, which is so “straight a
way that fools shall not err therein.”(131) You are a part of that
universal Communion which has no “High Church” and “Low Church;” no “New
School” and “Old School,” for you all belong to that School which is “ever
ancient and ever new.” You enjoy that profound peace and tranquillity
which springs from the conscious possession of the whole truth. Well may
you exclaim: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity.”(132)
Give thanks, moreover, to God that you belong to a Church which has also a
keen sense to detect and expose those moral shams, those pious frauds,
those socialistic schemes which are so often undertaken in this country
ostensibly in the name of religion and morality, but which, in reality,
are subversive of morality and order, which are the offspring of
fanaticism, and serve as a mask to hide the most debasing passions.
Neither Mormons nor Millerites, nor the advocates of free love or of
women’s rights, so called, find any recruits in the Catholic Church. She
will never suffer her children to be ensnared by these impostures, how
specious soever they may be.
From what has been said in the preceding pages, it follows that the
Catholic Church cannot be reformed. I do not mean, of course, that the
Pastors of the Church are personally impeccable or not subject to sin.
Every teacher in the Church, from the Pope down to the humblest Priest, is
liable at any moment, like any of the faithful, to fall from grace and to
stand in need of moral reformation. We all carry “this treasure (of
innocence) in earthen vessels.”
My meaning is that the Church is not susceptible of being reformed in her
doctrines. The Church is the work of an Incarnate God. Like all God’s
works, it is perfect. It is, therefore, incapable of reform. Is it not the
height of presumption for men to attempt to improve upon the work of God?
Is it not ridiculous for the Luthers, the Calvins, the Knoxes and the
Henries and a thousand lesser lights to be offering their amendments to
the Constitution of the Church, as if it were a human Institution?
Our Lord Himself has never ceased to rule personally over His Church. It
is time enough for little men to take charge of the Ship when the great
Captain abandons the helm.
A Protestant gentleman of very liberal education remarked to me, before
the opening of the late Ecumenical Council: “I am assured, sir, by a
friend, in confidence, that, at a secret Conclave of Bishops recently held
in Rome it was resolved that the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception would
be reconsidered and abolished at the approaching General Council; in fact,
that the definition was a mistake, and that the blunder of 1854 would be
repaired in 1869.” I told him, of course, that no such question could be
entertained in the Council; that the doctrinal decrees of the Church were
irrevocable, and that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined
once and forever.
If only one instance could be given in which the Church ceased to teach a
doctrine of faith which had been previously held, that single instance
would be the death blow of her claim to infallibility. But it is a
marvelous fact worthy of record that in the whole history of the Church,
from the nineteenth century to the first, no solitary example can be
adduced to show that any Pope or General Council ever revoked a decree of
faith or morals enacted by any preceding Pontiff or Council. Her record in
the past ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will tolerate no
doctrinal variations in the future.
If, as we have seen, the Church has authority from God to teach, and if
she teaches nothing but the truth, is it not the duty of all Christians to
hear her voice and obey her commands? She is the organ of the Holy Ghost.
She is the Representative of Jesus Christ, who has said to her: “He that
heareth you heareth Me; he that despiseth you despiseth Me.” She is the
Mistress of truth. It is the property of the human mind to embrace truth
wherever it finds it. It would, therefore, be not only an act of
irreverence, but of sheer folly, to disobey the voice of this
ever-truthful Mother.
If a citizen is bound to obey the laws of his country, though these laws
may not in all respects be conformable to strict justice; if a child is
bound by natural and divine law to obey his mother, though she may
sometimes err in her judgments, how much more strictly are not we obliged
to be docile to the teachings of the Catholic Church, our Mother, whose
admonitions are always just, whose precepts are immutable!
“For twenty years,” observed a recently converted Minister of the
Protestant Church, “I fought and struggled against the Church with all the
energy of my will. But when I became a Catholic all my doubts ended, my
inquiries ceased. I became as a little child, and rushed like a lisping
babe into the arms of my mother.” By Baptism Christians become children of
the Church, no matter who pours upon them the regenerating waters. If she
is our Mother, where is our love and obedience? When the infant seeks
nourishment at its mother’s breast it does not analyze its food. When it
receives instructions from its mother’s lips it never doubts, but
instinctively believes. When the mother stretches forth her hand the child
follows unhesitatingly. The Christian should have for his spiritual Mother
all the simplicity, all the credulity, I might say, of a child, guided by
the instincts of faith. “Unless ye become,” says our Lord, “as little
children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”(133) “As
new-born babes, desire the rational milk without guile; that thereby you
may grow unto salvation.”(134) In her nourishment there is no poison; in
her doctrines there is no guile.