Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

The Roman congregations are colleges of cardinals placed by the supreme pontiff over certain affairs of the Church to be directed, discussed, and decided. There are, moreover, the following eleven: the Congregation of the Holy Office; the Consistorial Congregation; the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments; the Congregation of the Council; the Congregation of Religious; the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith; the Congregation of Sacred Rites; the Congregation of Ceremonies; the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs; the Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies; the Congregation for the Oriental Church.¹ Each in its own order issues decrees in the name and with the approval of the Roman pontiff himself. The decrees of the Holy Office pertain especially to the doctrinal order. For since the other congregations chiefly watch over ecclesiastical discipline, "the Congregation of the Holy Office, over which the supreme pontiff himself presides, safeguards the doctrine of faith and morals... To the same congregation it belongs not only to examine diligently the books denounced to it, to prohibit them, if need be, and to grant dispensations [for reading prohibited books]; but also to inquire, of its own office, by whatever more opportune way may be permitted, after writings of any kind published among the people that are to be condemned".²

The authority of the Roman congregations, and above all of the Holy Office, is most weighty. For they are instituted by the pontiff himself; they borrow their jurisdiction from the pontiff; they are bound to signify to the pontiff whatever grave matters they transact; and all their resolutions stand in need of and are fortified by the pontiff's approval,³ and since the pontiff is accustomed to transact the affairs of the whole Church through them, the congregations also come under the name of the Apostolic See or the Holy See.⁴ — Although, however, the decrees of the congregations avail with so great an authority, yet of themselves they do not avail with infallibility. For the pontiff neither wills nor is able to communicate his inerrancy to the congregations. Only per accidens, as we have already said,⁵ do the decrees of the congregations become infallible, namely if the pontiff, by an approval not common but solemn, makes those decrees his own and at the same time indicates that they are peremptory and definitive.