What Is the Magisterium?
Short Answer
The Magisterium is the divinely established teaching authority of the Catholic Church. The word comes from the Latin magister, meaning “teacher.” Christ did not leave His revelation as a collection of writings to be interpreted independently by every believer. He entrusted His doctrine to His Apostles, commanded them to teach all nations, promised His assistance until the end of the world, and provided for successors who would continue that teaching mission.
The holders of this teaching office are principally the Roman Pontiff, as successor of St Peter and supreme teacher of the universal Church, and the bishops, as successors of the Apostles, teaching under and in union with the Roman Pontiff. Priests, theologians, catechists and others may teach the Catholic Faith, but they do not possess the Church's teaching authority in their own right; they teach by participation in, or delegation from, the hierarchy.
The Magisterium may exercise its authority in different ways. It teaches extraordinarily or solemnly when the Pope defines a doctrine ex cathedra, or when the bishops united with the Pope solemnly define doctrine in an Ecumenical Council. It also teaches ordinarily, through the normal teaching of the Pope and bishops. When the bishops throughout the world, united with the Pope, universally teach a doctrine as belonging to the Faith, this ordinary and universal Magisterium is infallible, even though no solemn definition has occurred.
The faithful therefore do not owe exactly the same kind of assent to every ecclesiastical statement. A doctrine proposed infallibly as divinely revealed demands divine and Catholic faith. Other authoritative but non-definitive teachings demand genuine religious submission and internal assent proportionate to the authority and intention with which they are taught. It is therefore equally mistaken to say that everything a Pope says is infallible and to say that Catholics need accept only solemnly defined dogmas.
Why This Question Matters
The question of the Magisterium lies at the centre of Catholicism.
Who has authority to determine what Christianity teaches?
Can the individual Christian read Scripture and decide disputed doctrine for himself?
Can theologians correct the Church's teaching authority?
Is a doctrine binding only after a Pope solemnly defines it?
Can the universal teaching of the bishops be infallible without an Ecumenical Council?
Does a papal encyclical require assent if it contains no ex cathedra definition?
These questions become especially important when considering later disputes about Vatican II, religious liberty, ecumenism, the Church, the Mass and the authority claimed by the postconciliar hierarchy. Before such controversies can be considered intelligently, however, the traditional Catholic doctrine concerning the Magisterium must first be established on its own terms.
The Magisterium is not a theological technicality. It concerns the means Christ established so that Christians could know with certainty what He revealed.
What the Catholic Church Teaches
Christ Established a Teaching Church
After His Resurrection, Christ commanded the Apostles:
“Going therefore, teach ye all nations … teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” — Matthew 28:19–20
This commission contains three important elements.
First, the Apostles receive a genuine mission to teach.
Second, what they are to teach is not their own religious speculation, but what Christ commanded.
Third, Christ promises His continuing assistance “even to the consummation of the world.” The promise therefore cannot have terminated when the original Apostles died. Their mission continues through their legitimate successors.
Christ likewise said:
“He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me.” — Luke 10:16
St Paul accordingly calls the Church:
“the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” — 1 Timothy 3:15
The New Testament therefore does not present the Church merely as a fellowship of Christians consulting the Bible. It presents a visible Church commissioned to teach in Christ's name.
The Council of Jerusalem provides an early example. A serious doctrinal and disciplinary dispute arose concerning circumcision. The matter was referred to the Apostles and presbyters at Jerusalem, and their authoritative decision was transmitted to the churches with the remarkable formula:
“For it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us…” — Acts 15:28
Authority, consultation, doctrinal judgment and divine assistance are already visible in the apostolic Church.
The Magisterium Does Not Create Revelation
The Magisterium is not a third source of revelation alongside Scripture and Tradition.
God's public revelation was entrusted to the Apostles. The Church's teaching authority exists to guard, transmit, explain and authoritatively interpret that deposit of faith.
Pope Pius XII described the living Magisterium as the “proximate and universal norm of truth,” explaining that Christ entrusted to it the deposit of faith — Sacred Scripture and divine Tradition — to be guarded, defended and interpreted.
This is crucial. A Pope cannot invent a new revelation. An Ecumenical Council cannot alter something God previously revealed. Authentic doctrinal development makes explicit what was already contained, formally or implicitly, in the apostolic deposit; it cannot transform one revealed truth into its opposite.
The Magisterium is therefore servant and authoritative guardian of Revelation, not its creator.
The Early Church Fathers
The principle of an authoritative, apostolic teaching Church did not originate in the Middle Ages.
St Irenaeus of Lyons
St Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 130–202) wrote Against Heresies around AD 180 while confronting Gnostic sects claiming possession of secret Christian doctrine.
Instead of telling Christians simply to compare competing interpretations of Scripture, Irenaeus appealed to the public apostolic teaching preserved through the succession of bishops:
“It is within the power of all … in every Church … to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world.”
He then appeals specifically to the succession of bishops and to the ancient Roman Church, through which the apostolic faith had publicly descended. Against Heresies, III.3.1–3.
Irenaeus' argument assumes that authentic Christian doctrine can be identified through the publicly teaching apostolic Church, not through a succession of private interpreters.
St Augustine of Hippo
St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) made the relationship between Scripture and ecclesiastical authority especially striking in Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus (c. AD 397), 5:
“For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.”
Augustine was not denying the inspiration of Scripture. His point was epistemological: the Christian does not identify the canon, apostolic doctrine and authentic Christian community independently of the historical and teaching authority of the Church.
These Fathers do not supply the later technical vocabulary of “ordinary” and “extraordinary Magisterium,” but they show the ancient underlying reality: Christ's doctrine is publicly preserved and taught by an identifiable apostolic Church.
Who Exercises the Magisterium?
The Roman Pontiff
The Roman Pontiff, successor of St Peter, possesses supreme teaching authority over the universal Church.
The First Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus (18 July 1870) that supreme teaching authority is included within Peter's primacy and that the Roman Pontiff can, under specified conditions, teach infallibly.
This does not mean that every remark, interview, personal opinion, homily or theological speculation uttered by a Pope is infallible.
The Pope may act in different capacities. He may speak:
as a private theologian;
as Bishop of Rome addressing a particular local matter;
through an ordinary authoritative papal document;
or as supreme pastor and teacher of the whole Church definitively determining a matter of faith or morals.
The theological weight of the statement depends upon what he is doing. The Baltimore Catechism makes the point simply:
“The Pope is not infallible in everything he says and does…”
while explaining that infallibility attaches to the Pope when the required conditions for an ex cathedra doctrinal judgment are fulfilled.
The Bishops
The bishops are successors of the Apostles and genuine teachers of the faithful committed to their care.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1326, states:
“Bishops also, although individually and even gathered in particular Councils they do not partake of infallibility in teaching, nevertheless, for those faithful committed to their care under the authority of the Roman Pontiff, they are truly doctors and teachers.”
This supplies two essential qualifications.
A diocesan bishop possesses genuine teaching authority. His office is not merely administrative.
But an individual bishop is not personally infallible.
Nor does a regional or provincial collection of bishops automatically become infallible merely because several bishops agree with one another.
The episcopate's infallibility arises when the bishops participate in the teaching of the universal Church in union with its visible head, the Roman Pontiff.
Pope Pius XII emphasised this traditional order in his 1954 allocution Si Diligis: the divinely constituted teachers are the Roman Pontiff for the universal Church and the bishops for the faithful entrusted to them; others who teach officially do so through a mission received from lawful ecclesiastical authority.
Ordinary and Extraordinary Magisterium
This distinction is easily misunderstood.
“Ordinary” does not mean “unimportant,” nor does it necessarily mean “fallible.”
“Extraordinary” does not mean “more Catholic” or “more true.”
The distinction concerns principally the mode in which the Church exercises her teaching authority.
The Extraordinary or Solemn Magisterium
The extraordinary Magisterium operates through solemn doctrinal judgments.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1323 §2, identifies the two principal forms:
an Ecumenical Council exercising supreme doctrinal authority with and under the Roman Pontiff; and
the Roman Pontiff speaking ex cathedra.
An Ecumenical Council
When the bishops of the Catholic Church assemble in an Ecumenical Council, in union with and subject to the Roman Pontiff, they may solemnly define doctrines of faith or morals.
Examples include doctrinal definitions of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council. The mere fact that something appears in a conciliar document, however, does not automatically prove that every sentence is itself a solemn dogmatic definition. Intention matters.
Canon 1323 §3 accordingly states that something is not to be regarded as dogmatically defined or declared unless that fact is manifestly established.
The Pope Speaking Ex Cathedra
The First Vatican Council defined the conditions of papal infallibility in Pastor Aeternus, chapter 4.
The Pope teaches ex cathedra when, acting as pastor and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.
When those conditions are fulfilled, Vatican I teaches that the Pope possesses the infallibility Christ willed His Church to possess and that such definitions are irreformable of themselves.
Papal infallibility is therefore neither papal inspiration nor personal impeccability. The Pope is not inspired as the sacred authors of Scripture were inspired. Nor does infallibility mean that a Pope cannot sin, make imprudent decisions, misremember historical facts or express an erroneous private theological opinion.
It is a particular divine protection attached to particular acts of the supreme teaching office.
The Ordinary Magisterium
Most of the Church's teaching throughout history has not taken the form of dramatic solemn definitions. The Church teaches ordinarily through the continuing doctrinal preaching, instructions, catechesis, papal documents and episcopal teaching by which the apostolic Faith is transmitted from generation to generation.
Pope Pius XI described the Church's teaching authority as something “daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with him.” Mortalium Animos (6 January 1928), 9.
This ordinary teaching can take different forms and possess different theological weight. That distinction is essential.
The Ordinary and Universal Magisterium
The greatest misconception is that only solemn definitions can be infallible.
The First Vatican Council explicitly rejects that idea.
In the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius (24 April 1870), chapter 3, the Council taught:
“All those things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the word of God written or handed down, and which are proposed by the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium, to be believed as divinely revealed.”
The same principle was incorporated almost verbatim into Canon 1323 §1 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
Therefore a doctrine does not have to have been solemnly defined by a Council or Pope before Catholics can be obliged to believe it with divine and Catholic faith.
If the bishops throughout the world, remaining united with the Roman Pontiff, universally transmit a doctrine as belonging to divine revelation, the ordinary and universal teaching of the Church is itself infallible.
Pope Pius IX had already emphasised this principle in Tuas Libenter (21 December 1863). He rejected the notion that Catholic belief could be restricted to propositions explicitly defined by Councils or Popes and included truths taught as revealed by the ordinary teaching authority of the Church dispersed throughout the world.
This leads to an important rule:
The distinction is not “extraordinary = infallible” and “ordinary = fallible.”
Rather:
both solemn teaching and the ordinary-and-universal teaching of the Church can be infallible.
Ordinary Papal Teaching Is Not Merely Papal Opinion
A second error goes in the opposite direction. Some imagine that unless the Pope uses the precise conditions of an ex cathedra definition, Catholics may treat his doctrinal teaching as one theologian's opinion among many.
Pope Pius XII expressly rejected that idea in Humani Generis (12 August 1950), 20:
“Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent…”
He explains that such matters are taught through the Pope's ordinary teaching authority. When the Pope deliberately decides a question previously disputed among theologians, that matter can no longer simply be treated as a free theological question according to the Pope's manifest intention.
Thus Catholics must avoid two opposite errors:
| Error | Catholic Principle |
|---|---|
| “Everything a Pope says is infallible.” | Infallibility attaches only under definite conditions. |
| “If it is not infallible, I may ignore it.” | Authentic but non-definitive Magisterial teaching still possesses real authority and normally demands sincere internal assent. |
| “Only solemnly defined dogmas belong to the Faith.” | The ordinary and universal Magisterium can propose revealed doctrine infallibly. |
| “An individual bishop is infallible in his diocese.” | Individual bishops are true teachers but are not personally infallible. |
What Kind of Assent Is Required?
Not every doctrinal proposition is accepted for exactly the same formal reason.
Divine and Catholic Faith
Where a truth is contained in Scripture or Apostolic Tradition and is proposed by the Church as divinely revealed through either:
a solemn judgment; or
the ordinary and universal Magisterium,
it must be believed with divine and Catholic faith.
The ultimate motive of faith is the authority of God revealing, while the Church infallibly identifies and proposes the revealed truth.
Deliberate, obstinate rejection of a truth that must be believed by divine and Catholic faith raises the theological and canonical question of heresy. That subject requires the distinctions concerning pertinacity, publicity, culpability and ecclesiastical membership treated separately in the FAQ.
Definitively Settled Truths Connected With Revelation
Traditional theologians also recognised what is commonly called the secondary object of infallibility: truths not themselves formally revealed but so intimately connected with revelation that the deposit of faith could not be securely preserved or explained if the Church could err concerning them.
The exact theological terminology used for the required assent varied among approved theologians — expressions such as ecclesiastical faith were commonly employed — but the fundamental principle was that a genuinely definitive and infallible judgment requires firm and irrevocable adherence. The pre–Vatican II Catholic Encyclopedia explains this distinction when treating the primary and secondary objects of infallibility.
Authoritative but Non-Infallible Teaching
Not every act of the ordinary Magisterium constitutes an infallible definition. Nevertheless, genuine authoritative teaching is not reduced to a suggestion.
Pius IX in Tuas Libenter insisted that Catholics could not limit their submission solely to formally defined dogmas. Pope Pius XII later stated explicitly in Humani Generis that ordinary papal teaching contained in encyclicals demands consent.
Pre–Vatican II theologians commonly described the response owed to such teaching as a religious, sincere and internal assent, distinct from the assent of divine faith because the proposition has not been infallibly proposed as revealed.
Msgr Joseph Clifford Fenton summarised the standard theological position in 1950: non-infallible papal teaching demands a sincere internal religious assent, while differing in degree and formal motive from the irrevocable assent owed to infallible definitions.
This is not “blind faith in a man.” It is obedience to the teaching authority Christ placed within His Church. At the same time, because such teaching has not been proposed with the guarantee of an infallible definition, approved theologians discussed rare situations in which assent might prudently be suspended where grave and objective reasons existed. The details were not formulated identically by every theologian. Such exceptions were never understood as a general licence for every Catholic to sit in judgment over the Church's Magisterium according to personal preference.
A Simple Summary
| Form of Teaching | Who Teaches? | Infallible? | Assent Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extraordinary Papal Magisterium | The Pope speaking ex cathedra | Yes, when the conditions defined by Vatican I are fulfilled | The assent of divine and Catholic faith |
| Extraordinary Magisterium of an Ecumenical Council | The bishops gathered in an ecumenical council with and under the Pope | Yes, when definitively defining doctrine concerning faith or morals | The assent required by the definitive character of the teaching |
| Ordinary and Universal Magisterium | The bishops dispersed throughout the world, united with the Pope, teaching the same doctrine as definitively to be held | Yes | Full assent appropriate to an infallibly proposed doctrine |
| Ordinary Authentic Magisterium | The Pope or bishops exercising their ordinary teaching office without making a definitive judgment | Not necessarily | Genuine religious and internal assent proportionate to the authority and character of the teaching |
The exact theological note of a particular proposition must therefore be determined from what is being taught, by whom, to whom, in what manner and with what manifest intention.
The Main Objection
“If Only Some Magisterial Acts Are Infallible, Why Can't Catholics Simply Decide Which Teachings to Accept?”
Because authority and infallibility are not identical concepts.
A father may possess genuine authority without being incapable of every factual mistake. A judge may issue binding judgments without being divinely inspired. Likewise, ecclesiastical teaching does not cease to be authoritative merely because a particular statement is not an infallible dogmatic definition.
Christ did not say:
Listen to the Church only after independently proving that each statement is infallible.
He said:
“He that heareth you, heareth me.”
The Catholic's normal posture toward legitimate ecclesiastical teaching authority is therefore one of faith, docility and obedience — not habitual suspicion.
Pius IX specifically rejected the idea that Catholics fulfilled their obligations merely by accepting infallibly defined dogmas. Pius XII likewise rejected the idea that encyclicals could simply be disregarded because the Pope was not exercising his supreme defining authority.
Yet the reverse conclusion would also be false. It does not follow that every statement made by every Pope or bishop is divinely guaranteed against error.
Catholic theology therefore distinguishes carefully between authority, definitiveness, infallibility and the degree of assent owed.
Common Objections
“Doesn't Papal Infallibility Mean the Pope Cannot Be Wrong?”
No. Infallibility is not inspiration, omniscience, holiness or impeccability.
A Pope may sin. He may govern badly. He may make mistakes concerning science, history, politics, economics or other contingent matters. He may express private theological opinions.
Vatican I attached papal infallibility to a specific kind of act: the Pope acting as supreme pastor and teacher of all Christians, using his supreme apostolic authority, definitively teaching the whole Church concerning faith or morals.
The conditions must not be either broadened until every papal utterance becomes infallible or narrowed until the Pope's ordinary doctrinal teaching becomes meaningless.
“Is the Extraordinary Magisterium More Authoritative Than the Ordinary Magisterium?”
Not simply. A solemn definition is especially clear because the Church deliberately settles the matter in a manifest and definitive way.
But a truth taught infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium is no less true and no less binding merely because there was never a dramatic solemn definition.
Vatican I deliberately placed the two side by side:
“either by a solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium.”
The distinction concerns the manner of teaching, not two grades of divine truth.
“Does a Catholic Have to Understand the Theology Before Assenting?”
No. Faith is not reserved to theologians. Christ established a teaching Church precisely because salvation could not depend upon every Christian becoming a patristic scholar, canon lawyer, historian and biblical exegete before knowing what Christianity teaches.
The theologian may investigate how a doctrine is contained in Scripture and Tradition. The ordinary Catholic may legitimately receive it upon the authority of the Church which Christ commissioned to teach.
That does not make Catholic faith irrational. Vatican I explicitly taught that the assent of faith is not a blind movement of the mind. Rather, God provides motives of credibility by which the divine origin and authority of the Church can reasonably be known.
Once the authority of the divinely commissioned teacher is established, the faithful need not reconstruct two thousand years of theology independently before accepting every doctrine.
What We Can and Cannot Conclude
Established Catholic doctrine: Christ established a visible Church with authority to teach. The Roman Pontiff and the bishops are the divinely constituted holders of the Church's teaching office. The Pope possesses supreme teaching authority over the universal Church. Bishops are genuine teachers of their flocks under his authority.
Established Catholic doctrine: The Church may teach infallibly through solemn judgments and through the ordinary and universal Magisterium.
Established Catholic doctrine: An ex cathedra papal definition concerning faith or morals addressed authoritatively to the universal Church is infallible.
Established Catholic doctrine: Individual bishops are not personally infallible merely by virtue of episcopal office.
Established Catholic doctrine: Catholic assent cannot be restricted exclusively to truths solemnly defined by a Pope or Council. Ordinary authoritative teaching can impose a real obligation upon the faithful.
Common theological teaching: The Church's infallibility extends not only to formally revealed truths but also, secondarily, to truths necessarily connected with the preservation and explanation of revelation.
Common theological teaching: Authoritative but non-infallible papal teaching ordinarily demands a sincere internal religious assent, although this assent is formally distinct from divine faith and from the absolute irrevocable assent owed to infallible definitions.
Disputed theological question: Approved theologians differed in the precise explanation of the theological basis, degree and exceptional circumstances affecting assent to particular non-infallible teachings. Such disagreement does not support the proposition that ordinary papal teaching is merely optional.
What cannot be concluded: It does not follow that everything uttered by a Pope is Magisterial, that every Magisterial statement is infallible, or that every sentence contained in a Council document is automatically a solemn dogmatic definition.
What cannot be concluded: The Magisterium does not possess authority to create new revelation, contradict previous revelation or transform revealed doctrine into its opposite.
That final principle becomes important when the question later arises whether teachings presented in the name of ecclesiastical authority after Vatican II can be reconciled with doctrines already taught by the Catholic Church. That question must be addressed separately by comparing the relevant texts and applying the principles established here.
Conclusion
The Magisterium is the living teaching authority Christ established in His Church so that His revelation would be preserved, explained and transmitted faithfully until the end of time.
Its divinely constituted teachers are the Roman Pontiff and the bishops united with him. The Pope possesses supreme teaching authority over the universal Church; individual bishops genuinely teach their own flocks under his authority.
The Church may teach through solemn or extraordinary judgments — particularly papal ex cathedra definitions and definitions of Ecumenical Councils — and through her ordinary teaching authority. Most importantly, the ordinary and universal Magisterium is itself capable of teaching infallibly. Catholics therefore cannot reduce the Faith to a list of propositions solemnly defined by Popes or Councils.
Nor are all ecclesiastical statements equal. Catholic theology distinguishes carefully between an infallible definition, the infallible ordinary and universal Magisterium, authoritative but non-definitive teaching, theological opinion and private opinion. Different acts demand different forms of assent.
Christ did not leave Christians to construct Christianity independently. He established a Church which teaches in His name. Understanding that principle is essential before asking the next question:
how can Catholics recognise when the Church has taught something infallibly, and what would it mean if an authority claiming to speak for the Church appeared to contradict what the Church had already taught?
Primary Sources
Christ's command to teach all nations and promise to remain with the Church. Matthew 28:18–20
“He that heareth you, heareth me.” Luke 10:16
The Church as “pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15
The Council of Jerusalem and its authoritative decision. Acts 15
St Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 130–202), Against Heresies (c. AD 180), III.3.1–3. Against Heresies, III.3
St Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430), Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus (c. AD 397), 5. Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manichaeus
Pope Pius IX, Tuas Libenter, 21 December 1863 — ordinary teaching and the obligation of Catholics to adhere to more than solemn definitions. Tuas Libenter — official Latin text
First Vatican Council, Dei Filius, 24 April 1870, chapter 3 — solemn judgment and the ordinary and universal Magisterium. Dei Filius
First Vatican Council, Pastor Aeternus, 18 July 1870, chapter 4 — papal teaching authority and ex cathedra infallibility. Pastor Aeternus
1917 Code of Canon Law, Canons 1322–1326 — the deposit of faith, solemn and ordinary-universal teaching, and the teaching office of bishops. 1917 Code of Canon Law — English PDF
Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, 6 January 1928, especially no. 9. Mortalium Animos
Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, 12 August 1950, especially no. 20. Humani Generis
Pope Pius XII, Si Diligis, allocution of 31 May 1954 — the Pope, bishops and those who teach by ecclesiastical mission. Si Diligis — official Latin text
Baltimore Catechism, Lesson XII, Questions 123–132 concerning authority and infallibility. Baltimore Catechism — Lesson XII
Further Reading
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Tradition and Living Magisterium.” Particularly useful for the organisation and exercise of the teaching Church before Vatican II. Tradition and Living Magisterium
Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), “Infallibility.” Detailed treatment of papal, conciliar and ordinary infallibility, including the secondary object of infallibility. Infallibility
Msgr Joseph Clifford Fenton, “The Religious Assent Due to the Teachings of Papal Encyclicals,” American Ecclesiastical Review, Vol. 123, No. 1, July 1950, pp. 59–67. Fenton — Religious Assent Due to Papal Encyclicals
Fr Elwood Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise (B. Herder, 1927). The Church of Christ — Internet Archive record
Related Questions
What Authority Did Christ Give to His Church?
Why Isn't the Bible Alone Sufficient as the Rule of Faith?
What Are Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition?
How Do We Know Which Books Belong in the Bible?
What Is Papal Infallibility — and What Does It Not Mean?
What Is the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium?
Can the Catholic Church Teach Error?
What Assent Must Catholics Give to Papal and Episcopal Teaching?