Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/546



540 THE BIBLICAL COMMISSION.

of unbelievers has arrived at. Indeed, no Catholic can consider as subject to doubt these truths which We have elsewhere referred to at greater length, and they must know that God has not delivered the Scriptures to the private judgment of the learned, but has confided the in- terpretation of them to the teaching of the Church. "In the matter of faith and morals which pertain to the teach- ing of Christian doctrine, the sense of Holy Scripture, which must be considered as the true sense, is that which has been adopted and is adopted by our holy mother, the Church, whose ofhce it is to judge of the real meaning and interpretation of Holy Scriptures. It is therefore not pennitted to any one to interpret the Holy Scripture in any way contrary to this sense, or even in any way contrary to the universal opinion of the Fathers."* As We were say- ing, the nature of the divine books is such that in order to dissipate the religious obscurity with which they are shrouded we must never count on the laws of hermeneu- tics, but must address ourselves to the Church which has been given by God to mankind as a guide and mistress. In brief, the legitimate sense of the divine Scriptures is not to be found outside the Church, nor can it be pronounced by those who have repudiated her teaching and authority. The men who are to compose this commission should therefore watch with great care to safeguard these prin- ciples and to keep them, as time goes on, with still greater strictness. And if certain minds profess an exaggerated admiration for heterodox writers, they must be led by per- suasion to follow and to obey more faithfully the direc- tion of the Church.

Doubtless there may arise an occasion when the Catho- lic interpreter may find some assistance in authors outside of the Church, especially in matters of criticism, but here there is need of prudence and discernment. Let our doc- tors cultivate with care the science of criticism, for it is of great utility in order to grasp in its complete sense the ' Cone. Vatic, sess. iii., cap. ii.