The
Conditions of Dogmatic Progress
In order that a revealed truth can be proposed by the
Church to the faith of believers and become the object of a dogmatic
definition, two conditions must be fulfilled. It is necessary, first,
that the Church by a quasi-intuitive process, either dialectic or practical,
discover that this truth is really contained in the doctrine or the
institutions transmitted by the Apostles. In the careful and balanced judgment
of Father de Grandmaison, “there is no need to look for an exact proportion
between the dogmatic definitions and the research made, the motives alleged, by
those who in the name of God declare them. Sometimes, it is true, the implicit
existence of the dogma in the deposit will be made clear by research; at other
times it will not be so, and the dogma will appear only as a probable or
morally certain interpretation of the explicit data of faith. It is the
infallible Church which assures us that this interpretation is the only right
one; and then, as regards us, there is truly doctrinal development in the full
sense of the word. The Church, which has never claimed the power to add to
revelation, has solemnly vindicated her right to define it infallible. The
reasons alleged by the instruments of the magisterium so little measure this
infallibility, that theologians admit the possibility of error in the grounds
laid down for a definition of faith.” (L. de Grandmaison, Le dogme chrétien,
Paris, 1928, pp. 263s.) This intuition—we repeat—does not depend on theological
or historical science, is the privilege which comes from the Holy Spirit
enlightening and guiding the Church always. The Church is a social and
supernatural entity, which develops and grows under the very pressure of the
divine life her Founder has endowed her with. (Joseph Duhr, The Glorious
Assumption of the Mother of God [trans. John Manning Fraunces; London:
Burns Oates, 1950], 4-5)
In order that a truth can be proposed to our faith by the
Church, a second condition. It is necessary that in the light of the
Holy Spirit, who enlightens an guides her, the Church discern the truth not
only as revealed but as an integral part of the economy of our salvation as something
revealed for its own sake. Christianity can be defined as the manifestation of
the Holy Trinity made to redeem men by the Son of God made man. (Ibid., 6-7)
Only the Church holds the deposit of faith and reveals to
us its hidden treasures under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and the needs of
the moment. Again, in order that a dogmatic truth may be imposed on our faith
under pain of rashness, it suffices that the Church by her ordinary magisterium
teach it to the faithful by attaching it to the deposit of faith at any
given moment, even after centuries of apparent silence. And the mere fact
that the Church proposes a truth for our belief guarantees for us, better than
any historical proof whatsoever, that it is contained in the Apostolic
revelation, at least in germ. So, if one wished to know whether the bodily
Assumption of Mary makes up part of this primitive revelation and whether, at
the same time, it is capable of dogmatic definition, it is sufficient to ask
whether now the Church teaches it to the Christian world as a true to be
believed by her ordinary magisterium. (Ibid., 118 n. 42)
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