Bible In One Year Day 303 (2 Maccabees 6, Wisdom 1-2, Proverbs 24: 21-26)

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Day 303:  Eleazar's Martyrdom 

Martyrdom of Eleazar

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A Daily Defense 

DAY 303 The Church’s Infallibility

CHALLENGE: “Why should I think the Church can teach infallibly?”

DEFENSE: Reflection on Christ’s teaching reveals why.

Christ did not reserve teaching authority to himself but established a teaching authority (Latin, magisterium) in his Church (see Day 281). This authority was originally vested in Peter and the apostles, and when they passed from the scene it was inherited by their successors, the pope, and the bishops (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2, 2 Tim. 2:2; Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3:3:1; CCC 861–62).

Christ willed his Church to endure to the end of the world (Matt. 16:18), and teaching is one of its essential functions (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8). Since the pope and the bishops are the highest ranking teachers the apostles left in the Church, the ultimate exercise of the Church’s teaching authority fell to them.

Authority can be exercised in different degrees, placing different levels of obligation on those who are its subjects. This raised the question: What would happen if the Church’s Magisterium used its authority in the fullest manner, to oblige the faithful to believe a particular teaching in a definitive way? In that case, could the Church be wrong?

Theological reflection led to the conclusion this would be inconsistent with how Christ constituted “the church of the living God,” which is present in the world as “the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). He also promised to be with his Church until the end of time (Matt. 28:20); he promised the Holy Spirit would lead its leaders “into all the truth” (John 16:13); and he told his appointed ministers, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16).

In view of the declarations of Christ and the mission he gave the Church in the world, it would be impossible for his Church’s Magisterium to bind the faithful in conscience to believe something false. Consequently, “in order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility” (CCC 889).

This infallibility can be exercised in different ways—by the pope or by the bishops (either scattered or gathered in an ecumenical council; CCC 891). But when the Magisterium teaches definitively, it is infallible.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist