The Ecumenical Councils

Catholic teaching

The Church teaches that an ecumenical council, a solemn gathering of the world's bishops in union with the Pope, exercises the fullest degree of the Church's teaching authority when it defines matters of faith and morals, enjoying the same infallibility Christ promised his Church. The twenty-one councils the Church recognizes, from Nicaea I (325) through Vatican II (1962-1965), addressed christological heresies, the nature of grace, the sacraments, and pastoral renewal, always confirmed or convoked by the Bishop of Rome, whose ratification is necessary for a council's decrees to bind the universal Church.

Biblical foundation

The Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 provides the biblical model: the apostles and elders gather to settle a doctrinal dispute about circumcision, deliberate together, and issue a decision introduced with the striking words 'it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us,' claiming divine sanction for a corporate, deliberative decree binding on the churches. Christ's promise that the Spirit of truth would guide the apostles and, by extension, their successors into all truth undergirds the Church's confidence that councils held in fidelity to this promise teach without error on matters of faith and morals.

Scripture references

Historical evidence

The Council of Nicaea in AD 325, convoked with imperial support but presided over with papal legates present, condemned Arianism and produced the original Nicene Creed, an event so historically well documented that even secular historians treat it as a turning point in Christian history. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 was explicitly ratified by Pope Leo the Great, whose doctrinal letter (the 'Tome of Leo') was read to the assembled bishops, who reportedly exclaimed 'Peter has spoken through Leo,' an early explicit link between conciliar authority and papal confirmation preserved in the conciliar acts themselves.

The Church Fathers

Catechism