Pastor Aeternus
Pastor Aeternus ( Latin pastor aeternus "Eternal Shepherd") is a dogmatic constitution of the 1st Vatican Council , which was passed on July 18, 1870 by the Council Fathers. It is proclaimed as a doctrine of faith that the Pope is the holder of the highest authority (jurisdiction) in the Catholic Church and, associated with this, is infallible in making final decisions on questions of faith and morals .
The constitution
1st chapter
The first chapter emphasizes that Christ directly and immediately to the apostle Peter, the primacy of jurisdiction have promised over the entire church and awarded. This emphasis on direct appointment had been made particularly against the opinion of the Gallicans and Febronians .
2nd chapter
In the second chapter it is stated that this primacy established by Christ in the bishops of Rome is to endure for all eternity.
3rd chapter
The third chapter speaks of the proper, immediate and true episcopal jurisdiction of the Pope in questions of faith and morals, but also in matters of ecclesiastical discipline. At the same time, however, it is also emphasized that the bishops lead and direct the individual flock entrusted to their care as “true shepherds”.
At the end of the third chapter it is stated that the Pope's judgment cannot be reversed or altered by any authority other than his own, not even by an ecumenical council . This definition also marks the end of the centuries-old discussion of the right to appeal against the Pope to an ecumenical council.
4th chapter
The fourth chapter points out right at the beginning that the highest magisterium is included in the primacy and that in the course of history the popes have always exercised this teaching function in close association with the bishops. Furthermore, the teaching function was always endowed with the special advantage of infallibility. The conditions and prerequisites for this infallibility are given in the final paragraph: The Pope must speak ex cathedra, that is, not as a statement of his private opinion, but in the fulfillment of his task as teacher and shepherd of all Christians. He must define “by virtue of his apostolic authority”, with which he unequivocally and conclusively decides in a discussion that “a doctrine in matters of faith or morals is to be retained by the entire Church”.
In such a case he enjoys, through the divine assistance promised to Peter and in him his successors, "that infallibility with which, according to the will of the divine Redeemer, the Church should be endowed when defining a doctrine". It follows that such definitions, since they came about with divine assistance, are inherently immutable without the need for ratification by the episcopate: “ex sese, non autem ex consensu Ecclesiae”.
With this formulation one wanted to get rid of the last Gallican tendencies, that for an infallible papal judgment the confirmation of the entire episcopate was necessary, once and for all. One might think that in this formulation the Pope is completely isolated from the Church, but it only seems that way.
Creation and effect
The First Vatican Council rejects the consensus Ecclesiae as constitutive for an infallible papal decision, but at the same time emphasizes “that the Pope, as the organ of tradition for the practical exercise of his infallible teaching office, is in constant, close contact with the sensus Ecclesiae - the believing mind and Feeling of the Church - must stay. "
literature
- Roger Aubert: Vatikanum I. Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz, 1965 ( history of the ecumenical councils 12).
- August Bernhard Hasler: How the Pope became infallible. Power and impotence of a dogma , Piper, Munich 1979