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November 1998 No. 29
The publication of these two essays responds to the general ignorance which exists concerning the Ordinary Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Catholics know about the Extraordinary, Solemn, or ex cathedra Magisterium, and the conditions for it to be infallible. However, they are very confused concerning the Ordinary Magisterium. Is it infallible, and is it always so? If it is infallible, are there any conditions? If it is infallible, does not this make the pope personally impeccable and infallible? The answer to these questions is a timely and necessary one. It has been brought to the fore particularly since the Second Vatican Council. For the documents of the Council and the subsequent letters and constitutions of the post-Conciliar popes pretend to impose new teachings on religious liberty, ecumenism, collegiality, and relations with the modern world, in contradiction to the teachings of pre-Conciliar popes, and this in the name of the Ordinary Magisterium. If these teachings are infallible, then either of two alternatives follows as an immediate consequence: Either the popes of the past were wrong, or the post-Conciliar popes, who pretend to issue such “infallible” documents, are not popes at all. Put another way, if we are to accept the infallibility of all papal documents, for they make up the Ordinary Magisterium, then in the present crisis in the Church we must accept either the popes of the present, and reject the Church of the past, or we must accept the Church of the past, and maintain that the post-Conciliar popes are but anti-popes. Those who read these studies on the Ordinary Magisterium will realize how false this disjunction really is and that we must in fact embrace both the papacy and the Church, without separating one from the other. 77pp. Color Softcover. Angelus Press Publication. STK#6715
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