§ 1. On the Material Object of Faith

421. The primary MATERIAL object of faith is God himself, the highest Truth in being; the secondary object is other truths revealed by God to us. To the point, thus the Vatican Council (Const. Dei Filius, III): "All those things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith which are contained in the word of God, written or handed down, and are proposed by the Church, whether by solemn judgment or by ordinary and universal magisterium, as divinely revealed and to be believed."

The Holy Council says 1. Which are contained in the word of God, written or handed down; both to indicate the twofold font of the whole of revelation, that is, Sacred Scripture and tradition; and to exclude any other revelations whatsoever made to certain Saints, which of themselves cannot become the object of Catholic faith.

2. Proposed by the Church as divinely revealed, to indicate the divinely instituted organ by which alone men can be taught what things are to be believed with divine and Catholic faith.¹

3. Which are proposed whether by solemn judgment..., to indicate the extraordinary mode which the Church is accustomed from time to time to use in proposing truths to be believed with divine and Catholic faith; when namely, through the Supreme Pontiff speaking ex cathedra, or through the episcopate gathered in an ecumenical council, it singularly and determinately defines certain points and enjoins them to be believed. Truths thus solemnly proposed are called defined dogmas of faith, and the contrary and pertinacious error is held as heresy. By the same appellation those truths also are to be denoted which appear immediately contained in Sacred Scripture, for example, Christ's birth in Bethlehem, his agony, scourging, etc.; for these truths also become known through the solemn proposition of the Church, namely through that general proposition by which it defined the whole of Scripture to be divinely inspired.

4. Or by ordinary and universal magisterium, to indicate the ordinary mode which the Church uses in proposing truths of faith: when namely, through its pastors and doctors, it universally affirms that certain truths are revealed by God; although they may have been defined by no decrees of councils or of Roman Pontiffs. And points of faith of this kind must be believed with divine-Catholic faith.

Truths which have been revealed by God in a particular mode are to be believed with faith simply divine; but explicitly by those alone to whom they become known in a certain mode, for example, by that theologian alone who evidently finds the truth in Sacred Scripture, by that person alone who has received the divine revelation (VII, 262).