The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

156 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.call poison, food neither can ; you call error, doctrine. The Pope, as universal teacher, must alwaysgive to the faithful, not the poisonous food of error,but the sound aliment of pure doctrine.In fine, the Pope is also styled the Chief Pilot ofthe Church. It was not without a mysterious significance, that our Lord went into Peter s bark insteadof that of any of the other Apostles. This bark, ourLord has pledged Himself, shall never sink, nordepart from her true course. How can you imaginea storm-proof, never-varying bark under the chargeof a fallible Pilot?The Council of the Vatican in promulgating, in1870, the Pope s Infallibility, did not create a newdoctrine, but confirmed an old one. In proclaiming this dogma, the Church enforces as a law a principle which has always existed as a matter of fact.I may illustrate this point by referring again toour Supreme Court.When the Chief Justice decide?a constitutional question, his decision, though presented in a new shape, cannot be called a new doctrine, because it is based on the letter and spirit ofthe Constitution.In like manner, when the Church issues a newdogma of faith, that decree isnothing more than anew form of expressing an old doctrine, because Ihedecisionmust be drawn from the revealed Word ofGod.The course pursued by the Church regarding theInfallibility of the Pope, was practised by her in