Papal Infallibility – And Why We Don’t Understand It by David Nacey

“I believe in God, not a Catholic God.” – Pope Francis, 2013

“If someone (a priest) is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” – Pope Francis, 2013

Perhaps no dogma of the Church is as misunderstood as that of Papal Infallibility.  Varying groups of people believe various things about it, and yet almost nobody who raises the issue truly understands it or gets it right.  The non-Catholic will say in his ignorance, “Those Catholics think the Pope is infallible, but we know that all men are sinners, so infallibility is a lie.”  Some Catholics even accept the premise of this ignorant interpretation, namely that the Pope is personally infallible, and the logical consequences of this are disastrous for the Church.  Liberal/progressive Catholics on one extreme will pounce upon every privately expressed opinion of Pope Francis and take it for some new absolute dogma of the faith.  On the other extreme, reactionary elements within the Church will look at events like the interfaith Assisi Prayer Meetings or the placing of images the false Inca goddess Pachamama in the sanctuary of a church and use this to declare the Pope a heretic and thus that he cannot really be the Pope, leading to the schism of sedevacantism, or the idea that there is no longer a true Pope.  So what is missing in nearly everyone’s understanding of Papal Infallibility?  How many times has it been invoked in Church history?  Most importantly for us as practicing Catholics; how are we to react to the obvious errors and willful obfuscations of the Holy Father himself?

At the great First Vatican Council in the year 1870 (which is almost like last week in Church years), the bishops of the world approved the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus, officially promulgating the dogma of Papal Infallibility, clearly defining the term, and placing strict and stringent conditions upon its use and acceptance.  Pastor Aeternus says, in chapter 4:9, that the Pope has "full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church"; and that, when he: 

“speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals.” (chapter 3:9)

Now the term has been defined and delineated.  There can be no “new doctrines”, only the defining of doctrines already held and in current use.  In order for the conditions of infallibility to be met, the Pope himself must first “define a doctrine … to be held by the whole Church”.  When Francis improvises an answer to some reporter that he doesn’t believe in “a Catholic God”, he is clearly not defining a doctrine, for the idea of not believing in a Catholic God goes against the Athanasian Creed, one of the four official creeds of the Church (Nicene, Apostles’, Athanasian, and Chalcedonian).  The Athanasian Creed begins, “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith.”  As such, the Catholic conception of God, and thus the one true God, is the Catholic God.  So rest assured, Francis changed nothing, and with all respect to his person, on his own, even Pope Francis is powerless to change anything at all about the faith.

What about the conditions for infallibility?  As we saw above, there has to already be a doctrine that the Pope is “defining”.  He cannot invent a new doctrine out of whole cloth.  He has to be speaking ex cathedra, or as “shepherd and teacher of all Christians”.  This teaching office is called the magisterium, from the Latin magister, or teacher.  Answering an informal question from an Italian reporter and making off the cuff remarks does not meet the conditions of ex cathedra. Further, the Pope has to be speaking “in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority (my emphasis)”.  The inclusion of the word “apostolic” adds another important limiting distinction.  If the Pope’s authority when invoking infallibility is apostolic, then it must be invoked in concert with something called the solemn magisterium: in other words, by the Pope, along with the assenting bishops (as successors of the Apostles), together with all of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.  That is some set of circumstances, all of which must be present in order for the conditions of infallibility to be met!  

So, exactly how many times has Papal Infallibility been invoked ever since its official declaration as Church dogma in 1870?  Exactly once, 80 years later, when Blessed Pope Pius XII made his dogmatic definition of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he did in consultation with and with agreement from the other bishops in the church, and with his most talented theologians agreeing that there was nothing in Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition which contradicted it.  Everything else any Pope has ever said or done since 1870, from the naming of saints, to making agreements with China, to writing papal encyclicals, to raising priests to the episcopate, to canonizations, to demoting Cardinals, to shutting down churches due to Covid, to punishing priests for expressing their orthodox opinions is part of the Pope's own ordinary magisterium. Even those kinds of official pronouncements are subject, like everything you or I do, to error, sin, and ignorance.  To this end, no less of a holy man than St. Pope John Paul II made a confession every single day of his papacy, and implored God’s forgiveness for any errors he may have made in the exercise of his office, and be assured that he made his share of errors.

This all leads us back to Pope Francis, upon whom we can hopefully now look with a new humanity, a humanity I believe he humbly wants us to embrace.  Our age of instant gratification, 24 hour news cycles, Twitter feeds, and cameras and microphones always on and buzzing and whirling can often leave a person little room for error.  The Pope makes errors, the same way you and I make errors.  Millions of people aren’t hanging on our every word, though, so the Pope’s errors can have serious consequences.  They can sow doubt and confusion among the faithful.  They can engender feelings of frustration and anxiety in practicing doctrinal Catholics, but they can also give fallen away and progressive Catholics false hope of changing doctrines and dogmas, when in fact those are the eternally unchanging and unchangeable fundamental tenets of our faith.  Our duty in times like this is to be in a constant attitude of prayer toward not only the Pope, but also towards our bishops and pastors, who are committing vast errors which are causing much more serious and lasting damage to our local church communities and ministries.  Above all else, let us show prayerful grace and charity towards those of our brothers and sisters who have fallen into error concerning their beliefs and the practice of their faith, always with an eye toward educating them in the truth, and may we have the courage given us by our baptism.

To sum up, Papal Infallibility is nothing to be taken lightly.  It has only been officially invoked once since its official definition in 1870.  It does not refer to everything the Pope says or does. In order for a Pope’s pronouncement to meet the standard of infallibility, it must be made officially, together with all the bishops in consultation, and in step with the eternal teaching of the Church, and may never contradict it in any way.  May the Holy Curé d’Ars, St. John Mary Vianney pray for the Pope, the bishops, our pastors, and us. Amen.

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