Papal Infallibility

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James relates a conversation with Chris and Heather about papal infallibility. Evidently, Chris quoted me as saying that papal infallibility had only really been invoked twice. James disagrees. I am sure that I did say this. Boy, all that Roman stuff gets foggy. But, I still feel the need to bring clarity to discusssions of Roman Catholicism.

First of all, James is partly right: Ordinatio Sacerdotalis has been declared infallible by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect for the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith. Within Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, his holiness Pope John Paul II calls on the unbroken witness of the church, affirms that he is speaking on a matter of faith and morals, and invokes the authority of the chair of St. Peter (i.e., he is speaking ex cathedra). These are the requirements set down by the First Vatican Council for a papal declaration to be infallible. Thus, for most thinking Roman Catholics, this and Cardinal Ratzinger’s affirmation together make it fairly clear that this document is indeed infallible.

As an aside, I find it interesting that the Pope himself did not explicitly invoke infallibility, which was done in the case of the definitions of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, if I recall correctly. It may be that the philosophical background of the Pope is peeking through his papal authority, and he is uncomfortable invoking infallibility with regard to his own encyclicals, preferring instead to let the Church — with the full weight of that word as reaffirmed by Vatican II to include all of the people of God — affirm whether it is indeed infallible.

When I mentioned the two number — which I vaguely remember doing — I was probably thinking that only the encyclicals defining the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption explicitly invoked papal infallibility.

After reading James’ blog, I researched further the arguments for infallibility in Humanae Vitae, the much-discussed encylical on human life and specifically forbidding the use of artificial contraception. I found an interesting discussion of it, which concludes that it does indeed meet the criteria of infallibility. However, the Lerinian doctrine of “universality, antiquity, and consent” is the foundation of papal infallibity, and absolutely necessary for any supposedly infallible statement is to be accepted as such by the hoi polloi. For me, the jury is still out on that one. Need to do more research in the Fathers. Some Orthodox priests — most with far more experience reading the Fathers than I — say No.

In any case, the two number is overly simplistic, but it is still the standard teaching in RCIA, the Roman Catholic catechism for adults. I am, of course, well aware that the issues are far more complicated than that. Being a philosopher and a “theological retard,” as Bert (Athanasius) so eloquently puts it, make it impossible for me to see — or say — anything simply.

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