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Q: There was a lecture at our parish and the guest-speaker said something in passing about the Pope making infallible decisions. He claimed that it has only happened twice in history! Do you know what he was talking about? I don’t know if this is even a canon-law question or not… –Kay A: This is indeed a canon-law question, since canon law (as we have seen numerous times before in this space) is driven by theology. Whenever an issue arises about who in the Church has the authority to do what, it’s generally safe to assume that canon law is...

Page 349: "The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error. The assumption of infallibility, moreover, is based not so much on superior intelligence as on the correct interpretation of the essentially reliable forces in history or nature, forces which neither defeat nor ruin can prove wrong because they are bound to assert themselves in the long run. Mass leaders in power have one concern which overrules all utilitarian considerations: to make their predictions come true."

The Syllabus of the principal errors of our time, which are stigmatized in the Consistorial Allocutions, Encyclicals, and other Apostolical Letters of our Most Holy Lord, Pope Pius IX. I.— PANTHEISM, NATURALISM, AND ABSOLUTE RATIONALISM. 1. There exists no supreme, most wise, and most provident divine being distinct from the universe, and God is none other than nature, and is therefore subject to change. In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God, and have the very substance of God. God is therefore one and the same thing with the world, and thence...

I am reading a conversion story and apologetical book called An Invitation Heeded published at the end of the 1800s with a view to editing it for re-publication by the Coming Home Network. In the chapter on infallibility the author makes the very good point that rather than the Catholic Church's stance on infallibility being nonsensical, it is the churches who deny infallibility that are absurd. The essential Protestant position is, "Our church is merely a human institution. It is not infallible." And yet they demand allegiance of the faithful to the beliefs and moral teachings of their church. But...

  Recently, Rod Dreher posed a question about what a Catholic is to do when he thinks a magisterial authority has made some error of fact concerning, say, science, politics, or economics. Dreher's post concerns the question of whether some bishops are mistaken to think morning-after pills are abortifacient, but it could just as easily pertain to some bishop holding forth on farm subsidies, water quality in the Columbia River, the violence in Gaza, or the output of Hollywood.   What concerns Dreher is how a Catholic walks the line between paying attention to what the bishops have to say...

One idea that I have tried to understand but cannot possibly fathom is the failed concept of American liberalism. While deceivingly free and independent, this traitorous definition of "equality" champions abolishment in place of opportunity, and resides on the sole principle that each should put in according to his ability, yet that each should receive according to his need. In an ideal, Utopian-like society without original sin, this idea could become reality. But in a world (like the one we live in) where this kind of society is blatantly unachievable, American liberalism shows its inability to keep in touch with...

The Catholic Church’s teaching on papal infallibility is one which is generally misunderstood by those outside the Church. In particular, Fundamentalists and other "Bible Christians" often confuse the charism of papal "infallibility" with "impeccability." They imagine Catholics believe the pope cannot sin. Others, who avoid this elementary blunder, think the pope relies on some sort of amulet or magical incantation when an infallible definition is due. Given these common misapprehensions regarding the basic tenets of papal infallibility, it is necessary to explain exactly what infallibility is not. Infallibility is not the absence of sin. Nor is it a charism...

"It is beyond question that he [the pope] can err even in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgment or decretal. In truth, many Roman Pontiffs were heretics." --Pope Adrian VI, 1523 (last non-Italian pope before John Paul II)The question to thoughtful Roman Catholics: Clearly Pope Adrian was speaking about faith and morals. Was his statement authoritative, or heretical? Regarding papal infallibility the current-day Roman Catholic Church says: "The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher...

Hello everyone, its been an interesting few days. I had no idea my post about the family used by democrats to push for expansion of the S-CHIP program would cause such a stir. There have been many questions and comments raised about me and my simple Google research that I thought I'd deal with them all on this post if it's ok with the Mods. My interest in the S-CHIP issue came about because of the way it's portrayed in the media. President Bush's veto was of an EXPANSION of this health insurance program to include higher income families. It...

COULTER SPOTTED FOX IN THE HENHOUSE The Liberal “Doctrine Of Infallibility”: ReduxOctober 25, 2006 You have to hand it to Ann Coulter...when she depanties disingenuous liberal hypocrisy; nothing is left to the imagination. In chapter five of her bestseller, Godless: The Church of Liberalism, Coulter lays out the liberal “Doctrine of Infallibility”.  As Coulter explains it, “Finally, the Democrats hit on an ingenious strategy: They would choose only messengers whom we’re (Conservatives) not allowed to reply to”.  Coulter continues that, “All the most prominent liberal spokesmen are people with ‘absolute moral authority’—Democrats with a dead husband, a dead child...a terminal illness....” And so,...

I received this question: How should a person who seeks the truth act in a period when bad Popes are reigning, as, for example, during such a time in the Renaissance? Infallibility in the Extraordinary Papal Teaching This question is not very difficult to answer in terms of Catholic doctrine. The source of truth is Revelation, that is Scriptures and Tradition. The Catholic Magisterium gives us the correct interpretation of Revelation. The Popes are infallible only when they teach a doctrine ex cathedra, when they officially invoke their prerogative of infallibility over that doctrine. In such a case, one cannot...

B. The Secondary Speculative Message: Truths Guaranteed PrudentiallyTwo conditions are required in order that a truth, whether representing a doctrine or a fact, shall be an object of divine faith. First, it must be really included in the revealed deposit, and in addition to this it must be proposed absolutely and irreformably by the Church. But there is a vast field of truths lacking the second or even the first of these conditions, and yet so closely connected with the truths of the faith that human thought cannot refuse them without the more or less immediate and more or less...

The Church of The Incarnate Word Charles Cardinal Journet (b. 1891 d. 1975) Selections From Chapter VIII, Excursus VIII: Election of a Pope (5) Validity and certitude of election. The election, remarks John of St. Thomas, may be invalid when carried out by persons not qualified, or when, although effected by persons qualified, it suffers from defect of form or falls on an incapable subject, as for example one of unsound mind or unbaptized. But the peaceful acceptance of the universal Church given to an elect as to a head to whom it submits is an act in which the...

The Local Church of Rome By Joseph Clifford Fenton According to the divine constitution of Our Lord's kingdom on earth, membership in that kingdom, the universal Church militant, normally involves membership in some local or individual brotherhood within the universal Church. These individual brotherhoods within the Catholic Church are of two kinds. First there are the various local Churches, the associations of the faithful in the different individual regions of the earth. Then there are the religiones, assemblies of the faithful organized unice et ex integro for the attainment of perfection on the part of those who are admitted into...

"We are bound to be diligently watchful after the manner of a vigilant Shepherd and to ensure most carefully that certain people who consider the study of the truth beneath them should be driven out of the sheepfold of Christ and no longer continue to disseminate error from positions of authority." "6. In addition, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define:-] that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid...

"Why Doesn't Pope John Paul II DO Something About the Modernist Dissenters in the Catholic Church?" The role of the pope is much different, ecclesiologically and strategically, from the role of a local bishop. Pope John Paul II is most definitely effecting positive long-term change by forcefully teaching truth, promulgating the Catechism and various reforms, of schools, of architecture, of moral teaching, etc. The damage of liberalism has been so profound that one must look at cures in terms of decades and generations, not "right now" (as in a certain perfectionist and utopian mindset). A major reason (if not the...