Is there a biblical reference for this? I believe David, Abraham and many other of God’s prophets were imprisoned, yet remained God’s voice on earth. To me, it seems pretty black and white .... you either trust in the Lord, or you don’t.
“Is there a biblical reference for this? I believe David, Abraham and many other of God’s prophets were imprisoned, yet remained God’s voice on earth.”
To call the pope “God's voice on earth” perhaps inflates just what the pope is.
The pope is the human governor of the Church on earth. He governs in the stead of Jesus Christ, as a steward. We pray that God gives him grace and the Holy Spirit to help him in his vocation, but beyond that help given by God, the pope is just an ordinary sinner.
It is true that the Holy Spirit protects him from teaching error in an authoritative manner to the universal Church, but that's something of a negative charism. The promise of the Holy Spirit is that he won't teach what is untrue authoritatively and universally. The promise is not that he will teach what is true. The promise is not that he might not err in his capacity as a private theologian. And the promise is certainly not that he is “God's voice on earth.”
He is merely the first minister of God's government on earth.
Like any first minister of any government, should he become incapacitated, it isn't unreasonable that he would step down from his office.
sitetest
I'm on my third yearly reading of the bible and I'm going to say that neither David nor Abraham were ever imprisoned. David was of course on the run for many years after he was annointed king of Israel. King Saul was extremely jealous and wanted him dead so David and his men had to stay on the move and hide out in caves.
I don’t see it this way...they didn’t want Hitler to use the Pope for propaganda purposes is the more likely reason.