Wednesday, April 3, 2024

E. Sylvester Berry on Varying Degrees of Infallibility in Catholic Theology

  

DEGREES OF INFALLIBILITY. Perfect infallibility belongs to God, the Eternal Truth, but rational creatures may enjoy a certain immunity from error,--an immunity which they hold as a gift from God. This communicated infallibility is either natural or supernatural. Natural infallibility is immunity from error which all men possess in regard to certain self-evident truths. We know from experience that there are certain truths so evident that no one having the use of reason can mistake or misunderstand them. Supernatural infallibility is an immunity from error maintained by special assistance of the Holy Spirit. This special gift may concern the teaching of truths without error, and is then known as active infallibility, or infallibility in teaching. When its purpose is to prevent error in the acceptance of truths taught, it is called passive infallibility, or infallibility in believing. The Church possesses both active and passive infallibility. (E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise [Frederick County, Md.: Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, 1955; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2009], 248)