4.  With these preliminary explanations and considerations to guide us in our interpretation, we will now give the solemn teaching on the subject, as laid down in the third chapter of the Pastor AEternus, drawn up and duly promulgated by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican; and therefore of supreme authority.

“We teach and declare that the Roman Church, according to the disposition of the Lord, obtains the princedom of ordinary power over all the other Churches; and that this, the Roman Pontiff’s power of jurisdiction, which is truly episcopal, is immediate; towards which (power) all the pastors and faithful, of whatever right and dignity, whether each separately or all collectively, are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, not only in the things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government (regimen) of the Church diffused through the whole world; so that, unity being preserved with the Roman Pontiff, as well of communion as of the profession of the same faith, the Church of Christ may be one flock under one pastor.  This is the doctrine of Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and salvation.”

“We also teach and declare that the Roman Pontiff is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that in all causes belonging to ecclesiastical examination recourse can be had to his judgment:  and that the judgment of the Apostolic See, than whose authority there is none greater, is not to be called in question, nor is it lawful for any one to judge its judgment.  Therefore, those wander from the right path of truth who affirm that it is lawful to appeal from the judgments of the Roman Pontiffs to an Ecumenical Council, as to an authority superior to the Roman Pontiff.”

“If any one, therefore, shall say that the Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the Universal Church, not only in the things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church diffused throughout the whole world, or that he has only the principal place (potiores partes), and not the whole plenitude of the supreme power, or that this, his power, is not ordinary and immediate, whether over all and each of the Churches, or over all and each of the pastors and faithful, let him be anathema!”

5.  Since the Church is a perfect society, spread throughout the entire world, with one supreme ruler at its head, it follows that it must be endowed with all the means requisite for the carrying out of its mission.  Christ was sent, by His Eternal Father, from Heaven with full powers.  “All power is given me in heaven and in earth”; and these powers He handed on to His Church.  “As the Father hath sent Me, so I also send you” (John xx. 21).  Hence the Popes are, to use Scriptural phraseology, “ambassadors for Christ; God, as it were, exhorting by them” (2 Cor. v. 20); and no Catholic dare contest their power or jurisdiction.