[xzins]

So you consider appointing your 17 year old illegitimate son to be a cardinal is a sign of openness to divine guidance?

[sitetest]

Dear xzins,

No. The appointment of cardinals is not an infallible action. There is no promise of infallibility, no promise of protection against bad decisions by the Holy Spirit.

That's why it's better to elect a good man as pope than a scoundrel, in that most of what the pope does isn't implicated in the doctrine of infallibility. We do believe that the pope has available to him the counsel of the Holy Spirit in all that he does, but he doesn't have the protection of the Holy Spirit against sin and error in the wide range of actions he must take on a daily basis that have nothing to do with the exercise of the charism of infallibility.

Thus, it's far preferable to elect a good man as pope, as he will be more open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all matters, while the bad man will likely spurn that guidance.

But in matters that touch on infallibility, we trust in the Holy Spirit, not the man.


sitetest

[DarkSavant]

So you consider appointing your 17 year old illegitimate son to be a cardinal is a sign of openness to divine guidance?

It's in matters of the doctrines of the FAITH the pope is infallible. As has been said a million times here on FR.

*Anyone have that "not this sh*& again picture handy?*

[Andrew Byler]

sign of openness to divine guidance?

Infallibility is not an openness to divine guidance but the Holy Spirit preventing the comission of error in teaching. A Pope does not have to be in tune with the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit to do His work. Infallibility does not make the Pope wise, smart, judicious, well-meaning or any other good thing. It simply prevents him from binding the Church to erroneous teaching.