Not touchy at all. Just a stickler for truth. You apparently believe anybody who criticizes the Bishop of Rome is refusing submission, which is clearly nonsense. Popes must observe the faith like the rest of us. If they don't, they need to be called on it. JPII cannot invent doctrines never before practiced or believed without expecting criticism. He can't pray to false animist gods just to be nice, for instance.
There is a real need for more criticism, not less. Far too many Catholics are like yourself--all too ready to ascribe to the pope divine powers he does not possess, as if his every word and gesture were divinely inspired. But the faith is something handed-down to us by Sacred Tradition, not something invented by a pontiff. In other words, it is our Catholic Tradition which must be guarded at all costs, not every novel papal doctrine that comes down the pike.
So how do we tell the difference? Easy. If the novelty is something which contradicts past ways of acting and believing by the Church, it should be looked at with a jaundiced eye, even if the Pope is teaching it. Here is how the First Vatican Council put it: "For the Holy Spirit was not given to the Successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith." In other words, only papal utterances which guard Tradition have divine protection, novelties do not.
A completely erroneous interpretation of this passage from Vatican I. Is that your personal exegesis or was this fed to you from the pulpit?
The passage says the following.
1) The Holy Spirit has been given to the successor of Peter.
2) The Holy Spirit does not reveal new doctrine.
3)The Holy Spirit assists the successor of Peter.
3)This assistance allows the successor of Peter to guard "the revelation that has been transmitted through the apostles", rather than define new doctrine.
What you would like to twist this into saying is that you get to decide whether Papal utterances are in accord with tradition. That's Protestantism. And you are a Protestant.
Yes truth is good. The truth is the SSPX is in schism.
You apparently believe anybody who criticizes the Bishop of Rome is refusing submission, which is clearly nonsense.
I don’t believe that at all. As I posted previously, I believe he has been lax in disciplining wayward Bishops and Priests.
Popes must observe the faith like the rest of us.
OK. I’m with you on this point.
If they don't, they need to be called on it. JPII cannot invent doctrines never before practiced or believed without expecting criticism.
Here’s where you’re losing me. What doctrines has he invented?
He can't pray to false animist gods just to be nice, for instance.
I don’t pretend to read the heart of the Pope.
Far too many Catholics are like yourself--all too ready to ascribe to the pope divine powers he does not possess, as if his every word and gesture were divinely inspired.
This is pure BS. There’s not a Catholic on these threads who believes this. The Pope is a sinner just like the rest of us. What we do believe is the Charism of his office protects him from teaching error to the Universal Church in matters of Faith and Morals.
But the faith is something handed-down to us by Sacred Tradition, not something invented by a pontiff. In other words, it is our Catholic Tradition which must be guarded at all costs, not every novel papal doctrine that comes down the pike.
No Pope has, can or will put forth a novel doctrine. You are confusing Church discipline, which a Pope can or will change, with dogmatic teaching .
So how do we tell the difference? Easy.
Yes it is easy. I’ll stay in Communion with the Bishop of Rome. Not with someone who thinks he knows better than the Bishop of Rome.
Here is how the First Vatican Council put it: "For the Holy Spirit was not given to the Successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard the revelation transmitted through the apostles and the deposit of faith."
OK. I’ll repeat, you confuse doctrine with discipline.
In other words, only papal utterances which guard Tradition have divine protection, novelties do not.
I understand this. I’m not sure you do.
Papal errors do have divine assistance.
It seems to be possible that a Pope, teaching modo ordinario, might propose a judgment that would have to be corrected afterward, without the whole Church being drawn into error thereby. In such a case, the divine assistance would be enough to assure that the error would be corrected before it was generally accepted by the Church and to prevent the erroneous teaching from becoming the traditional teaching of the Holy See. (F.A. Sullivan, De Ecclesia, I: Quaestiones Theologiae Fundamentalis, Rome: 1963, p. 350)