Abstract

Helmut Moll:
Is the Papal Canonisation an Act of the Infallible Magisterium?
(FKTh 2016-1, p. 56–74)

The author of the article lists various problematic cases through church history and different theological arguments against the infallibility of canonization. He shows how apparent misunderstandings and seeming failures in church history are not to be considered as arguments to release the link between the act of canonization and the infallibility of the magisterium. The argumentation leads to a note of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in 1998 on this topic. The note points to the long praxis of the church so see the infallibility not only related to the topics given by the divine revelation and expressed in dogmata but also to issues in immediate closeness as for example the legality of the pope’s election and the validity of an ecumenical council. The infallibility of the canonization is exactly rooted in this definitive decision.