He’s the POPE. He communicates with the Holy Spirit. There sould be no politics about this. The Church is not a Democracy. The POPE is supposed to tell all of us what GOD commands.
The Pope will never receive a new teaching revelation from God that the church must accept. Private revelations never need to be accepted by the Church’s members. All public revelations by God that we must accept were provided by the death of the last apostle.
The pope can clarify and develop teaching infallibly, but he can’t provide completely new teaching or reverse teaching.
You mean the Holy Spirit communicates with him. He might not be listening.
Well, the Pope is not listening to the Holy Spirit. Not all Popes are saints.
Wow...
You infer the Holy Spirit only has ears to hear the Pope alone?
"There should be no politics about this. The Church is not a Democracy... The POPE is supposed to tell all of us what GOD commands.
That's true in one sense, but not true --- or at least no quite adequate --- in another.
Yes, the Pope is supposed to tell us what God commands. That's in the job description for sure.
But he is not an autocrat nor the only shepherd. His authority is at every point superseded by that of Christ,the supreme Authority; and also he is surrounded by that vast crowd of shepherds who came before him, and those shepherds all around him who are called the bishops.
He is, as Christ said, to be feeding and caring for them, and also confirming them: (Luke 22:32) "Confirm (or 'strengthen') the brethren." They too have a shepherdship, and not merely derivative from his: they have their own proper succession from the Apostles as well. The Pope is not to deal with them high-handedly as if they were dependents or franchisees.
This synod has certainly been a sausage-factor-tour for us all --- not always a pretty sight --- but the Holy Spirit will find a way to settle their hash. It may take the intervention of somebody quite outside the box, another St. Catherine of Siena.
As has happened not infrequently in the Church's Providence-rescued past.
Oremus.
“He’s the POPE.”
Yes.
“He communicates with the Holy Spirit.”
And you don’t? Seriously, he has no more of channel TO the Holy Spirit than you or I. The Holy Spirit has a special channel to him, however, in that he is ordained and He protects him when he speaks ex cathedra.
“There sould be no politics about this.”
That only will happen when everyone on the planet is dead. Jesus had to deal with politics. I don’t know why people think it would be any different on this planet after His resurrection.
“The Church is not a Democracy.”
Correct.
“The POPE is supposed to tell all of us what GOD commands.”
Well, the pope is to lead and to clarify. We already know what God commands. He doesn’t command anything new. We have known all along.
That is not what the Catholic Church teaches or believes about the Pope’s authority, or his infallibility.
The Pope does NOT receive personal messages from the Holy Spirit. He can be mistaken in many of his beliefs, and he can govern unwisely and unjustly.
As Cardinal Burke has just affirmed, a Pope can harm the Church.
Sounds a bit tongue-in-cheek and if so, I agree. I think the headline should be, Christianity and Religion Collide...
Actually, we all can and should "communicate" with the Holy Spirit, at least if we are Christians. And the Bible tells us what God commands. Anything the Pope says that is not in line with that authority would make the Pope wrong.