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ROMAN
CATHOLICISM |
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Is the Pope
Infallible In Matters of
Doctrine and Morals? - Part 1
by Dr. John
Ankerberg and Dr. John Weldon |
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The
Catholic Encyclopedia defines the Pope as follows:
The Pope is
the Roman Pontiff who, by divine law, has supreme jurisdiction over
the universal Church (cc. 331-333). He is the supreme superior of all
religious [sic, religions?] (c. 590f.). The Pope may act
alone or with a council in defining doctrine for the universal Church
or in making laws (cf. Infallibility). He is addressed as His Holiness
the Pope. By title and right he is: Bishop of Rome, The Vicar of Jesus
Christ, Successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme
Pontiff, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and
Metropolitan of the Roman province, and Sovereign of the State of
Vatican City. (cf., Apostolic Succession). 1
The Catholic Church teaches
that when the Pope speaks "ex cathedra" (i.e., "from his chair"
or authoritatively, in a formal public statement),2
he is infallible in matters of faith and doctrine. (As we will see
below, the Church also teaches that Catholic bishops may share in his
infallibility.)
Consider
official Catholic teaching on infallibility: it means that church
"doctrine has always been kept undefiled... ever free from all blemish
or error…" 3
Thus, "In its Catholic, doctrinal meaning, infallibility is the end
result of divine assistance given the Church whereby she is preserved
from the possibility and liability to error in teachings on matters of
faith and morals. That infallibility was always present in the Church,
even from apostolic times...."4
Further, Catholicism
maintains that to deny papal infallibility is to risk loss of salvation5
and, that no pope or ecumenical council has ever contradicted one
another: "... never has any Pope officially contradicted what an earlier
Pope officially taught about faith or morals. The same may be said about
ecumenical councils, which also teach infallibly. No ecumenical council
has ever contradicted the teaching of an earlier ecumenical council on
faith or morals."6
Regardless, papal
infallibility was not officially defined and promulgated until July 18,
1870, at the first Vatican Council.7
This was fully 1800 years after the death of the first "pope," Peter—and
one would assume, given papal history—an absolutely heroic act of faith
on the part of the Council. What this means is that for 1870 years the
Church did not teach the pope was infallible. We might ask, along
with Dr. Karl Barth, "Did the Council discover the popes were infallible
before they so carefully read papal history or was it while they were
reading it afterward?"
It should be
noted that within the Council, there were wiser voices. Many protested
and large numbers of other faithful Catholics rejected the doctrine as
well, earning for themselves the title "Old Catholics."8
Despite its
popularity in Rome, papal infallibility is based on a circular argument
sustained solely by papal authority:
That the
papal claims do go beyond Scripture cannot be denied. Herein lies the
difficulty in testing the truthfulness of papal claims.... From the
Roman Catholic point of view, the truthfulness of papal claims rests
upon the authority of papal claims. Stated differently, papal claims
are held to be true, because papal authority claims that they are
true.9
Thus, the
dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus asserted:
It is a
dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff when he speaks ex
cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of Pastor and
Doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority
he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the
Universal Church, by the divine assistance promised him in Blessed
Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine
Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed for defining
doctrine regarding faith or morals.... 10
As the Vicar or official
representative of Christ, the Roman pope has "full, supreme, and
universal power over the Church."11
While the bishops are not
infallible in themselves, they are such when acting together in
agreement with the pope in, e.g., an ecumenical council.12
Vatican II declared "the infallibility promised to the Church resides
also in the body of bishops when that body exercises supreme teaching
authority with the successor of Peter."13 As Keating states,
"The bishops… also teach infallibly on matters of faith or morals. There
have been twenty-one ecumenical councils, and most of them have issued
doctrinal or moral decrees. Those decrees are infallible."14
In essence,
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines the doctrine of papal
infallibility and its implications as follows:
The Doctrine
defines that infallibility is: (1) in the pope personally and solely
as the successor of Saint Peter, (2) in an ecumenical council subject
to confirmation by the pope, (3) in the bishops of the Universal
Church teaching definitively and in union with the pope (cf.
Magisterium of the Church). As such, infallibility does not extend to
pronouncements on discipline and Church policy and by no means
includes impeccability [sinlessness] of the pope or inerrancy in his
private opinions. It is briefly, the assured guarantee of the
unfolding of the apostolic deposit of faith by authority of the Church
whereby Christ’s doctrine must and will be handed on by an infallible
Church guided by the Holy Spirit. It is distinguished from both
biblical inspiration and revelation.
15
However, this
does not mean that non ex cathedra papal pronouncements
necessarily have no authority. For example, papal encyclicals may be
considered divinely authoritative: Catholics are required to accept
their doctrinal teachings. (Encyclicals are circular letters to the
bishops given for the welfare of the church; the best known and most
controversial is by Paul VI, Humanae Vitae (1968), on birth
control.)
The
authority of encyclicals was stated by Pius XII in Humani Generis
(1950): "Nor must it be thought that what is contained in
encyclical letters does not of itself demand assent, on the pretext
that the popes do not exercise in them the supreme power of their
teaching authority. Rather, such teachings belong to the ordinary
magisterium, of which it is true to say, ‘He who hears you, hears me’
(Luke. 10:16)...."16
(to be
continued)
Notes:
1 Robert C. Broderick, ed.,
The Catholic Encyclopedia, rev. and updated (NY: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 1987), p. 479.
2 Ibid., p. 203.
3 Henry T. Hudson, Papal
Power (Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1981),
p. 112.
4 Broderick, ed., p. 292.
5 Hudson, p. 112.
6 Karl Keating,
Catholicism and Fundamentalism, The Attack on "Romanism" by "Bible
Christians" (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1988), p. 219.
7 Broderick, ed., pp. 292,
596.
8 Ibid., p. 434.
9 Hudson, p. 110.
10 H. M. Carson, Dawn or
Twilight? A Study of Contemporary Roman Catholicism (Leicester,
England: InterVarsity Press, 1986), pp. 41-42.
11 Paul G. Schrotenboer,
ed., Roman Catholicism: A Contemporary Evangelical Perspective
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980), p. 51, citing De Ecclesia, p.
22; cf., Broderick, ed., p. 296.
12 Karl Keating, What
Catholics Really Believe—Setting the Record Straight, (Ann Arbor,
MI: Servant, 1992), p. 15.
13 Schrotenboer, p. 52,
citing De Ecciesia, p. 25.
14 Keating, What
Catholics Really Believe..., p. 15.
15 Broderick, ed., p. 292.
16 Ibid., p. 188.
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Copyright 2006, Ankerberg Theological Research Institute
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