If the Catholic Church Teaches it, it Means that Christ Taught it

Some are mistaken about what comprises the Church’s ordinary magisterium. They think that if the wide body of Catholic bishops, cardinals, and priests hold to a given doctrine over an extended period of time this makes it magisterial, but not so. If the majority of Catholic bishops, cardinals, and priests adhere to the ideologies of humanism, modernism, ecumenism, and alienism, does this make these errors infallible, or does it mean these prelates are heretics?

Let us not forget the teaching of St. Augustine: “Wrong is wrong even if everybody is doing it, right is right even if nobody is doing it.” What makes an article of faith infallible is the fact that Jesus Christ himself set it in stone 2000-years ago, not that a body of bishops endorsed it. ⁽¹⁾

The Doctrine of Modernists

The modernists deny this. They promote the idea that any doctrine that the Church holds to at any given point of its history is the result of a common consensus of bishops so that as the consensus changes the doctrine changes with it. This is heretical.

The idea that doctrine can evolve or develop or that our understanding of it can change was condemned by St. Pope Pius X.

“’Progress’ of dogmas is, in reality, nothing but corruption of dogmas . . . I absolutely reject the heretical doctrine of the evolution of dogma, as passing from one meaning to another, and different from the sense in which the Church originally held it.” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, September 8, 1907)

All Doctrine Was Laid Down Before the Death of the Last Apostle

It is important to remember that Christian doctrine ceased to be laid down with the death of the last apostle. What this means is that ALL Catholic doctrine was laid down before the death of St. John the evangelist. This would include the doctrines of Mary’s Divine Motherhood, her Immaculate Conception, and her Assumption into Heaven. To say that these doctrines were not laid down by Christ through his apostles is to say that they are not doctrines, but we all know better. They are among the most exalted of the Catholic dogmas! It was St. John who named Mary, “Mother of God and of the Redeemer.” (Mystical City of God)

There were no dogmas at the time of Christ yet every word he spoke was infallibly true. Dogmatically defining one of his doctrines simply verifies with absolute certitude what already is the case, namely, that it was already infallibly true.

Mary Always Was the Mother of God

For example, in 431 AD the Virgin Mary was dogmatically declared the Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus, but Mary always was the Mother of God. Defining her as such didn’t make her the Mother of God nor did it add anything to her dignity but simply made official what always was the case, namely, that Mary was the Mother of God from the time of the Incarnation (Luke 1: 26-38).

The same applies to all the Church’s dogmatic teachings, e.g. the doctrines on the Resurrection, Purgatory, and Heaven. These infallible truths are no more true today than they were before they were defined.

Some argue that the Bible doesn’t mention certain dogmas, but who ever said the Bible had to mention them? The Church is the Bible, i.e. the unwritten Bible (2 Thess. 2:14). St. John tells us that if everything Christ taught was written down, “the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written.” (John 21:25)

It suffices to say that every doctrine of the Catholic Church was taught by Christ to his apostles. It is not necessary to know exactly what he said to who and when, but only that he said it. Theologians tend to get too curious about things that don’t concern them. Let them consider this verse from the Bible:

“Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability: but the things that God hath commanded thee, think on them always, and in many of his works be not curious.” (Ecc. 3:22)

Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is vain. St. Paul says, “Knowledge puffeth up.” (1 Cor. 8:1) The great Catholic scholar and mystic Thomas A. Kempis said, “I would rather feel compunction than to know its definition.” This kind of spirituality is truly objective, not subjective, which is quite a contrast to many of today’s scholars who are full of subjective pride.

Let it suffice to say that if the Church teaches it, it means that Christ taught it.

1. While episcopal endorsement over a long period normally testifies to the truth of a given doctrine this in itself doesn’t make it true.