"One of the limitations is the object of infallibility, namely, matters of "faith & morals." The phrase is difficult to interpret precisely. The Council of Trent had used the phrase in a much broader way, including matters of custom and ecclesiastical and liturgical discipline. Vatican I, however, distinguished between "faith & morals" on the one hand and matters "which pertain to discipline and Church government" on the other. It would appear, therefore, that the scope of infallibility would include doctrinal matters rather than just governmental and liturgical practises. In the official EXPOSITION, Bishop Gasser explained that infallibility has a direct and an indirect object:
"As I said before, since other truths, which in themselves may not be revealed, are more or less intimately bound up with revealed dogmas, they are necessary to protect, to expound correctly and to define efficaciously in all its integrity the deposit of faith. Truths of this nature belong to dogmatic facts insofar as without these it is not possible to protect and expound the deposit of faith, truths, I repeat, that do not belong directly to the deposit of faith but are necessary for its protection."
John Thornton
>No. All the much-misunderstood theological notion of infallibility
>asserts is the Catholic conviction that the church cannot fundamentally
>misrepresent the gospel -- although all would admit that substantial
>mistakes are possible... Catholics don't contend that the political
>judgments of the bishop of Rome are in any sense infallible (and they'd be
>uncomfortable with his being described as "God's representative on
>earth"). --CGE
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