Tomas
C. Catangay
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that
the Pope has the singular privilege of infallibility. What is this so-called
“Papal Infallibility”? From the book Discourses on the Apostles’ Creed, Clement H.
Crock explains:
“The
term ‘infallibility’, then, as applied by the Catholics to the Pope or to the
supreme teaching authority in the Church, is defined thus: it is that singular
privilege of being preserved from falling into error, or of not leading others
into error, in matters of faith and morals. For the Church to be infallible, it
means that singular privilege of being preserved from all danger of changing
the doctrine of Jesus Christ, or of mistaking the true meaning of what the
Divine Saviour taught, commanded, or forbade to do and believe.” (pp.
203-204)
Papal Infallibility “is that singular privilege of being
preserved from falling into error, or of not leading others into error, in
matters of faith and morals.” The Catholic Church allegedly is preserved
from the peril of changing the doctrine of Christ or of mistaking the true
meaning of what Christ taught to do and believe.
Did the Pope have “infallibility” since the beginning of
the Catholic Church? Dave Hunt, in his book A Woman Rides the Beast, reveals, thus:
“The
bishops well knew that papal infallibility had never been accepted by the
Church but had been repeatedly denied. To accept it now would be to go against
centuries of Church tradition as well as the Scriptures. …
“It
is a fully established fact of history that for many centuries after Christ the
Church had no notion that the Bishop of Rome had the final word on disputes or
he was infallible. Moreover, when the popes began to assert their alleged
infallibility, as we have already seen, they often used it wickedly.
Furthermore, according to a 1987 Time poll, 93 percent of today’s Catholics
hold the opinion that ‘it is possible to disagree with the pope and still be a
good Catholic’. So much for the practical effect of infallibility. No wonder
the Church got along without it for 1800 years.” (pp.132,136)
Papal Infallibility “had been repeatedly denied” by the
Catholic Church. For 1800 years, the Catholic Church went on without this
teaching. This dogma, therefore, could not be traced from the very beginnings
of the Catholic Church. Catholic bishops themselves knew that this teaching “had never been accepted” by their
church.
A mere
invention
When was the Catholic doctrine of
Papal Infallibility formulated? An “eccentric
Franciscan,” Peter Olivi, created it “in
one stroke”:
“Catholic
theologian Hans Kung writes:
“With
regard to the origin of the Roman Doctrine of infallibility…[it] did not slowly
‘develop’ or ‘unfold’, but rather was created in one stroke in the late 1200s
[by] an eccentric Franciscan, Peter Olivi (d. 1298), repeatedly accused of
heresy. At first no one took Olivi’s notion seriously.
…The medieval canonists…had never claimed
that the Church needed an infallible head to preserve its faith. …[And] the
modern critical attack on the principles of infallibility has the backing of
Scriptures and the body of Catholic tradition.” (Ibid., p. 112)
The Catholic doctrine of Papal
Infallibility was only created by Peter Olivi who was repeatedly accused of
heresy. The canonist of the middle ages, on the other hand, had never claimed
that an infallible head was needed by the Catholic Church. In fact, during the
first Vatican Council’s deliberation on the subject infallibility, “ …many
bishops were strongly opposed to affirming infallibility both on scriptural and
traditional grounds. Some left in protest before the final vote was taken and
only affirmed it later under Vatican threats and for the sake of Church unity.
Bishop Lecourtier was so distressed by the fraud that he ‘threw his conciliar
documents into the Tiber and left Rome…’. For that act he was removed from his
bishopric” (Ibid.. p. 133).
The approval of the Papal
Infallibility in 1870 (A Guide to Catholic Reading, (p. 84) was not
the consensus of all the bishops who attended the first Vatican Council. The
majority who opposed the idea were intimidated and coerced by Vatican threats.
For instance, Bishop Lecourtier was removed from his bishopric because, being
so distressed by the fraud surrounding the approval of the Papal Infallibility
doctrine, he threw his conciliar documents into the Tiber.
The
Pope Errs
To uphold Papal Infallibility is to
assert that all the previous Popes did not err in their teachings or official
pronouncements. But the fact is, Pope Adrian VI admitted that the Pope “can err even in matters touching the faith.
He does this when he teaches heresy by his own judgment or decretal. In truth,
many Roman Pontiffs were heretics” (A Woman Rides the Beast, p. 108). Also,
Catholic Church erred in the case of Galileo when it “condemned as formal heresy” Galileo’s scientific teaching that the
sun is the center of the universe (A Catholic Dictionary, p. 205)
Another Pope, John XXII, branded the
Papal Infallibility doctrine as being the work of the devil. Dave Hunt says:
“To
justify contradicting another pope, John produced his Bull Qui quorundam
(1324), a dogmatic assertion of doctrine made to the entire Church and thus
infallible by today’s rules. In it John XXII reviled the doctrine of papal
infallibility as ‘the work of devil’,” (A Woman Rides the Beast, p. 113)
What is truly the rationale behind
Pope Pius IX’s insistence in having the Vatican Council of 1970 promulgate the
Papal Infallibility doctrine?
“There
was a very special reason: Infallibility was the final desperate prop which
Pope Pius IX hope would support the collapsing structure of Roman Catholic
domination over the governments of the world and their citizens.” (Ibid., p.118)
Pope Pius IX thought that the Papal
Infallibility doctrine can prevent the collapse of Catholic domination over the
governments of the world and their citizens; hence, the intimidations and
threats against the majority of bishops who were opposed to the Papal
Infallibility doctrine. Ironically, the dogma failed its purpose. The eventual
collapse of the Catholic Church has been witnessed by Catholic authorities
themselves.
The collapse of the Roman Catholic
Church concerns not only its domination over the governments and their citizens,
but even its ecclesiastical organization and ideological unity. Malachi Martin,
in his book The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Church, says, thus:
“The
most surprising and the most puzzling development in the last twenty years has
been the sudden and undoubted decline of the Church of Rome in its
ecclesiastical organization and ideological unity. The sheer suddenness of this
development makes the decline catastrophic. …
“As
things now stand, there appears to be no reasonable hope that this decline can
be arrested, and no reasonable expectation that the present organizational
structure of this venerable Church can outlive our century. …
“The
relevant statistics and other details are horrendous for the traditional Roman
Catholic mind. When plotted on a graph covering the years 1965-80, the number
of priests, nuns, religious brothers, monks, junior and senior high school
students, private college students, baptisms, conversions, inter-Catholic
marriages, communions, confessions, confirmations—every significant statistic
available—describes a plummeting, non-stop, downward drop. Added to these key
factors are the figures of those Roman Catholics who totally reject Roman
teaching about divorce, contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and Communism.”
(p. 11)
The above cited quotation reveals the
sad state of the Roman Catholic Church in its ecclesiastical organization and
ideological unity. This downward trend, it seems, could not be arrested. The
Church’s eventual collapse is undoubtedly predictable.
Built
upon the wrong foundation
Why is the Roman Catholic Church’s
collapse—which Pope Pius attempted to stop through the formulation of the Papal
Infallibility doctrine—inevitable? According to the parable of the Lord Jesus
Christ, a house without foundation is bound to fall or collapse (Lk. 6:49). The
true Church, is built upon the true foundation stone who is Christ, the chief
cornerstone (Mt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20). This cornerstone, Christ, was rejected
(Acts 4:10-12) by the Catholic Church which opted to recognize another as their
foundation stone. The Catholic Church was built upon Peter whom it recognized
as its cornerstone:
“…Peter
was the rock upon which the Church was to be built. The stability and
permanence of any building depends greatly upon the quality of its foundation.”
(Discourses
on the Apostles’ Creed, p. 216)
We accept that the “stability and permanence of any building depends greatly upon the
quality of its foundation.” That is why we are absolutely sure on the stability
and quality of Christ as the foundation stone of the true Church. The Holy
Scriptures say concerning Christ:
“…A foundation stone, a tested stone.” (Is.
28:16, New
Revised Standard Version)
“…A cornerstone chosen and precious.” (I Pt.
2:6, Ibid.)
On the other hand, what is the
impression of the Catholic authorities themselves concerning Peter whom they
recognize as the foundation stone of their church? Another Catholic authority,
Killian McDonnell says, thus:
“Their
maybe a little conceit in our attachment to Peter. …Peter was a mixture of the
great and the small. He was a man of great loves and little fears, strong in
word and weak in action, wavering between resoluteness and timidity. …It was
the little things that made a coward of him. At one moment he was advancing,
sword in hand, on a cohort of Roman soldiers, at another floundering in
confusion on being questioned by a serving girl.” (The Restless Christian, p. 53)
The Catholic Church is built upon the
wrong foundation. No wonder it is collapsing. And to prevent “the collapsing
structure” of the Roman Catholic Church, the late Pope Pius IX deemed necessary
the approval of the Papal Infallibility doctrine which evidently failed. (:
Referrences:
Attwater,
Donald, ed.
A Catholic
Dictionary,
2nd ed. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1949
Bernard,
Jack F. and John J. Delaney.
A Guide
to Catholic Reading. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1966
Crock,
Rev. Clement H.
Discourses on
the Apostles’ Creed.
New York: Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1938
Hunt,
Dave.
A Woman Rides
the Beast.
Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, 1994
Martin,
Malachi.
The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Church. United States of America: Malachi Martin
Enterprises, Ltd., 1981
McDonnell,
Killian, O. S. B.
The Restless
Christian.
Collegeville, Minnesotta: The Order of St. Benedict Inc., 1957