"...Indefectibility..." means "not merely that the Church will persist until the end of time, but ... that it will preserve unimpaired its essential characteristics. The Church can never
undergo any constitutional change that will make it...something different from what it was originally. It can never ... lose the apostolic hierarchy, or the sacraments..." or "become corrupt in faith or morals ...indefectibility is expressly promised to the Church by Christ, in the words in which He declares that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Reverend G.H. Joyce, The Catholic Encyclodedia, Vol. III.)
Reverend W. Wilmers - (In his article for the Catholic Encyclopedia (Vol. XV) on the Vatican Council, Reverend K. Kirch identifies Reverend Wilmers as the conciliar theologian who refuted those bishops opposed to the definition of infallibility and the primacy in a work entitled Anima versiones.) In his catechism Handbook of the Christian Religion, Wilmers writes: "By the consummation of the world is meant the end of time ... for elsewhere Christ identifies the end of the world with the last judgment... . Christ's Church, as it was promulgated in the beginning, is to endure to the end of time." (p. 65.)
Reverend W. Devivier - (Whose orthodoxy was commended by Cardinal Merry del Val) "The Church ... will never be deprived of any of Her constituent elements, Her members, Her chiefs, Her organization, nor any of Her essential properties ...the mission confided to the Church is to save souls until the consummation of the ages...." (Christian Apologetics, pp. 113114.)
Reverend Thomas Allies, K.C.S.G. - (Reverend Allies' book was originally printed with the approval of Pius IX in 1850 and reprinted at the behest of Leo XIII in 1896.) "And what will it help one who is longing, aching, perishing for the truth to answer there was once a Church, 'the pillar and ground of truth,' and so it remained as long as it was undivided; that is, for many hundred years, but it IS divided now, and therefore, is now no longer the pillar and ground of the truth; but stay where you are, and hold all which that Church held, and you will be safe? This is Anglicanism... . The comforter could not fail the body in which He dwelt, while Peter presided over it in person; as little could he fail ... in the 19th century, or in any to come. For to suppose His failing is to ignore the whole idea on which the Church is built (Emph. Allies')... . Not a Council whichever sat, not a father who ever wrote, not a
martyr who ever suffered, but believed in a perpetual illuminating grace of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Church of God to the end of time... ." (The See of St. Peter, pp. 46-57.)
Finally, we wish to present the first draft of the Vatican Council, which was never incorporated into the official documents on the Church, but which can be seen to reflect the mind of the Church in the 19th century, having as its authors many cardinals and bishops. "...The Godhead willed that" (in addition to the invisible and spiritual bonds that bind the faithful to Christ, the invisible head of the Church) "...there should be corresponding external visible bonds ... that this spiritual and supernatural society must appear in external form and be conspicuously evident. Consequently, there is a visible teaching authority, a visible priestly off ice ... a visible governing body.... Finally, the whole body of the Church is visible ... it is placed in clear view like a city set upon a mountain ... impossible to hide ... illuminated by the sun of justice, [it] shines on the whole world with the light of its truth." (The Church Teaches, Reverend Gerald Ackeren, Editor; pp. 89, 90-103.) Pius XII reiterates the gist of this document in his Mystici Corporis with these words: "This social body of Christ has been designed by its founder to be visible; this cooperation of all its members must be externally manifest...."
But it is not enough to say that the Church cannot fail as an organization. It must also be maintained that the faith of Peter's successor cannot fail itself. For if the papacy could err in matters of faith and morals, how could the Vatican Council have ever presumed to define that the Roman Pontiff, when defining matters pertaining to faith and morals, is incapable of error? Not only will the Church last until the consummation and Peter be seen to have successors to the very end, but that successor cannot, will not err. We need have no doubts that this, indeed, was the mind of the lawmakers at the Vatican Council, for we find these words in the council documents themselves: "Therefore, the bishops of the whole world... following a long custom of the Churches and the formula of the ancient rule, referred to this Holy See those dangers particularly which emerged in the affairs of faith, that there especially the damages to faith might be repaired where faith cannot experience a failure." (The footnote to this foregoing sentence from the council documents refers us to a letter of St. Bernard to Pope Innocent II.) "Indeed, all the venerable fathers have embraced their apostolic doctrine, and
the holy orthodox doctors have venerated and followed it, knowing full well that the See of St. Peter always remains unimpaired by any error, according to the divine promise of Our Lord, the Saviour, made to the chief of His disciples: 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' (Luke 22:32.) (DZ 1836) Immediately following these words, infallibility is defined. That this has been held always by the Church, we demonstrate below:
St. Bernard: "It is right that all dangers and scandals which arise in the kingdom of God, especially such as regard faith... be reported to your apostleship... for wounds inflicted on faith should be there healed, where faith cannot fail." (Letter to Innocent II, as recorded by Archbishop Francis Kenrick, The Primacy of the Apostolic See, p. 147.)
Bishops of Tarrogona to Pope Hilarius - "...we seek to benefit by the privilege of your See ... which was praised by the mouth of the apostle... and... where nothing is ordained erroneously." (Archbishop Kenrick, p. 148.)
St. Cyprian - "he turned naturally to Rome as the center of all authority, because he thought... that the Romans are 'they to whom faithlessness can have no access."' (Cardinal Merry del Val, The Truth of Papal Claims, p. 98.)
St. Ambrose - "Faith... is the foundation of the Church... for... of St. Peter's faith... was it said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Cardinal Merry de Val, p. xi., appendix.)
St. Robert Bellarmine - Commenting on Chapter V of Bellarmine's De Romano Pontifice, H.I.D. Ryder writes: "The thesis of Bellarmine's fifth chapter is this: 'the Pope cannot err... in a matter of morals'; i.e., he cannot make a law for the whole Church as would involve those who obey it in a breach of the moral law."' (Catholic Controversy, p. 171.)
St. Francis de Sales - "So when... the Church was certified that the gates of hell should not prevail against it--was it not enough to say that St. Peter, as a foundation stone of the ecclesiastical government and administration, could not be crushed and broken by infidelity or error, which is the principal gate of hell?.... For if the foundation be overthrown, the whole building will fall." (Library of St. Francis de Sales, Vol. III, p. 296-297.)
Scholastic Theologians
"...Indefectibility..." means "not merely that the Church will persist until the end of time, but ... that it will preserve unimpaired its essential characteristics. The Church can never undergo any constitutional change that will make it...something different from what it was originally. It can never ... lose the apostolic hierarchy, or the sacraments..." or "become corrupt in faith or morals ...indefectibility is expressly promised to the Church by Christ, in the words in which He declares that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Reverend G.H. Joyce, The Catholic Encyclodedia, Vol. III.)
Reverend W. Wilmers - (In his article for the Catholic Encyclopedia (Vol. XV) on the Vatican Council, Reverend K. Kirch identifies Reverend Wilmers as the conciliar theologian who refuted those bishops opposed to the definition of infallibility and the primacy in a work entitled Anima versiones.) In his catechism Handbook of the Christian Religion, Wilmers writes: "By the consummation of the world is meant the end of time ... for elsewhere Christ identifies the end of the world with the last judgment... . Christ's Church, as it was promulgated in the beginning, is to endure to the end of time." (p. 65.)
Reverend W. Devivier - (Whose orthodoxy was commended by Cardinal Merry del Val) "The Church ... will never be deprived of any of Her constituent elements, Her members, Her chiefs, Her organization, nor any of Her essential properties ...the mission confided to the Church is to save souls until the consummation of the ages...." (Christian Apologetics, pp. 113114.)
Reverend Thomas Allies, K.C.S.G. - (Reverend Allies' book was originally printed with the approval of Pius IX in 1850 and reprinted at the behest of Leo XIII in 1896.) "And what will it help one who is longing, aching, perishing for the truth to answer there was once a Church, 'the pillar and ground of truth,' and so it remained as long as it was undivided; that is, for many hundred years, but it IS divided now, and therefore, is now no longer the pillar and ground of the truth; but stay where you are, and hold all which that Church held, and you will be safe? This is Anglicanism... . The comforter could not fail the body in which He dwelt, while Peter presided over it in person; as little could he fail ... in the 19th century, or in any to come. For to suppose His failing is to ignore the whole idea on which the Church is built (Emph. Allies')... . Not a Council whichever sat, not a father who ever wrote, not a
martyr who ever suffered, but believed in a perpetual illuminating grace of the Holy Ghost dwelling in the Church of God to the end of time... ." (The See of St. Peter, pp. 46-57.)
Michael Fighting
"Michael…who standeth for…thy people," — Dan. 12:1-12
