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 the authority of God, who revealed it.
It is equivalent to a public profession of faith by the supreme authority, which establishes in the most rigorous sense the formal dogma or truth of divine-Catholic faith (v. DOGMA), to which all the faithful are obliged to adhere, under penalty of falling into heresy and separating themselves from the unity of the Church. Being 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. can be issued by the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra (v. INFALLIBILITY), by ecumenical councils, by particular councils whose decrees have the approval, in solemn form, of the supreme pontiffs, or are accepted universally by the Church; the symbols or professions of faith issued or solemnly approved by the supreme ecclesiastical magisterium are also called d. d. (v. APOSTLES' CREED).
Besides by way of solemn judgment, as in the cases indicated, the Church also proposes revealed truth through the ordinary and universal magisterium (the unanimous consent of the Fathers and theologians, the unanimous preaching of the bishops, the consent of the faithful, liturgical practice), to which the assent of divine-Catholic faith is equally due, as the 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 one must therefore distinguish the object of the d. d. from the motives or arguments on which it is based: generally, only the former is to be held as of faith. Likewise, historical reasons, incidental propositions, occasional remarks and similar things do not constitute the object of a d. d.
Generally speaking, the canons that strike with anathema those who affirm or deny a determined doctrine contain a d. d., provided that they do not deal with merely disciplinary matters.
In issuing a d. d., the Church introduces no novelty properly so called into the deposit of faith, but only into the teaching of revealed doctrine; it discerns a truth definitively recognized from truths still obscure and controverted. 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 find themselves in relation to us, the degrees of clarity they acquire, perfectly explain to us the continuous progress of Catholic doctrine, which grows without innovation, which develops without change.
The necessity of issuing d. d. derives from the very manner in which God communicated to the Church the treasure of Revelation. For there are in it truths revealed in clear and incontestable propositions, others in obscure terms, others in principles that contain or presuppose them, and others finally of which Sacred Scripture makes no mention, but which the living or written tradition teaches explicitly or implicitly.
Whatever the form under which they come to the explicit knowledge of the Church, it can, with the help of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14, 16; 16, 13), and the assistance of its divine Founder (Mt. 28, 20), define them as dogmas of faith and oblige all the faithful to believe them.
According to the most common doctrine, the containment of such truths in the deposit of Revelation must be formal, because only the truth formally, that is, essentially, revealed is divine, and carries with it the whole weight of the authority of God, the supreme and infallible truth; whereas the truth only virtually revealed, that is, deduced by way of reasoning from a revealed principle, cannot be imposed on the conscience of the believer in the name of God, since it results from a divine element and a human element (v. THEOLOGICAL CONCLUSIONS).
The Church is for the most part moved to a d. d. by the necessity of rejecting heretical theories or innovations contrary to revealed doctrine. In such a case its silence would be equivalent to the denial of the truth, and then it is obliged to pronounce itself, condemning the error with all possible clarity and energy, and setting Catholic doctrine against it. Thus are explained, for example, the d. of the Council of Trent on the number of the Sacraments, on their efficacy, on their divine institution, on the sacramental character, against the innovations of the Protestants.
Sometimes, rarely, the Church has in view only the benefit deriving to the piety of the faithful and to the increase of the faith. This happens when some truth, once controverted but now fully elucidated and universally admitted, is elevated 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 it alone, belongs the discerning of the motives it may have for pronouncing a dogmatic judgment and of choosing the opportune moment to issue it.