Dogmas of the Catholic Church are irreformable, but they can be deepened

Marcos Cantos Aparicio, doctor in Systematic Theology from the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University dependent on the Archbishopric of Madrid (Spain), explains to ACI Prensa that the dogmas of the Catholic Church are irreversible, but not rigid and that they can be developed and deepened with the help of the Holy Spirit.

“Dogmas constitute the written expression of an event, of a truth referring to the intimate mystery of God and his revelation” and, in this sense, they are “irreversible and irreformable,” he points out.

This does not mean that they are “static, rigid,” because “the Holy Spirit can, in fact, guide the Church toward a deeper understanding and experience of a certain dogmatic truth.”

In other words, each dogma “can, over time, develop and deepen, but always in the same sense and with the same meaning,” adds the expert.

These developments do not have a pre-established moment: “It is the same Spirit that marks the times and forms for the Church. This has, among one of its fundamental missions, if not the fundamental one, to be attentive to his voice, because it knows that everything that emanates from Him is grace, light and life.

What is a dogma?

A dogma, also known as a dogmatic declaration, “is a proposition that includes content belonging to the saving revelation of God, and as such is publicly proposed by the Church to be accepted in faith.”

“This does not mean that revelation consists of a set of propositions,” but rather that it is “first and foremost, an event, the free and gratuitous manifestation of God to men in history to invite them, welcome them and make them participate in his mystery.” of love”, clarifies the specialist.

Cantos Aparicio further specifies that “said revelation has reached its full and definitive expression in Christ,” in such a way that the dogmatic statement constitutes “the magisterial and definitive expression of a truth referring to said event.”

“It can be said, even literally, that it is the same voice of Christ who, through his Church, continues to tell the world who He is and what He is inviting us to,” he emphasizes.

How many dogmas exist in the Catholic Church?

The question for the number of dogmas recognized and proclaimed by the Catholic Church does not have a closed answer: “There are many. The reason for this is that, although the public revelation of God is concluded with the death of the last of the apostles, it is by no means exhausted in all its depth,” says the expert.

In this regard, he tells ACI Prensa that “we cannot forget that it is about the revelation that God makes of himself and the mystery of his will; It is, therefore, an infinite and inexhaustible mystery for us.”

Despite this, the Catholic Church “sustained and guided by the Holy Spirit” advances with the passing of the centuries towards a “deeper understanding of this revelation, towards the fullness of the truth”, which is not merely intellectual, “but also, and more profoundly, vital and cultural.”

In this sense, dogmas constitute “a privileged expression of said understanding,” so they are not about “incorporating new truths, but rather about bringing to light truths that have already occurred that, however, until now remained hidden from us.”

Who and how are the dogmas of the Catholic Church approved?

Saving the premise that “it is the entire people of God that participates in the prophetic office of Christ”, within the Catholic Church “the authentic magisterium, and with it the dogmatic declaration, corresponds solely and by the will of Christ to the successors of the apostles in their ministry, the bishops.”

Thus, dogmatic declarations can be “made, either through the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church, or through the extraordinary and infallible magisterium.”

Such statements come from Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church which are “inseparable and respective, and both flow from the same source, revelation. It is this that constitutes the ultimate place from which they sprout and from which they are nourished,” he concludes.