just a word creed In everyday life it is often negative, but in the Catholic Church the doctrine of faith is a teaching of faith contained in the Book of Revelation. It is a claim that God took for granted and made public. The precise definition of doctrines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church is: Facts contained in God’s revelation or facts that have a necessary connection to it (CCC 88). So they are, in a way, the pillars of the Catholic faith.


“There is an organic link between our spiritual life and beliefs. Doctrines are a light on the path of our faith; (CCC 89).

Where did the doctrines come from in the Catholic Church?

Creed (from the Greek creed) originally meant an opinion, opinion, or decision. Usually, this opinion is expressed formally. In ancient times, Christians began to use this concept. They understood it similarly – as a common belief, officially proclaimed. However, the Church is not the “inventor” of dogmas, because it is not the one who invented the content of his faith. The starting point for finding the content of faith and creating a doctrine is certainly the Bible, taken in its entirety – the Old and New Testaments. However, it is necessary to properly understand its content. Doctrines do not summarize biblical principles.

It is the Church that transmits the principles of the Catholic faith. The letter is in Latin Tradition. This is where the concept of imitation begins. This means that tradition is not something added to the Bible afterwards, but rather the whole message of faith taught in the church. This message includes both the biblical content and its deep understanding, and its expression in new situations, as well as the Church itself with its teaching, sacraments, prayer, and structure. They serve and participate, as it were, in the transmission of the faith.

What are creeds for?

Doctrines capture the constant and essential content of the Christian faith. So it won’t actually require a formal declaration and identification. However, this necessity results, in a way, from the needs of the Christian community – more from public life than from private life. The Church needs a clear and common confession of faith. The apostolic composition and the “creed of faith” contain an enumeration of the most important principles, that is, the main doctrines of the faith.

With the development of Christianity, there were more and more such doctrines. It was, in a way, a collection of information for Christians, but also non-believers, about what the Church teaches. In its declaration of dogmas, the Church does not impose anything in any way, but only defines what must be recognized and what must be believed in order to become a Christian. Therefore, the Catholic faith is not selective and it is not possible to choose only what suits us.

However, the Body of Doctrines is not just a Christian summation of Christian principles. Thanks to the dogmas, the truths of faith were somehow summed up. Yes, to better understand their content. In establishing the creeds, vernacular was not used as much as philosophical language. In the first centuries of Christianity, dogmas made it possible to build a “bridge” between the two worlds: the biblical world and the world of culture and speech of the Greek and Latin civilizations in which Christianity took root.

Street. Thomas Aquinas defined creed as “a sentence which infallibly expresses the truth of faith, and which tends toward that truth.” This means that the Church does not believe in the doctrine itself, but in the truth it contains. In turn, Father Jacek Salij OB points out that “accepting the Creed, and assenting to the truth contained in it, is only the beginning of the spiritual adventure that awaits us thanks to this Creed. Many Catholics know from their own experience that it only begins. To amaze me years later and have a real impact. on my life, a creed I have long believed in.”

What is dogma and what is not?

Thus, there is no definitive catalog of dogmas in the Catholic Church. The Church is concerned not with their number, but with the content aimed at helping believers to know Christ and to proclaim his teachings with love and truth.

Not everything in the Church is dogma. It is certainly the content that God expressly declared in the Bible, as well as the specific content in the Church. However, there are also opinions and sentences that can be considered very reasonable but not binding. They are not a doctrine of faith.

Through the Reformation of the 16th century, creed was understood as an expression of a certain orthodoxy, and earlier, creed was understood simply as a specific dogma. In the Catholic religion, creeds express the Church’s teaching message given to her by Christ himself (Matthew 28:19).

education The former cathedral

Doctrines of the faith are proclaimed in councils with the participation of the Pope or by the head of the Church herself. The first post-Apostolic Council to formulate the dogmas of the faith was the First Council of Nicaea in the fourth century. Then it was formulated, inter alia, the Nicene Creed. The matters of faith that the Pope dealt with are called catechisms The former cathedralwhich announced statement of faith Non-negotiable. The previous cathedral teachings cannot be questioned because they are under the authority of Christ Himself. After all, he entrusted the Church with the authority to teach faith and morals (CCC 88).

The authority of the Pope, the successor of St. Peter was precisely defined in one of the doctrines – about the infallibility of the pope – during the First Vatican Council. In the Middle Ages, those who were skeptical or critical of the dogmas were severely punished.

Examples of Doctrines in the Catholic Church

  • 431 – The Council of Ephesus proclaims the doctrine of the Mother of God.

  • 649 – Pope Martin I, at the Lateran Council in Rome, proclaims the doctrine of “Always Virgin Mary.”

  • 787 – The Second Council of Nicaea proclaims the doctrine of the divine incarnation of Jesus Christ.

  • 1215 – The Fourth Lateran Council proclaims the doctrine of transubstantiation.

  • 1439 – The Council of Florence proclaims the doctrines of Purgatory and Hell.

  • 1546 – The Council of Trent proclaims the doctrine of original sin.

  • 1854 – Pius IX proclaims the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

  • 1870 – Pius IX proclaims the doctrine of the Pope’s infallibility.

  • 1950 – Pius XII proclaims the doctrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope

The doctrine of papal infallibility was proclaimed in 1870 at the first Vatican Council in a dogmatic constitution Rev. aernus. It is called education The former cathedral. The Synod Fathers maintained that the doctrine of papal infallibility was closely linked to the primacy of the pope and Jesus’ biblical affirmation of the immutability of the faith of the Apostle Peter, who was the pope, after all, successor.


With the approval of the Holy Synod, we teach and define that it is a doctrine proclaimed by God that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks formerly in the Church–that is, when, in the position of pastor and teacher of all believers, by his supreme apostolic authority, he defines the teaching of faith and morals that binds the whole Church–thanks to the protection of God’s promise to him in the person of St. The apostle Peter possesses the infallibility that the divine Savior wanted to give his church in determining the doctrines of faith and morals. Hence, such definitions do not change by themselves and not with the approval of the Church. If anyone, God forbid, dares to challenge our definition, let him be excluded from the community of believers.

The infallibility of the Pope is to be understood as flawless in matters of faith and morals, not in matters of everyday life.

Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The bull proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church Ineffabilis Deus December 8, 1854 by Pius IX. This doctrine defines a special state of holiness that is a privilege of Mary.


(…) We proclaim, proclaim and proclaim that the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception – by the special grace and privilege of Almighty God, through the expected merits of Jesus Christ, God’s Savior of mankind – has been preserved intact from the first moment of her conception. From all the stain of original sin is the truth proclaimed by God, and therefore all believers must believe in it steadfastly and without hesitation.


Read also:
One day summer excursions. Havens in Poland worth seeingRead also:
Liturgy hours. What is this prayer and how do you say it?