Folia Theologica 2. (1991)

Francisco J. Urrkutia: The Magisterium: how it works

THE MAGISTERIUM

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It is remarkable the LG 25,1 states that we owe this very same „submission of will and intellect", also to the pope’s non-infallible teaching.8 The attitude of spirit is the same, although in the case of the non-infallible teaching our answer will not be an act of faith in a revealed truth.

This is not a new doctrine. A famous theologian of the time of VATICAN I, in the mid XIX century, FRANZELIN spoke of the non-infallible teaching as an extension of the infallible one and he qualified it as „an'authority of a universal providence over the Church".9

In other words, in his mind, the non-infallible authentic teaching is not primarily in order to establish the truth which only the infallible teaching is absolutely sure of presenting. The primary role of the non-infallible teaching is to offer reliable guidance in everyday religious life, so that we the faithful can confidently be sure of our actions in our practical vives. Be sure, that is, that we are acting in conformity with moral laws and the demands of our vocation to holiness.

8 This religious submission of will and of intellect must be surrendered in a particular way to the authentic teaching of the Roman Pontiff, also (I emphasize) when he is not speaking infallibly” (LG 25, 1).

9 Tractatus de divina traditione et scriptura (De divina Traditione, Thesis XII, Scholion I, Principium 7, Collarium a), Typ. Propagande Fide, Romae 1870,

p. 116.