[1] The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: The Church's Magisterium asserts that it exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging Catholics to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.
If a baptised person deliberately denies or doubts a dogma properly so-called, he is guilty of the sin of heresy [...], and automatically becomes subject to the punishment of excommunication".
[6] At the turn of the 20th century, a group of theologians called modernists stated that dogmas did not come from God but are historical manifestations at a given time.
A movement to declare a fifth Marian dogma for "Mediatrix" and "Co-Redemptrix" was underway in the 1990s,[8] but had been opposed by the bishops at Vatican II and has faced strong opposition since.
The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, [...] of individuals [...] as well of [...] the whole Church, ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.
According to Vincent, the deposit of faith was entrusted and not "devised: a matter not of wit, but of learning; not of private adoption, but of public tradition."
The former must be explicitly believed by all in order to achieve eternal salvation; for the latter implicit faith (fides implicita) suffices (cf.
II, 6).The magisterium of the church is directed to guard, preserve and teach divine truths which God has revealed with infallibility (de fide).
It is considered the mortal sin of heresy if the heretical opinion is held with full knowledge of the church's opposing dogmas.
These church teachings or "Catholic truths" (veritates catholicae) are not a part of the divine revelation, yet are intimately related to it.
[21] The Council of Trent made a number of dogmatic definitions about the sacraments and other beliefs and practices of the church, such as the following: Pope Pius XII stated in Humani generis that papal encyclicals, even when they are not ex cathedra, can nonetheless be sufficiently authoritative to end theological debate on a particular question: Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority.
When, a few days later, he was asked if he would accept the papal brief reverting Clement XIII and dissolving the Jesuit Order, Ricci replied that whatever the Pope decides must be sacred to everybody.
[35] In 1995, questions arose as to whether the apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis, which upheld the Catholic teaching that only men may receive ordination, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.
[36] Critics of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis point out, though, that it was not promulgated under the extraordinary papal magisterium as an ex cathedra statement, and therefore is not considered infallible in itself.
[c] While Our Lady of the Pillar appeared during the Apostolic Age, the apparition is not a dogma since it is not part of the Catholic faith, in the Bible or in sacred tradition.
This changed in the 20th century, when Karl Barth in his book Kirchliche Dogmatik stated the need for systematic and binding articles of faith.