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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

I believe everything the creed says, but why must I also believe in papal infallibility?

Question:

I believe the creed to be the essential teaching of our Catholic faith, but why do I have to believe all this other stuff about Mary or papal infallibility?

Answer:

Because, if you believe the creed to be the essential teaching of our Catholic faith, you therefore “believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” When that Church, with the apostolic authority described by the creed, promulgates dogmas (such as the dogmas concerning Mary or the infallibility of the pope), it is declaring that this teaching is something we have received, implicitly or explictly, from the apostles. You therefore are bound to believe it precisely because of what the creed teaches about the Church. You cannot pit the creed against the Church’s teaching of doctrine.


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