Author Topic: The True and the False Infallibility of the Popes (Read 220 times)

Centroamerica · « **Reply #5 on:** **Today** at 02:28:26 PM »

Quote from: Catholic Knight on Today at 11:59:35 AM

The big question is whether a true pope can teach heresy materially (i.e., without he himself being a formal heretic) to the Universal Church. I hold that it is theologically possible.

The question is not whether a pope could utter something materially imperfect, but whether the Church herself could be bound by her visible head to error as though it were doctrine. Thomism requires careful distinctions here. A pope, speaking outside a definitive act, remains a man capable of ambiguity, imprecision, or even materially erroneous expression; this follows from the limits of non-infallible teaching. Yet it does not follow that he can impose heresy upon the Universal Church as teacher, because the assistance of the Holy Ghost pertains to the Church’s formal act of proposing doctrine, not to every incidental formulation. Therefore, to say simply that a true pope can “teach heresy materially to the Universal Church” risks confusion unless one distinguishes between personal theological expression, prudential teaching, and the Church’s binding magisterium.

The Thomistic position avoids two extremes. One extreme treats every papal statement as protected from any defect; the other assumes that widespread confusion proves a rupture in the Church herself. St. Thomas would insist that indefectibility belongs to the Church’s essence, while fallibility belongs to human instruments. Hence a Catholic may recognize tension, suspend certitude where definitions are absent, and hold fast to prior doctrine without concluding that either the papacy has failed or that every disputed formulation constitutes formal heresy. In this sense, the safer formulation is not that a pope teaches heresy to the Church, but that non-definitive expressions can contain material deficiencies which must be interpreted, clarified, or even resisted in light of the constant tradition, a posture best described as disciplined doubt joined with principled resistance. Doubt and Resist…

songbird · « **Reply #6 on:** **Today** at 05:48:30 PM »

The True Story of the Vatican council, by Cardinal Edward Manning. He helped clarifying Papal Infallibility. Check his books out.

CathInfo.com

Author Topic: The True and the False Infallibility of the Popes (Read 220 times)

Centroamerica

Re: The True and the False Infallibility of the Popes

songbird

Re: The True and the False Infallibility of the Popes