Religious submission is the response owed to what the Pope or the college of bishops teach on faith or morals without intending to proclaim it definitively: “a religious submission of the intellect and will must be given to a doctrine” so taught. The Catechism calls it “religious assent”, which “though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it”. It must be shown “in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra”, whose mind may be known “from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking”. It “cannot be simply exterior or disciplinary but must be understood within the logic of faith”. A theologian may raise questions about “the timeliness, the form, or even the contents of magisterial interventions”, but “the willingness to submit loyally” to teaching not of itself irreformable “must be the rule”.
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