Catholics hold that the marks of the true Church of Christ are found only in the Church in which the bishop of Rome holds the primacy. The bishops of this Church all over the world are the successors of the apostles, possessing the right to teach, to rule, and to sanctify. The gift of infallibility, that is, the right to declare that certain doctrines have been revealed by God is not personal to each bishop, but belongs only to the whole body of bishops, whether gathered in general council or not. The consent of the universal Church according to Christ's promise is a sure criterion of revelation. To the bishop of Rome as the successor of Saint Peter belongs the primacy of jurisdiction over the whole Church, complete, supreme, ordinary, and immediate over each and all the churches of the world, over each and all the bishops and the faithful.
In this primacy is included the supreme au thority as teacher of the Church, or the pre rogative of papal infallibility. By virtue of a special supernatural assistance of the Holy Spirit promised to Saint Peter and his succes sors, the Pope cannot err when, as supreme teacher of the universal Church. he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole body of the faithful. Only when these four conditions are fulfilled is the Pope infallible: First, he must speak not in his pri vate capacity, not merely in his official charac ter, but as supreme teacher. Secondly, the matter defined must concern faith or morals. Thirdly, the judgment must be delivered with the manifest intention of commanding intellec tual assent. Fourthly, the definition must be given to the whole body of the faithful. It is clear that infallibility has absolutely no connec tion with the Pope's personal qualities and is entirely distinct from impeccability, or incapa bility of sinning. The extent of papal infalli bility is the same as that of the Church's in fallibility. It embraces all the truths that God has revealed as the object of faith, and extends to other truths and matters of faith without as surance of which it would be impossible or very difficult to preserve the deposit of revealed truth.
It follows from what we have hitherto said that whoever wishes to know Christ's doctrine must appeal to the living authority. The Church as teacher, that is, the bishops now living in union with the Pope, can alone tell us what doctrines were revealed. This knowl edge is not acquired from new revelations, but with the assistance of the Holy Ghost from various sources, chief among which is the preaching of the Gospel, by which the doctrines of Christ are handed down as a sacred heritage from age to age. Thus, even if nothing had ever been written, we should have to-day, in corrupt and infallible, the means of preserving religious truth which Christ established, namely Tradition. However, it was natural that those who were commissioned to teach should also set down their teaching in writing. Hence we
possess many documents and monuments from which we learn what the Church taught in past ages and what it now teaches; the truths re vealed remain unchanged. Moreover, we learn from the Church that God Himself provided, by means of men, certain writings, containing revealed truth, and gave them to the Church for the instruction and direction of the faithful. (See BIBLE). • From it alone we learn what books have been so inspired and constitute Holy Scripture; the Church alone can au thoritatively interpret these writings. Tradi tion, therefore, is prior to the Christian scrip tures both in time and in thought. It is wider in its scope, for it embraces Scripture as an instrument by which tradition is handed down and on the other hand contains matters which are not in Scripture. First and principally, tradition teaches us the authoritative character of Scripture itself. Even were all the copies of Scripture destroyed, the living voice would still proclaim the entire Christian teaching. Catholics yield to none in their esteem of Holy Writ, as the inspired word of God, but they so esteem it because of what they learn con cerning it from tradition. The chief sources from which this tradition. is learned are the acts of councils, the writings of the Popes, of the Fathers of the Church, inscriptions, mon uments, pictures, liturgies, rites and pious cus toms, in a word, every way in which the Church is wont to profess her faith.
The Chief Doctrines of the Catholic Catholics believe in one, true, living God, the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible, almighty, eternal, immense and incompre hensible; infinite in will and intellect, and in all perfection, who, being one, singular, ab solutely simple and unchangeable spiritual sub stance is to be regarded as distinct really and in essence from the world, infinitely happy in and from Himself and unspeakably elevated above all things that exist or can be conceived. He knows all things in the most perfect man ner, by one all-embracing act of His intellect, from eternity to eternity ever the. same. He knows His own being, all things that are pos sible, past, present and future, and all things that are not and never have been nor will be, but which would be if some condition were fulfilled. He is all-wise, all-holy, all-just, true, faithful and bountiful. Moreover, in God as there is one divine nature, so there are three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, really distinct from one another, perfectly equal to one another. Nevertheless there are not three Gods, but one God. The Father is un begotten, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. (See TRINITY, DOCTRINE OF THE).