Facts On ---- Roman Catholicism -- Chapter Twelve
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#12 The Facts On Roman Catholicism 12. Is the Pope infallible? The Catholic Church teaches that when the Pope speaks, "ex cathedra@
(i.e., "from his chair@
or authoritatively), he is infallible in matters of faith and morals. It is becoming increasingly obvious, in fact, that the dogma of papal
infallibility has no basis either in the Bible or the history of the Church
during the first millennium. If, however, the First Vatican Council was not
free, then neither was it ecumenical. And in that case its decrees have no claim
to validity. So the way is clear to revise this Council and, at the same time,
to escape from a situation which both history and theology find more and more
indefensible. Is this asking too much of the Church? Can it ever admit that a
council erred, that in 1870 Vatican I made the wrong decision? Papal infallibility has never been a credible doctrine. As Carson points out
in his study of contemporary Catholicism, the doctrine of an infallible Pope
and/or Church reasonably assumes that the infallible guide will first of all be
clearly recognizable; second, that this guide will act with reasonable
promptitude in discerning truth from error; and third, that this guide can
never be responsible for leading the Church into error. But in the history
of the Catholic Church, this has not been the case. John Ankerberg & John Weldon |