right to pronounce with authority upon what is the meaning of God's words in that particular case.
The Council of the Vatican declares " that in matters of faith and morals, appertaining to the building up of Christian doctrine, that is to be held as the true sense of Holy Scripture which our holy Mother Church hath held and holds, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scripture: and, therefore, that it is permitted to no one to interpret the Sacred Scripture contrary to this sense or likewise contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers." (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, 11.)
Between the Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church on the one side, and science on the other, there never can be any real contradiction; for God, who is the Author both of Faith and reason, cannot contradict Himself. And as Leo XIII. says,[1] " There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy between the theologian and the physical scientist as long as each confines himself within his own lines, and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us ' not to make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known.' "
- ↑ Providentissimus Deus.
