" Then he
concludes:--"_Until the Church shall decide_ upon this question of the
Schools, either opinion may be adopted by individual Catholics,
without any breach of Catholic communion or peace."
This was how the question stood until 1870. But it stands in that
position no longer; for the Church has now spoken--_Roma locuta est,
causa finita_. Hence, no Catholic can now deny or call into question
the great prerogative of the Vicar of Christ, without suffering
shipwreck of the faith. At the Vatican Council, Pope Pius IX. and the
Archbishops and Bishops of the entire Catholic world were gathered
together in Rome, and after earnest prayer and prolonged discussion,
they declared that the prerogative of infallibility, which is the very
source of Catholic unity, and the very secret of Catholic strength,
resides in the individual Pope who happens, at the time, to occupy the
Papal chair, and that when he speaks _ex cathedra_, his definitions
are infallibly true, and consonant with Catholic revelation, even
before they have been accepted by the hierarchy throughout the world.
But here it must be borne in mind that the Pope speaks _ex cathedra_,
that is to say, infallibly, only when he speaks:--
1.
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