Catholic theologians of the 19th century dealt with this problem under the heading of the development of dogma. To a certain extent the question is an epistemological one: Is a new understanding of an ancient truth a “new” truth? It is important to note that the problem of the development of dogma does not arise out of faith. Thus, Sir Isaac Newton’s observations of falling bodies consisted of nothing that people had not seen for thousands of years, yet his insights profoundly altered our understanding of the universe. The problem is important in theology because of the necessity of basing belief on the historical event of the revelation of God in Christ. Unless this link is maintained, the church is teaching philosophy and science, not dogma. Hence, Roman Catholic theology has tended to say that dogma develops through new understanding, not through new discoveries. The magisterium The concept of teaching authority
The Roman Catholic Church claims for itself a teaching authority that is unparalleled in the Christian community. In its broadest sense, this authority belongs to all members of the church, who, according to Vatican II, share in the threefold mission of the church by virtue of baptism. Teaching authority in a narrower sense is held only by bishops and the pope by virtue of their office and by theologians by virtue of their learning. In its strictest definition, the magisterium refers to the teaching authority of bishops and the pope. The reformers of the 16th century rejected the traditional definition of the magisterium and did not claim for their own churches the authority they rejected in the Roman church.
To teach with authority means that the teacher is able to impose doctrine upon the learner under a religious and moral obligation. This obligation does not derive from the nature of teaching itself; the learner is morally obliged only to assent to manifest truth. Instead, it derives from the premise that the teaching authority of the Roman church is founded on the commission given by Jesus to the Apostles as contained in the New Testament (Luke 10:16, “Whoever listens to you listens to me”). But whereas the response of the hearers of the Apostles was faith, the response of the Roman Catholic is expected to go beyond faith. The Apostles were presumed to speak to those who did not yet believe, whereas the Roman Catholic Church imposes its teaching authority only upon its members. The definition of the church’s teaching authority must show that these modifications do not exceed the limits of legitimate doctrinal development. Organs of teaching authority
Although teaching authority most broadly defined is vested in the whole church, it is especially associated with certain well-defined organs. These organs are the hierarchy—the pope and the bishops. The Roman Catholic Church has traditionally been divided into “the teaching church” and “the listening church.” Clergy below the hierarchical level are included in “the listening church,” even though they are the assistants of the bishops in the teaching office. The hierarchy alone teaches what the Roman Catholic Church calls “authentic” doctrine. This idea contradicts the traditional belief that “the consent of the faithful” is a source of authentic doctrine. The conventional resolution of this problem, which stipulates that the consent of the faithful is formed under the direction of the pastors, deprives the consent of the faithful of any meaning.
As Vatican I solemnly declared, the Roman pontiff is vested with the entire teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This means that the pope is the only spokesman for the entire Roman church and that the papacy carries in itself the power to act as supreme pastor. It is expected that the pope will assure himself that he expresses the existing consensus of the church, but in fact the documents of Vatican I are open to the understanding that he may form the consensus by his utterance alone. Vatican II clarified this ambiguity in the idea of the spokesman of the church by its emphasis on the collegial character of the primacy of the pope. The pope, however, does not always speak as the supreme pastor and head of the Roman church, and he is expected to make this clear in his utterance.
The bishops are authentic teachers within their dioceses. Thus, the same implicit conflict exists with regard to teaching as was noted in connection with governing. The conflict is resolved by collegiality: whether the doctrine taught by the authentic teacher is orthodox can be determined by comparing it with the doctrine of his episcopal colleagues. In the pre-Constantinian church, doctrinal disputes were resolved in this way, and a regional council was called if necessary. Since the Reformation, the Roman see has never admitted publicly that a bishop has fallen into doctrinal error; the united front of authentic doctrine is preserved, and the matter is dealt with by subtle means. What is taught by all the bishops is understood to be authentic doctrine. It is further understood that the bishops teach in communion with the Roman pontiff, and a conflict of doctrine on this level is simply not regarded as a possibility. This consensus of the bishops is known as “the ordinary teaching.” “The extraordinary teaching” signifies the solemn declaration of an ecumenical council (which is the assembly of the bishops) or the most solemn type of papal declaration, known as a definition of doctrine ex cathedra. Object and response
The object of authentic teaching is defined as “faith and morals.” Faith means revealed truth. Morals theoretically means revealed moral principles, but it has long been understood as moral judgment in any area of human conduct. Thus, not only does the Roman Catholic Church prohibit contraception for its members, it also asserts that contraception is universally wrong by declaring that it is contrary to “natural law.” In this way morals includes both the declaration and the interpretation of natural law. The limits of faith and morals have never been defined by the Roman Catholic Church, nor can one take the exercise of the teaching authority as a reliable guide. Thus, the teaching authority condemned the heliocentric theory of Galileo as contrary to the Bible because it had always understood that revealed truth, in the context of current knowledge, may require one to accept or to reject certain propositions, though those propositions themselves are not part of revealed doctrine.
Dogma is the name given to a proposition that is proclaimed with all possible solemnity either by the Roman pontiff or by an ecumenical council. A dogma is a revealed truth that the Roman Catholic Church solemnly declares to be true and to be revealed; it is most properly an object of faith.
Vatican I declared that the pope, when he teaches solemnly and in the area of faith and morals as the supreme universal pastor, teaches infallibly with that infallibility that the church has. The infallibility of the church has never been defined, but its extent is understood by theologians to be limited to faith and morals, as is pontifical infallibility. These terms are ambiguous, as noted above. Although the doctrine of infallibility is subject to many reservations and qualifications, pontifical documents often have an aggressive tone that may mislead the incautious reader. The real problem is how an authority that can and does make errors in doctrinal teaching can be called infallible, even with numerous and serious reservations. In the early 1970s some Catholic theologians, such as Hans Küng, suggested that the church should be understood as indefectible—i.e., not able to fail or be totally led astray—rather than infallible.