Can the Pope teach ex cathedra in a letter to a single bishop? Fr Palmieri explains

The answer is YES – if it is clear that he is exercising his authority as the Supreme Pastor, and defining a doctrine to be held by all.

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The answer is YES – if it is clear that he is exercising his authority as the Supreme Pastor, and defining a doctrine to be held by all.

Editor’s Notes

In the course of considering a number texts from Fr Domenico Palmieri relevant to the “recognise and resist” movement, we published the nineteenth century theologian’s treatments of the “Heretic Pope” question, and of the authority of non-infallible teaching acts.

Both those texts were scholia to Thesis XXXII, which we reproduce below.

This section addresses the question of when the Pope speaks ex cathedra.

This text is relevant for its own intrinsic interest, but also because of its link with the case of Pope Honorius. As we have previously discussed, Pope Honorius’ letters to Sergius cannot be said to have been magisterial, because they were private. However, they were private because of their nature (as well as the fact that they were unknown for years), not because they were written to a single bishop or patriarch.

1. The History of Pope Honorius: Questioning Prof. Roberto de Mattei

2. ‘Undoubtedly Magisterial Acts’? Pope Honorius and Roberto de Mattei

In this extract, Fr Palmieri presents the “other side of the coin” to this issue – explaining why a letter to a single bishop or patriarch can be magisterial under different circumstances.

Note: The Latin text from Fr Palmieri has been translated into English with the assistance of AI, with each line subsequently checked against the original by a human, and edited in the process.

You can read more about Fr Palmieri here.

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Tractatus de Romano Pontifice cum Prolegomeno de Ecclesia

Fr Dominico Palmieri SJ

Editio Altera Aucta Et In Nonnullis Emendata
Prati, 1891, pp. 715–717

Available at Archive.org

1. The See and the Seated: Fr Dominic Palmieri SJ against Gallican theology of the Papacy

2. ‘They miserably deceive themselves who think they can adhere to the Roman See while resisting the Pontiff’ – Fr Palmieri SJ

3. ‘Stripped of jurisdiction by God’ – Fr Palmieri SJ on the Pope Question

4. The Pope is ‘not to be publicly contradicted’ – Fr Palmieri on the non-infallible magisterium

5. What Fr Palmieri ACTUALLY says about resisting the Pope

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