Infallibility and Synodality
In his catechesis on 27 September, Pope Leo XIV said the following: “The little ones have intuition. They have a sensus fidei, which is like a ‘sixth sense’ for simple people when it comes to the things of God. God is simple and reveals himself to the simple. That is why there is an infallibility of the faith of the People of God, of which the infallibility of the Pope is the expression [emphasis added] and the service.” What significance should we attach to these words?
It is worth looking back in time, theologically speaking, at what was traditionally taught concerning the different instances of infallibility, as well as considering the current context of synodality.
The Infallibility of the Teaching Church and of the Learning Church
Theologians traditionally distinguished between the teaching Church (the Pope and bishops), Ecclesia docens, which enjoys active infallibility, and the learning Church (the entire Christian people), Ecclesia discens, preserved from error by what is referred to as passive infallibility: the entire Christian people adheres to the doctrine dispensed to it by the successors of the Apostles under the motion of the same Holy Spirit who animates their teaching. This infallibility is termed in credendo, meaning that the Church cannot fall into error in matters of belief[1].
This infallibility of reception is often explained by the concept of sensus fidelium, the instinct of the faith on the part of the faithful, or, if we consider each believer individually, sensus fidei, the instinct or intuition regarding the faith of each believer, which accompanies the virtue of faith. Indeed, all the virtues provide the soul with a kind of innate instinct (for example, an instinct of reserve and of modesty, which accompanies chastity); the instinct produced by faith inclines the believer to perform acts of adherence to revealed truth[2].
It can also be said that the use of the sensus fidei stems from the growth of the faith in those who have received it: it leads the faithful to believe, through the development of what they have been taught, even beyond what they are required to believe. For example, the Immaculate Conception was believed long before the dogma was proclaimed. But it is precisely dogma that determines belief: the infallibility of the people of God is subject to the magisterium of the pope and the bishops.
Sensus fidei and Synodality
Pope Francis based his doctrine of synodality on the sensus fidei, which was discussed at length in his first encyclical, Evangelii Gaudium, dated 24 November 2013. He insisted that the flock has a “sense of smell” that helps the Church find “new ways”.
Then, in a speech on 17 October 2015, he went further: “The sensus fidei prevents a rigid separation between an Ecclesia docens [the teaching Church] and an Ecclesia discens [the learning Church], since the flock likewise has an instinctive ability to discern the new ways that the Lord is revealing to the Church.”[3]
The traditional separation between the teaching Church and the learning Church is thus relativized on the basis of the “pastoral” vocation of the entire people of God. Implicitly, this relativizes the distinction between pastors and flock, since all the faithful, including pastors, are placed under the sensus fidelium/fidei. And Pope Francis explained in his own colorful way that the bishop could perfectly well be in front of his flock, or in the middle, or even behind, following it.
The 2014 document of the International Theological Commission (ITC), “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church”[4], paved the way for this, notably by quoting Popes Pius IX and Pius XII, who stated that before proclaiming the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and of the Assumption, respectively, they had inquired into the piety of the faithful on these points and had concluded that there was a “remarkable agreement of Catholic bishops and the faithful”. It should be noted that they spoke of an agreement between the bishops and the faithful. Moreover, the ITC was careful to point out that the constitution Pastor Aeternus of the First Vatican Council affirms that the pope’s ex cathedra doctrinal definitions in matters of faith and morals “are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable,” which does not make the consensus Ecclesiæ superfluous, but which does exclude, according to the ITC, “the theory that such a definition requires this consent, antecedent or consequent, as a condition for its authoritative status.”
A Contribution from Pope Leo?
Can we consider Leo XIV’s short sentence – “the infallibility of the Pope is the expression and the service [of the infallibility of the people of God]” – as going one step further? It may be nothing more than an unfortunate expression attributable to the author of the catechesis, and in any case, it would be an exaggeration to equate it with the proposition condemned by the decree of the Holy Office, Lamentabili, of 3 July 1907: “In defining truths the learning Church and the teaching Church so collaborate that there is nothing left for the teaching Church but to sanction the common opinions of the learning Church.” (Dz 3406).
Leo XIV’s statement evokes the infallibility of the pope: but is the latter not now on hold, due to the non-infallible “pastoral” or “authentic magisterium” (Lumen Gentium, n° 25 §1) having effectively replaced the ordinary and universal infallible magisterium? Who could possibly think, for instance, that chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, which is repugnant to the sensus fidei/fidelium, belongs to the infallible magisterium? And how true it is that this sensus urges, so to speak, the infallible magisterium of the pope to intervene.
Fr. Claude Barthe
[1] Jean-Marie Hervé, Manuale theologiæ dogmaticæ, Berche, Paris, 1957, vol. 1, n. 465.
[2] St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIæ, q. 2, a. 3, ad. 2.
[3] Address for the Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops.