Infallibility - what it is and what it isn't

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old school friend, who still attends the Baptist church that we attended as teenagers, recently asked me, as a Catholic, to explain Papal Infallibility. As part of his question, he linked the following article providing a not unusual apologetic against the Catholic Church’s teaching on this topic:

http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=2594

I responded in two parts to my friend – the first part explaining what the Catholic Church actually teaches about Papal Infallibility (which follows below); and the second part was my response to Moises Pinedo’s article, which you can view by clicking here.

Papal Infallibility is often misunderstood by Protestants. Many Protestants think that Papal Infallibility means that the Pope can’t sin (that’s not infallibility; that’s impeccability); others think that it means that the Pope cannot believe or teach heresy in any way, shape, or form. Both of these notions are incorrect.

To start with, it’s important to understand that the doctrine of Papal Infallibility doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Rather, it exists within the context of a broader understanding of the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ.

Christ entrusted His Church with the threefold office of teaching, governing, and sanctifying. In respect of the teaching office (or Magisterium), Christ who is the Truth, in His grace blessed the Church with a share in His infallibility. He did this to fulfil His promise that He would remain with and preserve His Church with the purity of faith handed down from by the Apostles. In this gift, we also see the goodness of God who gives us as Christians an objective guarantee of being able to profess the true faith without error.

So that this role of the Magisterium could be fulfilled, Christ has blessed the Church with the gift of infallibility when it definitively makes declarations regarding matters of faith and morals.

The key thing to understand here is that the Church’s infallibility is completely and utterly a gift of God’s grace.

There are a few ways in which this infallible teaching office, or Magisterium, can be exercised. One of them is when the Church gathers in an Ecumenical Council. The other is in reference to the Bishop of Rome, as the Successor of St. Peter (the Rock upon whom Christ built His Church and gave the keys of the kingdom) and the visible head (or representative) of Christ (who is the true Head of the Holy Catholic Church). The infallibility “enjoyed” by the Bishop of Rome (or the Pope) is limited only to statements that he makes “Ex Cathedra” or “from the Chair” (of St. Peter to be precise). In these statements, and these statements alone, is he guaranteed to be preserved by the Holy Spirit from teaching error.

There are certain conditions required for a Papal statement to be considered as “Ex Cathedra”, but without going into depth regarding these, suffice it to say that it MUST be clear to everybody that it is the intention of the Pope that he is making a definitive “Ex Cathedra” statement.

With this in mind, it is clear that the personal writings or opinions of any given Pope are not infallible. Pope Benedict XVI, in his first book on “Jesus of Nazareth”, admitted as much when he said that his book was “in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my [i.e. Josef Ratzinger’s] personal search for the face of the Lord”.

In this way, when Popes express their personal views on anything they are just as infallible as the next person. That’s not to say that he won’t get it right...but, it’s also not to say that he won’t get it wrong.

Whilst the Church doesn’t adhere to a doctrine of Sola Scriptura (the Bible alone), it does adhere to the doctrine of Sola Verbum Dei (the Word of God alone). Unlike Protestants, Catholics believe that the Word of God is not limited to Scripture, but Scripture certainly plays an extremely important role in the life of the Church. And since God is One, and there is only One Truth, it is impossible for any teaching of the Catholic Church to be contrary to Sacred Scripture. The reason Protestants don’t see this is because they interpret the Bible differently to Catholics. In addition, not only does Catholic doctrine not contradict Scripture, but based on the correct interpretation of Scripture (the same interpretation used by the Church since the time of the Apostles, through the Early Church Fathers, up until today) it can be shown that all Catholic doctrine has a basis in Scripture. In respect of the infallibility of the Church, consider the following texts:

• Matt 16:17 – St. Peter’s profession of faith; which was revealed to Him by the Father – this is not unlike what the Catholic Church continues to teach regarding the Successor of Peter – that when he makes a definitive statement regarding faith, he is enlightened by God to do so.
• Matt 28:18-20 – Jesus promised that He would remain with the Church until the end of the ages. And we would both agree that the Lord Jesus would have no union with heretics (e.g. Rev 2 & 3). If this is true, and Jesus Christ never left His Church, then the Church never fell into heresy (despite what the Protestant Reformers thought).
• John 14:16, 25; 16:13 – Jesus told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with the Church FOREVER and guide the Church into ALL truth...the Protestant view which says the Catholic Church fell into heresy basically implies (whether it wants to or not) that Jesus lied on both these points.
• Jn 11:49-51 – Ananias is granted the gift of true prophecy even though his intentions were not good. Interestingly, St. John ties this gift to his office as high priest.

Now, I suppose the claim can be made that Catholics are misinterpreting these (and other) passages of Scripture. So, how do we know what the Apostles meant when they penned the New Testament? Well, we go the witness of their disciples, the Church Fathers...and what do we see? The same thing i.e. that the interpretation followed by the Catholic Church today remains faithful to the tradition and interpretation handed down to the Fathers by the Apostles:

“For the Lord received anointing on His head in order that He might breathe incorruptibility on the Church. Do not be anointed with the evil odour of the teachings of the prince of this world...” – St. Ignatius, AD110

[Notice that the incorruptibility Christ breathed on His Church is in the context of, and in contrast to, the false teachings of the prince of this world.]

“But since it would be too long to enumerate the succession [from the Apostles] of all churches, we shall here point out the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organised at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul....For with this Church [i.e. with the Church of Rome], because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her [i.e. the Church of Rome] that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition.” – St. Irenaeus, AD180

“Grant, then, that all have erred; that the Apostle was mistaken in bearing witness; that the Holy Spirit had no such consideration for any one Church as to lead it into truth, although He was sent for that purpose by Christ, who had asked the Father to make Him the Teacher of truth; that the Steward of God and Vicar of Christ neglected his office, and permitted the Churches for a time to understand otherwise and to believe otherwise than He Himself had preached through the Apostles: now, is it likely that so many and such great Churches should have gone astray into a unity of faith?” – Tertullian, AD200

“With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of Peter and to the principal Church [i.e. Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its source; nor did they take thought that these are Romans, whose faith was praised by the preaching Apostle, and among whom it is not possible for perfidy to have entrance.” – St. Cyprian, AD252

In the understanding of the Church Fathers, the Church of Jesus Christ which had descended from the Apostles, by way of Apostolic Succession, was (and is) not able to fall into heresy. Not because the Church is so wonderful; but rather because of her infallible Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, who promised that He would be with His Bride throughout all the ages, protecting her and nourishing her. To deny the doctrine of the infallibility of the Magisterium of the Church is nothing less than to deny the gracious gift that Jesus Christ has given His Most Holy Bride.

A Simple Primer to Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina – if you are Catholic, you have no doubt at least heard the phrase somewhere along the way. But I wonder how many of us know what it means, how to practice it, and just how naturally it should come to us.

Until recently, I was one of those Catholics. I had heard of it...and I knew a bit about it as a form of contemplative prayer based on the Scriptures. But I had no idea how to REALLY practice it, and I certainly didn’t realise how natural it should be for me as a Catholic. That was until I heard a talk by Dr Brandt Pitre entitled “The Bible and the Spiritual Life”. What Dr Pitre shared was so simple, yet so profound, that it would be wrong for me not to share it.

What is Lectio Divina?

“Lectio Divina” is Latin for “divine reading”. With roots stretching back to the earliest days of the Church, it is a form of prayer which is practised with the use of the Sacred Scriptures in “stages”, or as a ladder, in order to bring us to the point of contemplative union with the Divine Author who not only gave us the Word of God, but who is also Himself the Word of God in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

How does one practice Lectio Divina?

[For this part, I am going to take for granted that we all know that Lectio Divina (or any form of prayer for that matter) isn’t some kind of magical formula. Rather, for Lectio Divina to be fruitful, we should put aside sufficient time to spend in the Word and in prayer. Seeking a quiet place with little or no distractions is a no-brainer. And most obviously, I assume that we all know that without the light and guidance of the Holy Spirit, our efforts would be pointless – so beginning with a simple prayer asking for the Spirit’s guidance is a given.]

The practice of Lectio Divina takes place in four stages:

1)      Lectio (Reading) – in this stage, the Word of God is simply read. It is usually best to start with short passages. As a suggestion, reading the Gospel passage in preparation for Mass is a great place to start. Read slowly and thoughtfully. It is usually a good idea to read the passage a few times because we get easily distracted without even being aware of it. By reading a passage through a few times, we will gain a better feel for the whole, and often pick up on things we may have missed in previous readings.

 

2)      Meditatio (Meditation) – in this stage, we ask questions of the passage we have read. What point is the author trying to make? How does this apply to me? How should I respond? Etc., etc., etc. The Holy Spirit will use questions like these to open our eyes and helps us to see what we need to do in our own lives so that we can become more conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

3)      Oratia (Prayer) – in this stage, we talk to God about the passage we have read. We ask God for His grace to help us make the changes we need to make. It is important to be completely honest with God in our prayer. So often, we think that we need to pray in a certain way using censored words – and if we don’t, then we aren’t being holy enough.  Well, God knows our hearts and our needs before we even ask, so there is no point hiding. If you are feeling frustrated or angry – then tell God about it. He is our Heavenly Father, and He loves us. Like any loving earthly father, He wants His dear children to come to Him openly and honestly.

 

4)      Contemplatio (Contemplation) – in this stage, once we have prayed to God and spoken to Him, we need to take time to be still and listen for His voice – the still small voice of God speaking to our hearts, communing with our souls. After we have climbed the first three rungs of the ladder (Lectio, Meditatio, Oratio), God takes the final step when He climbs down the ladder to unite Himself to us, and we behold His glory with the eyes of faith.

 

As you can see, Lectio Divina is not some “higher calling” reserved only for “spiritual giants”. It is a simple method of prayer that even the least of us lay faithful can practice with great success. It is natural, because it follows the pattern of dialogue – something that we engage in every day. And to top it off, like the icing on the cake, it is a great way for Catholics to get to know their Bibles better.

Even with the naturalness of dialogue aside, as Catholics (especially as Catholics), practising Lectio Divina is something that we should be very comfortable with because Lectio Divina mirrors another great prayer that we pray so often that we tend to take it for granted. You guessed it...Lectio Divina mirrors the greatest prayer – the prayer of all prayers – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Think about it...

Mass begins with the Liturgy of the Word where the Scriptures are read and we listen (Lectio). What follows is a meditation when the Word of God is opened up and explained in the Homily (Meditatio). After the Homily, we move into the Prayers of the Faithful (Oratia). And finally, the summit of the Mass is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where Christ comes to make His Communion with us (Contemplatio).

Hopefully looking at Lectio Divina in this simple, familiar, and profound way will encourage us all to take up the Sacred Scriptures and seek to deepen our walk with the Lord in this Year of Faith.

On a final note, and certainly not the least important, I need to add that the best way to learn how to practise Lectio Divina is in the school of Mary. We are told a few times in Sacred Scripture that Mary pondered the things of Christ in her heart. Mary is the model of contemplative communion with the Lord Jesus, so who better to teach us how to “do whatever He tells you”.

The Mass - Fire from Heaven

One of the beauties of studying Sacred Scripture is that the more we meditate upon God as He has revealed Himself to us, the deeper into truth He draws us...and the deeper we go, the more we realise just how unfathomable are the depths of the knowledge of God. Which is one reason why spending an eternity in Heaven learning and loving God will NEVER be boring.

My blog post last week  explored the topic of how Abel knew that his sacrifice was acceptable to God (i.e. by the visible sign of fire from heaven). In my blog, I touched on a New Testament fulfilment of this in the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire on Pentecost. Based on a subsequent comment on my blog post by a reader (and fellow-blogger),  I would like to explore a bit more just how much significance this has for us Catholics today – so much so that it impacts the grind and routine of our everyday lives.

I pointed out in my previous blog that the Holy Spirit was the fire which descended from Heaven on Pentecost to declare the acceptability of the Apostles and to empower them for their mission. But the Holy Spirit did not descend and remain only during the lifetime of the Apostles. Before His ascent back to Heaven, Jesus taught His disciples that although He was leaving them (in one sense) He would always remain with His Church until the end of the ages (Matt 28:20). Now there are many ways in which Jesus remains with His Church – the primary way obviously being His Presence in the Most Holy Eucharist. However, there are also many other ways in which He remains with us. One of these is in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Before going to His Passion, Jesus told the Apostles that He would not leave His Church comfortless but that He would send the Great Comforter – the Holy Spirit – to lead and guide His Church into all truth (Jn 14:16-26).

As we know the Holy Spirit was definitively poured out on the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday as tongues of fire rested upon each of their heads. And so began their mission to build the Church of Christ. But what happened when the Apostles died? Did their ministry cease? Not at all! For example, St. Paul instructed Sts. Timothy and Titus to ordain faithful men to continue the Apostolic mission, just as they themselves had been ordained (2 Tim 2:2; Tit 1:5). Part of this entailed the laying on of hands. Just as the Apostles had passed on the Holy Spirit and their authority to their immediate successors through the laying on of hands (1 Tim 4:14), so their successors were instructed to do the same. And thus arose the Church’s teaching of Apostolic Succession.

I mention this because it is necessary to understand that every Mass around the world is offered by someone who has been ordained with the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. Which is why we don’t need to have a literal “Pentecost experience” (i.e. fire from heaven, etc.) every single time someone is ordained. This isn’t unusual in the Scriptures either. For example, it was only the first Temple sacrifice that was consumed by fire from Heaven – the rest of the burnt offerings were no less acceptable to God, although they were not subject to the same miraculous circumstances. 

Understanding this, we can now take the next step to see how Abel’s sacrifice relates to us lay people who populate the pews. For this, I would like to look at the Epiclesis i.e. that part of the Eucharistic Prayer which is offered after the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy...). Here is citation from one of the Eucharistic Prayers, which will no doubt be familiar to many of us:
 

“You are indeed Holy, O Lord,
the fount of all holiness.
Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray,
by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall,
so that they may become for us
the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ...”
- Eucharistic Prayer II

In this prayer we notice that the priest (who has received a special charism of the Holy Spirit through ordination) speaks on our behalf when asking the Father to send down the Holy Spirit to make holy the gifts offered upon the altar. In another form, Eucharistic Prayer I, the Epiclesis is phrased in words asking God to accept the gifts offered on the altar [keep in mind here the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice]. 

What are the gifts offered on the altar? Simply answered they are bread and wine, fruit of the earth and work of human hands – but the bread and wine symbolise so much more than simple bread and wine. In another previous blog, I showed that these gifts of bread and wine symbolise us, all that we are and have. It is through the Eucharist that we present ourselves – all our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings – as living sacrifices to God; and by receiving the Lord Jesus in Communion, we are in turn conformed to His image. And so, just as the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, all the things that we bring to the altar in the Holy Mass – whether it is our family, our work, our struggles, whatever it might be – is united to Christ so that these same things are transformed so that we can become more like Our Blessed Lord.  

Now to bring this back full-circle to the topic at hand...

In the Mass, we offer ourselves on the altar as living sacrifices, but it is the Holy Spirit that makes our offerings holy and acceptable to God; and it is the Holy Spirit that transforms us more and more to be like Christ through the same Eucharist [have a read of Rom 12:1-2 in this light; it is quite awe-inspiring].

The sacrifices of Abel and a few others in the Old Testament were shown to be accepted by fire descending from Heaven. The Holy Spirit descending as tongues of fire from Heaven on Pentecost was a fulfillment of this. But the fulfillment is also ongoing, because whatever we offer up during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is made acceptable by Holy Spirit descending (like He did on Pentecost) to transform our gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ.

If the Epiclesis, which represents only a very small portion of the whole Mass, is so full and rich and relevant to us; how much more so are all the rest of the parts of the Mass? If ever we are tempted to think that Mass is boring and irrelevant to our daily lives – hopefully remembering something this “small” will serve to convince us otherwise...and hopefully it will serve as an encouragement to learn more deeply the beauty and truth contained in the Church's liturgy.

 

POST-SCRIPT:

As mentioned above, this blog was inspired by a comment from a reader of my previous blog on Abel’s sacrifice (Renee of forgettheroads.com). So, I am indebted to Renee for helping me to make the connection between two profound truths – and seeing in another way just how beautifully and intricately related all the truths of our Catholic faith are. So, thank you Renee – and God bless!

By the way, I have included the link to Renee’s blog above because it is certainly worth a read...