How many times has the Holy Father spoken ex cathedra?

[QuantaCura]

It can be tricky to tell whether something is ex cathedra based on this description. For example, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis would seem to fall under this description ("this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful"), yet we know directly from the Church's magisterium that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is not ex cathedra.

That's not true. We know it was definitive and irreformable--and thereby by definition "ex cathedra" (as only ex cathedra proclamations by the Pope can be definitive/irreformable), but not a dogmatic definition--it's just a tenenda--it doesn't have to be believed with theological faith, just held. The Pope is infallible in both cases ("...believed or held...")

 

[QuantaCura]

Here's a great article from Homiletics and Pastoral Review that explains this concept of "tenenda" in terms of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and it's "ex cathedra" status:

http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=835

Sorry--it's kind of long--but I think it's helpful here.

 

[IgnatiusOfAntioch]

Here's a great article from Homiletics and Pastoral Review that explains this concept of "tenenda" in terms of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and it's "ex cathedra" status:

http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=835

Sorry--it's kind of long--but I think it's helpful here.

Quanta, for a statement to be ex-cathedra, the Pope will state the it is an ex-cathedra statement. That has happened exactly twice. As you are young and headstrong, you're probably not going to listen, but at least you have now been informed of your error.

God bless.

 

[MichaelFJF]

Twice. Assumption. Immaculate Conception. Anything else is conjecture.

 

[YourBrotherInChrist]

Here's a great article from Homiletics and Pastoral Review that explains this concept of "tenenda" in terms of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and it's "ex cathedra" status:

http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=835

Sorry--it's kind of long--but I think it's helpful here.

There doesn't seem to be any peer review with Homiletic and Pastoral Review, so the article quality varies quite a bit. In this article, the giveaway is in the first sentence:

In the theological discussion of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis there has been a dearth of argumentation for the position that the Apostolic Letter contains an ex cathedra definition.
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However, nowhere does the article state that the reason for this dearth (lack) is that the Church's magisterium has repeatedly clarified that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is not ex cathedra.

Here is what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 1995:

In this case, an act of the ordinary papal Magisterium, in itself not infallible, witnesses to the infallibility of the teaching of a doctrine already possessed by the Church.
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Here is what Cardinal Bertone wrote in 1997:

It must be stressed then that in the Encyclicals Veritatis splendor and Evangelium vitae and in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis, the Roman Pontiff intended, though not in a solemn way, to confirm and reaffirm doctrines which belong to the ordinary, universal teaching of the Magisterium, and which therefore are to be held in a definitive and irrevocable way.
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and:

If we were to hold that the Pope must necessarily make an ex cathedra definition whenever he intends to declare a doctrine as definitive because it belongs to the deposit of faith, it would imply an underestimation of the ordinary, universal Magisterium, and infallibility would be limited to the solemn definitions of the Pope or a Council, in a way that differs from the teaching of Vatican I and Vatican II, which attribute an infallible character to the teachings of the ordinary, universal Magisterium.
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Here is another article that claims that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is ex cathedra. At least this person has the guts to acknowledge directly that he is dissenting from Cardinal Ratzinger:

With all due respect to Cardinal Ratzinger, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...guess what?
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However, my money is on Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and the Church's magisterium. Dissent from them at your own risk.