> Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 11:20:17 EST
> From: [log in to unmask]
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The Threatened Series - 30
> Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
>
> In a message dated 12/18/1999 8:12:04 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << The truth is, he was wrong. >>
>
> Wait a minute, how can the pope be wrong on a matter of faith? Isn't it
> stated in the doctrine of infallibility the pope is right and has always
> been right?
>
> Mind you, I don't believe in the rule of infallibility one bit, but
thought
> it worth asking.
As the doctrine was stated in the 19th century, the Pope is infallible only
when speaking "ex cathedra" on a matter of faith or morals. In practice,
no Pope has ever spoken "ex cathedra" on a matter of morals, and only
three matters of faith have been so proclaimed: Papal Infallibility, the
Immaculate Conception of Mary, and the Assumption of Mary. So we
have the interesting result that the only matter of any real controversy
within the Catholic Church that has the seal of papal infallibility is the
doctrine of infallibility itself.
As for Pope Honorius, the usual excuse is that he never stated that he
was speaking "ex cathedra" and thus was not infallible in that matter --
in fact, he was promoting a doctrine that most of his successors would
condemn as heretical.
-- David Knott
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