In The Same Sense

While, in truth, We laud these men with due praise because they professed the truth which necessarily arises from their obligation to the Catholic faith, We wish to persuade Ourselves that they did not wish to confine the obligation, by which Catholic teachers and writers are absolutely bound, only to those decrees which are set forth by the infallible judgment of the Church as dogmas of faith to be believed by all [see n. 1722]. And We persuade Ourselves, also, that they did not wish to declare that that perfect adhesion to revealed truths, which they recognized as absolutely necessary to attain true progress in the sciences and to refute errors, could be obtained if faith and obedience were given only to the dogmas expressly defined by the Church. For, even if it were a matter concerning that subjection which is to be manifested by an act o f divine faith, nevertheless, it would not have to be limited to those matters which have been defined by express decrees of the ecumenical Councils, or of the Roman Pontiffs and of this See, but would have to be extended also to those matters which are handed down as divinely revealed by the ordinary teaching power of the whole Church spread throughout the world, and therefore, by universal and common consent are held by Catholic theologians to belong to faith.

~ Pope Pius IX, Tuas libenter (to the Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Dec. 21, 1863) [Denz. 1683]

The following error is condemned: [That] The obligation by which Catholic teachers and writers are absolutely bound is restricted to those matters only which are proposed by the infallible judgment of the Church, to be believed by all as dogmas of faith.

~ Pope Pius IX, Syllabus errorum, 22 (Dec. 8, 1866) [Denz. 1722]

The outstanding agreement of Catholic prelates and faithful, affirming that the bodily Assumption of God’s Mother into heaven can be defined as a dogma of faith, since it shows us the concordant teaching of the Church’s ordinary doctrinal authority and the concordant faith of the Christian people which the same doctrinal authority sustains and directs, thus by itself and in an entirely certain and infallible way, manifests this privilege as a truth revealed by God and contained in that divine deposit which Christ has delivered to his Spouse to be guarded faithfully and to be taught infallibly. (...) Thus, from the universal agreement of the Church’s ordinary teaching authority we have a certain and firm proof, demonstrating that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s bodily Assumption into heaven (...) is a truth that has been revealed by God and consequently something that must be firmly and faithfully believed by all children of the Church. For, as the Vatican Council asserts, “all those things are to be believed by divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the written Word of God or in Tradition, and which are proposed by the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by its Ordinary and Universal Magisterium, to be believed as divinely revealed.”

~ Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, 12 (1 November 1950) [Emphasis added]

What is liable to be overlooked is the ordinary and universal teaching of the Church. It is by no means uncommon to find the opinion, if not expressed at least entertained, that no doctrine is to be regarded as a dogma of faith unless it has been solemnly defined by an ecumenical Council or by the Sovereign Pontiff himself. This is by no means necessary. It is sufficient that the Church teaches it by her ordinary magisterium, exercised through the Pastors of the faithful, the Bishops, whose unanimous teaching throughout the Catholic world, whether conveyed expressly through pastoral letters, catechisms issued by episcopal authority, provincial synods, or implicitly through prayers and religious practices allowed or encouraged, or through the teaching of approved theologians, is no less infallible than a solemn definition issued by a Pope or a general Council. If, then, a doctrine appears in these organs of divine Tradition as belonging directly or indirectly to the depositum fidei [“deposit of faith”] committed by Christ to His Church, it is to be believed by Catholics with divine-Catholic or ecclesiastical faith, even though it may never have formed the subject of a solemn definition in an ecumenical Council or of an ex cathedra pronouncement by the Sovereign Pontiff.

~ Canon George D. Smith, Ph.D., D.D., Clergy Review (April 1935) [cited by John S. Daly in “Did Vatican II Teach Infallibly?”]

By a strange reversal, while the personal infallibility of the pope in a solemn judgment, so long disputed, was definitely placed beyond all controversy [in 1870], it is the Ordinary Magisterium of the Roman Church which seems to have been lost sight of. It is as if the very brilliance of the Vatican I definition had cast into shadow the truth hitherto universally recognised; we might almost say as if the definition of the infallibility of solemn judgments made these henceforth the exclusive method by which the Sovereign Pontiff was to put forward the rule of faith. (...) The theological mark of heresy has to be applied, not only to what contradicts a defined truth, but also to what conflicts with a truth clearly put forward by the Ordinary Magisterium.

~ Dom Paul Nau: The Ordinary Magisterium of the Church Theologically Considered (Solesmes, 1956.) [cited by John S. Daly in “Did Vatican II Teach Infallibly?”]

The Church exercises her infallibility either by a solemn judgement or by her ordinary and universal magisterium, by defining revealed truth, by watching over the faith of her subjects, which it is her right and duty to do; she cannot neglect truth or impugn it or permit the graver truths of faith or morals to be obscured; she cannot re-address errors that have once been definitively condemned; she cannot change the meaning of a defined dogma; she cannot establish a harmful discipline; hence her judgement must be acquiesced in even in matters that have not yet been expressly defined, mere respectful silence being insufficient.

~ Henry Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma. Trans. Roy. J. Deferrari. (Loreto Publications; Fitzwilliam, NH: 2019), Systematic Index, page 13. [cited by John S. Daly in “Proud to be Roman”]

Schismatics properly so called are those who wilfully and intentionally separate themselves from the unity of the Church...

~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiæ, II-II, Q. 39, A.1