[3] "[T]he supreme organs for [theological] notes and censures (and exclusively so for infallible matters) are the Pope and the Ecumenical Councils.
Limited competences attaches to the Roman Congregations, Provincial Synods (episcopal conferences) and the individual bishops and major superiors of religious orders.
[4] Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott considers that immediately revealed truths hold the "highest degree of certainty".
The Church has the right and the duty, for the protection of the heritage of Faith, of proscribing philosophic teachings which directly or indirectly endanger dogma.
The [First] Vatican Council declares: Ius etiam et offidum divinitus habet falsi nominis scientiam proscribendi ["{the Church} derives from God the right and the duty of proscribing false science" – Dei Filius] (D 1798).A sententia fidei proxima ("teaching proximate to faith") refers to teachings, which are generally accepted as divine revelation by Catholic theologians but not defined as such by the Magisterium.
[8] Examples of sententia communis beliefs which are cited by Ludwig Ott include: • The saints in heaven can help the souls in purgatory by intercession[9] • Dead people cannot receive sacraments[10]
The least degree of certainty is possessed by the tolerated opinion (opinio tolerata), which is only weakly founded, but which is tolerated by the Church.The Sommaire de théologie dogmatique proposes the following theological notes:[12] Catholic theologian John Hardon states:[1] The highest degree of certitude is attached to immediately revealed truths.
Below this level are many grades of certainty, ranging from common teaching (sententia communis), when Catholic theologians responsive to the Church's authority agree on some position, to tolerated opinions that are weakly founded but are tolerated by the Church.Edward N. Peters states that "many of the assertions hitherto listed by theologians with a surfeit of restraint as merely, say, 'sententia communis' might, upon closer investigation in light of the criteria set out in Ad tuendam and its progeny, be found to enjoy infallible certitude, after all, as either primary or, as I think the liceity of the capital punishment qualifies, as secondary objects of infallibility.