Pope Clement XIII declared in his Encyclical In Dominico Agro (1761) that the Roman Catechism was free from error, and that its teachings are of the universal magisterium. Dei Filius declared that such teachings that are of the universal magisterium must be believed with an assent of divine and Catholic faith. “As our predecessors understood that that holy meeting of the universal Church was so prudent in judgment and so moderate that it abstained from condemning ideas which authorities among Church scholars supported, they wanted another work prepared with the agreement of that holy council which would cover the entire teaching which the faithful should know and which would be far removed from any error. They printed and distributed this book under the title of The Roman Catechism. There are aspects of their action worthy of special praise. In it they compiled the teaching which is common to the whole Church and which is far removed from every danger of error, and they proposed to transmit it openly to the faithful in very eloquent words according to the precept of Christ the Lord who told the apostles to proclaim in the light what He had said in the dark and to proclaim from the rooftops what they heard in secret.”
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 09:00:03 +0000