Papal Infallibility – #1
The dogma of papal infallibility is one of the issues that provoke the most reactions about the Catholic Church, mainly from those who oppose it.
Image Source
This often comes from misunderstanding what the Catholic Church means by papal infallibility.
Generally, the most common mistake regarding this issue is confusing infallibility with impeccability. Because the Pope has the gift of infallibility, he can only make mistakes in some things he does or says. Nevertheless, that is different from how it works and what infallibility means.
Let us start by understanding what infallibility is NOT:
As already said, infallibility could be impeccable.
The Pope is a human being who can make mistakes and sins like any of us. The exercise of free will in Christian Theology is applicable to EVERYONE; therefore, everyone, including the Pope, must be free to accept or reject Christ for themselves.
Christ Giving the Keys to Saint Peter by Pietro Perugino - Image Source
If God made the Pope infallible in the total sense of the word, He would be depriving him of his free will. Therefore, there is no guarantee that Popes will not sin or set a bad example. Some Popes lived scandalously.
Happily, the number of Popes who were Saints is much greater, but even if there were terrible Popes, this does not exclude the fact that they were endowed with the gift of infallibility.
Therefore, as we will understand later, there are well-defined criteria for the Pope to exercise his infallibility. Infallibility is linked to his position and not his person.
Another essential point is that papal infallibility does not mean divine inspiration.
It is incorrect to think that because of infallibility, Popes are automatically given an extraordinary power or grace that helps them teach infallibly. This needs to be clarified with inspiration.
Saint Peter's Repentance by Guido Reni - Image Source
This issue is understood more easily when we realize that while inspiration gives information, infallibility protects the information.
Infallibility does not provide the Pope with the information he needs to teach. That comes from his efforts to study and understand the deposit of the Faith.
However, it does guarantee that when he formally teaches the doctrines of the Faith, he will do so without committing heresy.
The only Pope who was inspired and received direct Revelation from God to be given to the entire Church was the Apostle Saint Peter.
Everyone else who followed Peter and sat in his chair had to teach the hard way: by studying and learning first and only then being able to teach.
To be continued...
Bibliography; History of the Popes by Dr. Agostino Saba and Carlo Castiglioni
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Hey, take it easy... But just argues, the bible was formulated on sec IV by emperor constantine on nicae's council, where they gathered what texts from middle east history would be considerated canonical, so there are apocryphal text, like the infancy gospel of Jesus, because the part of age from 13 to 30 is left outside of bible...
But anyway... There are many others that is tough to know if there are pseudo-epigraphies. However there are interesting discoveries like the dead sea scrolls, that is the main discovery from museums on christianity, and are old manuscripts from these same tales... There is also the nag hammadi library with many texts like that...
But so, all that makes wonder why others texts from the same origin from these cultures are not told... Like "the epic of atrahasis", that tells the story of the flood, and Noa building Arc... But its an akkadian tale, where it surged language and math (well, or at least we don't know what could have existed before that by material findings), which is older than egypt and babylon mythologies... And there are others taoist tales (that is derived from buddhism) that tells similar stuffs... Im just saying that because I read a lot about religion in general lol and there is a lot Im not telling, but I can share my view of god later... Anyway, I don't expect any repply on that...
https://peakd.com/hive-177682/@marianaemilia/did-emperor-constantine-create-the-bible
Hi... Hey, I don't want to turn your posts into some kinda of fundamentalist debate lol... Thats why Im writting in some previous post...
But so, I may have talked some nonsense and be wrong in some aspects that Idk, and thats all right...
But so, its said on your text that there is this list of pope damasus, well, these are similar dates from theses previous councils with same intention (to formulate whats part of christian history...), it seens influential. Yo, don't take me wrong, I like Jesus history and I see many others quotes on him from different cultures... And I like some canonical books...
I like thoses talks...
Ok, my view on God is... Im a pantheistic, which means there is some primal conscious that designed the universe (God), that justifies all the order that exist with physical/universal laws, etc... and stuffs that we don't know but we know that follows some natural order... Cause its known by science that the universe is moving in expansion, so by physics laws there was some bigger force that set everything in motion, and for that force we could call God... Could relate to the big bang theory, but still gets in the question of how out of some explosion, that normally generates chaos, so much order was created from it. (thats a bit similar from the christian "intelligent design"). Still would go into some intangible debate of what can be proved or not and what is outside of matter too that are not explained by that, like consciousness, thoughts/intelligence, emotions...
But so, I saw you also quoted gnosticism at your's recent post... The sophia tale of creation its an interesting one... At least entretaining... If you want to see some sick conspiracy tale I would recommend the "critias" text from Plato... Thats insane!! (Hey, no need to upvote this talk...). Have a good day
Hello dear, @dstampede. Peace and good. I still remember you. I will soon write a text to demonstrate to you how Pantheism is nonsense, and I hope to convince you to abandon this belief. I am convinced that all those who sincerely seek the truth, even without faith, should, through the rational path, convert to the Catholic Church. God bless you.
Hi, Mary Emily. Nice that you care, you are a good person (me too)... But take it easy lol...
But so, you gonna have a lot of trouble with that, einstein used to say he believed in the same God of spinoza... Although no religion is credited to him, its the nearest "philosophy"... Elon musk says the same on some talks... You'd have to be veeery persuasive to convince these people...
But worry not, when I meant God as a primal source of creation, I meant to say its also a source that englobes all good feelings, into some esoteric hermetic "law of polarity" perspective where everything has its counter balance, God is the side of truth, fairness, love, freedom...
I train my faith every day, its a nice practice... But you know, don't you already have everything you want?! Have a good day!