Papal Infallibility
From Conservapedia
Papal Infallibility is the Roman Catholic dogma that the Pope is unable to err when he teaches on a certain question of faith or morals.
In order for a teaching by the Pope to be infallible, certain conditions must be fulfilled, as most recently established by the First Vatican Council in 1871:
"...when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable."[1]
To break down the four different conditions set out here, the Pope must...:
- ...be teaching "ex cathedra" as the head and shepherd of the Church.
- ...explicitly make it clear that he "defines" the teaching, such as through a specific phrase or formula. ("...we pronounce, declare, and define...")[2]
- ...be teaching on a question of "faith and morals", as opposed to e.g. a question of canon law.
- ...and it must be a teaching "to be held by the whole Church", such as expressed through a declaration of excommunication on those who refuse the teaching. ("Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.")[3]
In the language of the Catholic Church, these conditions are very specific, and only a few papal teachings are actually considered infallible. Indeed, only one dogma is usually considered to have been taught infallibly by the Pope since the First Vatican Council, that of the Assumption of Mary which was taught in 1950. Certain other historical teachings by past Popes are similarly considered infallible.
In spite of this, papal infallibility is often misunderstood by the general public, who think that it means the Pope is always free of error, or that he is even free of sin, neither of which is actually the case.
References
- ↑ First Vatican Council, Session 4: First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, chapter 4, paragraph 9
- ↑ Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus Defining the Dogma of the Assumption, paragraph 44
- ↑ Ibid., par. 45
