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What did Pastor aeternus declare about papal authority?
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papacy
St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.
The dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus, promulgated by the First Vatican Council in 1870, serves as a definitive statement on the nature of papal authority within Roman Catholicism. It declared the following key tenets regarding the pope:
- Full and Supreme Jurisdiction: The pope, as the successor of St. Peter, possesses full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the entire church.1
- Judicial Supremacy: There is no higher authority to which one may appeal a papal judgment, including an ecumenical council.2
- Papal Infallibility: The pope possesses a supreme teaching power. When he speaks ex cathedra—meaning he acts as the supreme teacher intending to demand irrevocable assent from the entire church on matters of faith or morals—he is preserved from error.31
- Irreformability: These ex cathedra definitions are considered irreformable by their own nature and do not require the subsequent or concomitant consent of the church to be valid.2
The document also affirmed the pope's right to communicate freely with the pastors and flocks of the entire church.1