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The Church Courtyard => Traditional Catholic Discussion => Topic started by: Counter Revolutionary on November 20, 2018, 02:01:34 PM

Title: St. Robert Bellarmine On the Fallibility of Council Decrees
Post by: Counter Revolutionary on November 20, 2018, 02:01:34 PM
Robert Siscoe included a very pertinent quote from St. Robert Bellarmine's On the Authority of the Councils in a recent article for the Remnant:

QuoteThe great majority of the acts of [ecumenical] councils do not pertain to the faith.  For neither the disputations that precede the decrees, nor the reasons that are adduced, nor the things that are introduced to explain and illustrate them, but only the bare decrees themselves are de fide—and not all decrees, but only those that are proposed as de fide. (...) It is easy to tell from the words of the Council when a decree is proposed as de fide; for they are always accustomed to say that they are explaining the Catholic faith, or that those who think the contrary are to be considered heretics, or—what is most common—they pronounce an anathema against those who think the contrary, and exclude them from the Church.  But when they say none of these things it is not certain that the matter is de fide.

https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/4214-the-infallibility-of-the-ordinary-and-extraordinary-magisterium#_ftn11

Title: Re: St. Robert Bellarmine On the Fallibility of Council Decrees
Post by: Counter Revolutionary on November 20, 2018, 02:03:37 PM
Here are some examples of doctrines taught in three different Ecumenical Councils where the wording used makes it clear that the doctrines are being proposed as being de fide:

Council of Trent, Session VII, Canon XIII:
QuoteIf any one saith, that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, accustomed to be used in the solemn administration of the sacraments, may be despised or omitted by ministers without sin and at their pleasure, or may be changed by any pastor of the churches, whomsoever, to other new ones; let him be anathema.

Council of Florence, Session XI:
QuoteThe most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics, can have a share in life eternal; but that they will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless before death they are joined with Her; and that so important is the unity of this ecclesiastical body that only those remaining within this unity can profit by the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, their almsgivings, their other works of Christian piety and the duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved, unless he remain within the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church.

Vatican I, Session III:
QuoteIf anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the church which is different from that which the church has understood and understands: let him be anathema.