The Catholic Church declared dogmatic facts to be taught infallibly in a June 1998 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which was then headed by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI: Such doctrines [are] taught infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church as a 'sententia definitive tenenda'.
Whoever denies these truths would be in a position of rejecting a truth of Catholic doctrine and would therefore no longer be in full communion with the Catholic Church.The CDF explained that dogmatic facts fall under the second paragraph of the Church's Profession of Faith, which states: 'I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals'.
The object taught by this formula includes all those teachings belonging to the dogmatic or moral area, which are necessary for faithfully keeping and expounding the deposit of faith, even if they have not been proposed by the Magisterium of the Church as formally revealed.In discussing "truths connected to revelation by historical necessity and which are to be held definitively, but are not able to be declared as divinely revealed," the letter mentions dogmatic facts in a list of examples: "the legitimacy of the election of the Supreme Pontiff or of the celebration of an ecumenical council, the canonizations of saints (dogmatic facts), [and] the declaration of Pope Leo XIII in the Apostolic Letter Apostolicae Curae on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations."
In his May 1998 motu propio Ad tuendam fidem, Pope John Paul II stated: This second paragraph of the Profession of faith is of utmost importance since it refers to truths that are necessarily connected to divine revelation.
The declaration of confirmation or reaffirmation by the Roman Pontiff in this case is not a new dogmatic definition, but a formal attestation of a truth already possessed and infallibly transmitted by the Church."
While the Catholic Church distinguishes between truths set forth as divinely revealed (doctrines de fide credenda) or to be held definitively (doctrines de fide tenenda), as dogmatic facts are, the Church has stressed:"[T]there is no difference with respect to the full and irrevocable character of the assent which is owed to these teachings.
However, prior to the 1998 clarifications issued by Pope John Paul II and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, there was historically confusion and debate about how to understand dogmatic facts.
However, the Jansenists denied that the condemned propositions were present in the Augustinus, and disagreed with the orthodox Catholics about whether the pope had the authority to determine that they were.
They hold that in such syllogisms as this: "Every duly elected pontiff is Peter's successor; but Pius X, for example, is a duly elected pontiff; therefore he is a successor of Peter", the conclusion is not formally revealed by God, but is inferred from a revealed and an unrevealed proposition, and that consequently it is believed, not by divine, but by ecclesiastical faith.