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Magisterium (Lat. magister, a master):
The Church's divinely appointed authority to teach the truths of religion,
"Going therefore, teach ye all nations... teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. xxviii, 19-20). This teaching is
infallible: "And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation
of the world" (ibid.).
The solemn magisterium is that which is exercised only rarely by formal and authentic definitions of councils or popes. Its
matter comprises dogmatic definitions of æcumenical councils or of the
popes teaching ex cathedra, or of particular councils, if their decrees
are universally accepted or approved in solemn form by the pope; also creeds and
professions of faith put forward or solemnly approved by pope or
æcumenical council. The ordinary magisterium is continually
exercised by the Church especially in her universal practices connected with
faith and morals, in the unanimous consent of the Fathers (q.v.) and
theologians, in the decisions of Roman Congregations concerning faith and
morals, in the common sense (q.v.) of the faithful, and various
historical documents in which the faith is declared. All these are founts of a
teaching which as a whole is infallible. They have to be studied separately
to determine how far and in what conditions each of them is an infallible source
of truth.
A CATHOLIC DICTIONARY (THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPÆDIC DICTIONARY)
Edited By Donald Attwater
New York, The Macmillan Company, 1962.
(Copyright 1958, Third Edition)
Library of Congress catalog card number: 58-5797
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