Pope Leo encyclical makes ‘Spirit of Assisi’ Church teaching, cardinal claims

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — A Vatican cardinal has claimed that Pope Leo XIV has elevated the interreligious “Spirit of Assisi” to the level of the Church’s ordinary Magisterium.

On October 7, during an address delivered at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome, Cardinal George J. Koovakad, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, asserted that paragraph 223 of Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas officially incorporated the “Spirit of Assisi” into the Church’s ordinary Magisterium, establishing interreligious dialogue as a permanent, non-negotiable part of contemporary Catholic doctrine.

“With these [Pope Leo’s] words, October 27, 1986 becomes part of the ordinary teaching of the Magisterium. It is no longer simply an event to remember: it is a criterion through which to interpret the present,” Koovakad said.

READ: Bishop bans St. Michael prayer at the end of Masses

In his lecture, Koovakad traces the historical legacy of the Assisi prayer gathering convoked by Pope John Paul II, emphasizing that it brought world religious leaders together “to pray” rather than to “pray together,” thereby carefully avoiding charges of syncretism. He also tried to demonstrate how the “Spirit of Assisi” evolved across four pontificates – John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV – into a permanent framework for Catholic interreligious dialogue and a peace-building process.

The cardinal asserts that Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas (n. 223) formally incorporates the 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi, Italy, into the Church’s ordinary Magisterium, elevating interreligious dialogue into an active criterion for interpreting contemporary teaching and events.

“In rejecting the mindset of violence, interreligious dialogue plays a decisive role, because at the heart of the great spiritual paths lies a message of peace,” Leo’s encyclical reads. “The ‘spirit of Assisi,’ evoked by Saint John Paul II and carried forward by Pope Francis – for example, through his dialogue with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar – shows that believers can draw upon the most authentic sources of their particular spiritual traditions, where there is no room for ‘sanctified hatred.’”

In theology and canon law, however, the Catholic Church distinguishes three main forms of the Magisterium, which carry different levels of authority and degrees of infallibility and certainty.

The extraordinary or solemn magisterium is exercised when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra or when an ecumenical council defines a doctrine on faith or morals (cf. 1983 CIC can. 749 §§1-2; First Vatican Council, Pastor Aeternus; Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 25). This form is infallible and therefore requires an assent of faith (1983 CIC can. 750 §1).

The ordinary and universal magisterium is exercised when the bishops dispersed throughout the world, remaining in communion with the Pope, concurrently teach a doctrine regarding faith or morals as one to be held definitively (1983 CIC can. 749 §2; Lumen Gentium 25), or when the Pope himself reiterates teachings that have already been definitively taught and defined by his predecessors. This mode is likewise infallible and demands the same assent of faith (1983 CIC can. 750 §1).

On the contrary, the authentic magisterium is exercised when the Pope, the College of Bishops, or individual bishops or episcopal conferences, enunciate teachings on faith or morals without intending to proclaim a definitive or infallible decree (1983 CIC cann. 752-753; Lumen Gentium 25). Although not protected by the charism of infallibility, it only requires a religious submission of “intellect and will” (1983 CIC cann. 752-753). This latter level of internal adherence required by Catholics rests on the reverence for the teaching authority of the Church, but does not represent absolute certainty – as with the extraordinary and ordinary Magisterium – but moral safety, allowing room for respectful theological study if serious difficulties arise.

READ: UK archbishop grants initial permission for ancient Sarum Rite Mass

As moral certainty is being profoundly undermined by the spread of neo-modernism throughout the Church’s teaching office, a rigorous theological analysis of the authentic Magisterium has become an imperative of our age.

Despite Cdl. Koovakad’s statements, Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical does not and cannot automatically render the “Spirit of Assisi” as ordinary Magisterium. As we have seen, the ordinary Magisterium consists in reiterating what the Popes have already definitively taught through the exercise of infallibility. Moreover, as canon law itself makes clear, “no doctrine is understood as defined infallibly unless this is clearly established” (Canon 749 §3).

At most, the “Spirit of Assisi” may be considered an act of authentic Magisterium, with all the limitations that such a classification entails. The fact that a particular teaching has been repeated by several successive popes is not in itself decisive, since repetition alone does not automatically elevate a teaching from the status of authentic to the status of ordinary Magisterium. Furthermore, the “Spirit of Assisi,” by treating the diversity of religions as valid paths to God, stands in contradiction to the consistent (and infallible) teaching of hundreds of popes since the time of St. Peter. For these reasons, as authentic Magisterium, the “Spirit of Assisi” allows theological analysis and, if necessary, refutation.

Catholic doctrine understands infallibility as a charism belonging exclusively to the teaching Church. It resides primarily in the pope, who can exercise it directly, and secondarily in the College of Bishops, which exercises it in a derivative manner and never independently of the Roman Pontiff, since the pope is the primary source of the jurisdiction of which the Magisterium is an expression.

This charism consists in the Holy Spirit’s so-called “negative assistance”: God prevents the teaching Church from falling into error when specific conditions are met, but He does not directly dictate which truths are to be taught or when they are to be taught. Were this the case, one would speak instead of a “positive” assistance of the Holy Spirit.

According to the dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus (1870), four conditions must be met for the pope to exercise infallibility through the extraordinary Magisterium: (1) he must intend to speak as the pope, not as a private theologian or scholar; (2) the teaching must concern a matter of faith or morals; (3) he must clearly manifest his intention to define the teaching as a doctrine of the Catholic faith; and (4) he must explicitly bind the entire Church to give the assent of faith to the doctrine being defined. The concurrence of these four conditions is commonly designated by the Latin expression ex cathedra.

READ: Catholic Charities has taken in millions to build Somali presence in Minnesota

Furthermore, neither the pope’s personal holiness, nor his good faith, nor even his interior orthodoxy at the moment of the definition is required for the validity and infallibility of an ex cathedra judgment. The charism of infallibility depends not on the personal qualities of the Roman Pontiff but on the divine assistance promised to the office itself when the requisite conditions are fulfilled.

However, Vatican progressives are attempting a radical redefinition of infallibility. According to the Synod on Synodality’s proposed canonical reforms, the understanding of infallibility should be broadened beyond the pope and the College of Bishops to include, in a new way, the sensus fidelium, that is, the universal consent of the faithful.

The proposed amendment to Canon 749 would place explicit emphasis on the idea that “the entire body of the Christian faithful” cannot err in matters of faith when a consensus of the whole People of God is manifested. Canonists and theologians argue that this reform would represent a significant shift from Catholic doctrine.