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To: Bulwyf
Yes, the pope is the head of the Church, but there are good popes and bad popes, just as there are good presidents and bad presidents.

Moreover, it is not the teaching of the Church that the pope is, generally speaking, infallible. Only on those vanishingly rare occasions when he was speaking ex cathedra. That was was twice in the last couple hundred years.

Even in these cases, he can't contradict what other popes have definitively taught, going back to Peter and the Apostles. He hasn't the authority.

So Pope Francis' whack-a-doodle opinion on anything you care to name, -- diplomacy, economics, climatology and even his theological opinions---- are not received as dogma.

So in terms of actual dogma, we're protected from goofball opinions: even the pope's.

I'm grateful you gave me the opportunity to clear that up.

105 posted on 01/27/2019 5:06:18 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o
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