Understanding What the Magisterium Can and Cannot Do

"Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all." ~ St Vincent of Lérins

From Crisis

By Fr Mario Alexis Portella

Did Pope Leo XIV hint at the erroneous notion that he, or anyone, can change established Church doctrine?

Pope Leo XIV raised eyebrows when he prompted last week during an interview with CRUX the possibility that Church doctrine can be changed. 

When asked to touch upon the LGBTQ+ situation within the Church, he said: “I find it highly unlikely, certainly in the near future, that the church’s doctrine…[will change].” And with regard to the question of women being admitted to the diaconate: “I at the moment don’t have an intention of changing the teaching of the church on the topic.” Such words certainly communicate a relativist approach by which any pope can alter, if not undo, the teachings of our Holy Mother Church at will.

It must first and foremost be made clear that no pope or bishop can ever change or modify Church doctrine because it is intrinsically connected with the truths revealed in Sacred Scripture, taught by Tradition, and defined by the Teaching Office of the Church—the magisterium. For, as taught by the First Vatican Council(1870): 

If anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema. 

The dilemma today is that, especially after the 12-year pontificate of Pope Francis when confusion was the norm, many Catholics and non-Catholics alike are under the impression that any type of papal pronouncement is an absolute norm that must be adhered to, even if it contradicts on the surface level Church teaching. And thus, when ambiguous statements are made by a pope regarding divinely revealed truths—or worse, when others like Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, General Rapporteur of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, who recently hinted that the Gospel teachings must be adapted to today’s socio-cultural expectations—the tenets of the Church become both subjective and relative.

The same can be said of the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (para. 8), which says that the Church of Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church,” as opposed to saying that the Church of Christ “is the Catholic Church.”

Naturally, “subsists” can be equated to “exists as a substance,” i.e., that there is only one substance of the Church—the Catholic Church. The paradox to this is that within the same paragraph, it says: “…although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure,” thereby leading anyone to undermine the necessity of the Catholic Faith for his salvation. 

In addition, this phrase in Lumen Gentium must be read in light of the other conciliar documents, which communicate that man can eventually find his salvation elsewhere, even in Judaism based on the Talmud (which has a contempt for Jesus Christ and His followers), Hinduism, Buddhism, and many other Eastern religions that are pantheistic by nature (cf. Nostra Aetate, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions).

The Church has always had development in doctrine, as when Pope Innocent III, during the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, declared the dogma of Transubstantiation. This does not mean that the Roman Pontiff woke up one day and decided to create and impose a tenet upon the faithful simply because he felt like it. On the contrary, whenever the Church declares a new doctrine, she does so under the guidance of the Holy Spirit—that is, to define what has already been revealed in Holy Writ and taught by the Tradition of the Church so that the faithful would have a clear-cut understanding on the matter.

We as Catholics are bound to assent to what the Extra-Ordinary Magisterium or the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium teaches. The former refers to papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals as defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1870 with the promulgation of the Constitution Pastor Aeternus; or doctrine taught by Ecumenical Councils where one’s assent is based directly on faith in the authority of the Word of God. 

The latter, can be a declaration “by [the pope’s] supreme apostolic authority” as when Pope John Paul II, in his letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994), stated that “the reservation of priestly ordination [is] to men alone.” It is based on faith in the Holy Spirit’s assistance to the magisterium to teach what is necessary for our salvation.

We are not, however, bound to adhere “with religious submission of will and intellect” to the authentic magisterium as stipulated by the Profession of Faith, which was put out by the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1989 (and promulgated once more in 1998). It says submission “to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.” This can perhaps be said of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which did not define a single article of faith or a single canon necessary for salvation, especially since Vatican II was a pastoral council.

The authentic magisterium refers to teaching made in a non-definitive manner by someone who can teach magisterially “…in a non-definitive way.” In other words, the authentic magisterium is non-infallible and is only a presumption in the favor of a superior. Therefore, as explained by Dom Paul Nau and Canon Réné Berthod in their publication Pope or Church? assent to the authentic magisterium is an 

inward [one], not as of faith, but as of prudence, the refusal of which could not escape the mark of temerity, unless the doctrine rejected was an actual novelty or involved a manifest discordance between the pontifical affirmation and the doctrine which had hitherto been taught. 

A salient example of such novelties to be questioned, if not refuted, as promulgated by Pope Francis’ Fiducia Supplicans (2023), is the directive for priests to bless same-sex couples as same-sex couples without even inviting them to live in continence, let alone asking them to convert. The document renders the idea that not only is such an active homosexual lifestyle not sexually disoriented, there is no need to avail oneself of the Sacrament of Confession in order to receive forgiveness. 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). In other words, no pope or college of bishops can ever change Church teaching—regardless of if, in their own misgivings, they communicate that they can.