DOGMATIC DEFINITION. – It is a doctrinal judgment by which the Church solemnly declares that a truth is contained in the sources of divine revelation (Scripture and tradition) and obliges all the faithful to believe it on account of the authority of God, who has revealed II.
It is equivalent to a public profession of faith by the supreme authority, which establishes, in the strictest sense, the formal dogma or truth of divine-Catholic faith (v. DOGMA), to which all the faithful are obliged to adhere, under pain of falling into heresy and separating themselves from the unity of the Church. As an infallible manifestation of the ecclesiastical magisterium, it enjoys the highest authority; that is, it is in itself (ex sese) irreformable.
Such a d. d. may be issued by the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra (v. INFALLIBILITÀ), by ecumenical councils, by particular councils whose decrees have the solemn approval of the supreme pontiffs or are universally accepted by the Church; the symbols or professions of faith issued or solemnly approved by the supreme ecclesiastical magisterium are likewise called d. d. (v. SIMBOLO APOSTOLICO).
In addition to proposing revealed truth by way of solemn judgment, as in the cases indicated, the Church also proposes it through the ordinary and universal magisterium (the unanimous consensus of the Fathers and theologians, the unanimous preaching of the bishops, the consensus of the faithful, and liturgical practice), to which the assent of divine-Catholic faith is likewise due, as the First Vatican Council explicitly teaches (Denz-U, 1792).
The object of a d. d. comprises solely the truth that the Church proposes as revealed by God and to be believed by all the faithful. In the bull or decree, therefore, one must distinguish the object of the d. d. from the motives or arguments on which it is based: generally speaking, only the former is to be regarded as a matter of faith. Likewise, historical reasons, incidental propositions, occasional statements, and similar matters do not constitute the object of a d. d.
Generally speaking, the canons that anathematize those who affirm or deny a particular doctrine contain a d. d., provided that they do not concern merely disciplinary matters.
In issuing a d. d., the Church introduces no properly speaking new element into the deposit of faith, but only into the teaching of revealed doctrine; it discerns a truth definitively recognized from truths that are still obscure and controversial. Thus the number of dogmas increases in relation to us, without divine revelation increasing in itself and without the Catholic faith changing. The development of truth derives from the light that dogmas, revealed in an obscure or implicit manner, receive from the traditional teaching of the Church and from the interior prompting of the Holy Spirit. The more or less luminous state in which revealed truths successively appear in relation to us, and the degrees of clarity that they acquire, perfectly explain the continual progress of Catholic doctrine, which increases without innovation and develops without change.
The necessity of issuing d. d. derives from the very manner in which God communicated the treasure of Revelation to the Church. Indeed, within it there are truths revealed in clear and incontestable propositions, others in obscure terms, others in principles that contain or imply them, and finally others of which Sacred Scripture makes no mention but which living or written tradition teaches explicitly or implicitly.
Whatever the form under which they come to the explicit knowledge of the Church, she can, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit (Io. 14, 16; 16, 13) and the assistance of her divine Founder (Mt. 28, 20), define them as dogmas of faith and oblige all the faithful to believe them.
According to the more common doctrine, the inclusion of such truths in the deposit of Revelation must be formal, because only truth formally, that is, essentially, revealed is divine and carries with it the full weight of the authority of God, the supreme and infallible truth; whereas truth that is only virtually revealed—that is, deduced by reasoning from a revealed principle—cannot be imposed upon the conscience of the believer in the name of God, since it results from both a divine element and a human element (v. CONCLUSIONE TEOLOGICA).
The Church is most often moved to issue a d. d. by the necessity of rejecting heretical theories or innovations contrary to revealed doctrine. In such a case her silence would amount to a denial of the truth, and she is therefore obliged to pronounce judgment, condemning the error with every possible clarity and energy and setting Catholic doctrine against II. Thus, for example, the d. of the Council of Trent concerning the number of the Sacraments, their efficacy, their divine institution, and the sacramental character are explained as responses to the innovations of the Protestants.
Sometimes, though rarely, the Church has in view solely the benefit accruing to the piety of the faithful and to the growth of faith. This occurs when some truth, once controversial but by then fully elucidated and universally accepted, is raised to the dignity of a Catholic dogma. Such is the case of the d. d. concerning the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
To the Church, and to her alone, belongs the discernment of the reasons she may have for pronouncing a dogmatic judgment and of the opportune moment for issuing II.