Doctrinal Confusion & the Magisterium: A Concise Guide for Catholics, by Josué Luis Hernández

“And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”
— John 1:5

Amidst this dead of night within the Church — wherein all seems obscured by a disorienting darkness; by mists and shadows; by strange and unfamiliar shapes and sounds that unsettle our senses, challenge our confidence and shake the very foundations of our faith — I want to affirm that the Church’s Magisterium, nevertheless, remains a stalwart and immovable guide. The Magisterium of the Church is and always will be a light in the darkness. It remains now, as ever, an infallible means of dispelling falsehood, confusion and error and of bringing forth the clarity of truth. But in order to see this we must understand the Magisterium properly.

What the Magisterium Teaches Us About the Magisterium

To begin with, I would like to give a brief summary of the three levels of magisterial authority:

1. The Extraordinary (or Solemn) Magisterium: This category of magisterial teaching is infallible and is the easiest to identify as being such because of its explicit and definitive nature. It is exercised by either the pope alone (e.g., the papal definitions of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary), or by the whole college of bishops, with the pope as their head — as, for example, when specific doctrines are defined in an ecumenical council (e.g., the Council of Florence on the necessity of the Church for salvation, Vatican I on papal infallibility, etc.). …