What Is the Catholic Magisterium?

The teaching authority of the Catholic Church is called the magisterium. It resides in the Pope and in the bishops as successors to the apostles, united among themselves and under the Pope. Different levels of teaching authority are employed by the magisterium. The degree of authority being employed for a given teaching becomes clear from the nature of the documents or from the instance from which a teaching is repeated, or in the way the teaching is expressed. The most basic distinction is between the extra-ordinary and ordinary magisterium.

Extra-ordinary Magisterium

The extra-ordinary magisterium is rarely employed (only three times in the last 150 years). It is used when the Pope or an ecumenical council with the approval and ratification of the Pope solemnly teaches some truth concerning faith or morals. All such teaching acts are infallible (protected by the Holy Spirit from error).

If the truth is taught as being found in revelation, then Catholics must give it the assent of divine and Catholic faith, motivated by the acceptance of God's revelation and of the authority of the Church teaching it as such.

If it is taught definitively but not as contained is revelation, Catholics must give firm and definitive assent, called ecclesiastical assent/faith motivated by acceptance of the authority of the Church in exercising her divine office of guarding the revealed truth.

Ordinary Magisterium

The ordinary magisterium is the usual manner in which the Church exercises its teaching authority. Ordinary teachings of the Pope and bishops, such as encyclicals, pastoral letters and papal addresses of the teaching embodied in the Liturgy, are all part of the ordinary magisterium.

The ordinary magisterium is exercised using various degrees of authority. The ongoing teaching throughout the world in which the Pope or the bishops propose a teaching of the faith as divinely revealed is also infallible, and the assent of the divine Catholic faith is required here also.

Infallible Teachings

When the Pope or bishops propose in a definitive way (an unmistakable teaching and something that all Catholics must believe), teachings regarding faith and morals which, though not divinely revealed, are intimately connected with divine revelation such that their denial would jeopardize the faith. These teachings are also infallible and the faithful are required to firmly accept and hold such teachings.

Magisterium as Developing Understanding

When the magisterium, not intending to act definitively, teaches a doctrine as true, then such teachings are not infallible but even here Catholic religious submission of mind and will must be shown to these teachings. The magisterium may be employed this way to better aid the understanding of revelation (or make explicit its meaning), or to guard against ideas incompatible with the faith, or to show the conformity of a teaching with the faith. Catholics must not show mere external conformity, for the church has never taught an error in such a way.

Finally, when the magisterium teaches on matters not irreformable (such as the order of Catholic mass), which involve both solid principles or conjectural elements, the Church says that Catholics must be willing to loyally submit.

References

• "Catechism of the Catholic Church"; The Vatican; 1993
• Catholic Encyclopedia: "Tradition and Living Magisterium"; Keving Knight; 2009
• Catholic Essentials: "The Magisterium of the Catholic Church"; 2008