From Vatican I to Vatican II .............................................................

Lecture 35

The First Vatican Council is famous as the council which de¿ ned the

pope as infallible. The Second Vatican Council is famous as the council

in which the church opened itself in a new to the modern world.

T

he doctrine of papal infallibility, as de¿ ned by the First Vatican
Council (1870), grew out of a new exercise of the pope’s responsibility
to determine Catholic teaching. In the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus in
1854, Pope Pius IX de¿ ned the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. The doctrine teaches that from the very beginning
of her existence Mary was free from the guilt of original sin. The view of
Thomas Aquinas, that she was cleansed in the womb after being conceived
in sin like the rest of us, was thereby rejected.

The Immaculate Conception was not a new doctrine but it was newly de¿ ned
as doctrine. The pope has no authority to make new doctrines. In fact Pius
insisted that there is no such thing as new doctrines of the Catholic church. To
de¿ ne a doctrine is to declare that it is henceforth a doctrine to be held by all
the faithful. What is new about Ineffabilis Deus is that a doctrine was de¿ ned
by the pope rather than by an ecumenical council. Pius’s pronouncement
includes an account of how he consulted other bishops and consulting the
faithful, and de¿ ned the doctrine in response to their joyous request that he
do so.

In the decrees of Vatican I, regarded by the Roman church as an ecumenical
council, the pope de¿ ned the doctrine of papal infallibility, af¿ rming that
the pope may de¿ ne doctrine without the consent of an ecumenical council.
Vatican I teaches that Christ gave to the apostle Peter and his successors
primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church as well as full power to de¿ ne
doctrine even without the consent of a council. The pope has authority to
de¿ ne dogma when he teaches ex cathedra, that is, sitting in Peter’s chair
(cathedra) and, when he does so, he is infallible. The pope, as bishop of
Rome, is the successor of the apostle Peter, who was the ¿ rst bishop of