The Papacy
Jesus is the Head of the Church
16 For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
The power of the papacy comes from, represents, and is for Jesus, who is the living Head of the Church. Jesus uses the papacy as an instrument to achieve His purposes for His Body.
The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility
- Vatican I, Pastor Aeternus, 1870, §9
- Faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that
- when the Roman Pontiff 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.
- when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when,
- Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable.
- Faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that
- Key elements of the definition
- - The Pope must make it clear that he is exercising the gift of infallibility by speaking ex cathedra, "from the judgment seat" of the Catholic Church.
- - The exercise of papal infallibility is limited to "a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.
- A Pope's opinions about the weather, sports, the rise or fall of the stock market, political and economic issues, the time of day or the day of the year are not protected in any way by the doctrine of papal infallibility. The doctrine of papal infallibility only implies that God will not allow a pope to formally and explicitly reject the dogmas found in the Deposit of Faith.
- - The doctrine of papal infallibility, taught solemnly by an ecumenical council, is an aspect of the infallibility of the Church.
- - The teachings of the councils of the Church must be ratified by a pope. The ex cathedra teachings of the pope do not need to be ratified by a council.
Reflections on the Doctrine of Infallibility
The papacy is part of the Magisterium, not the whole of it.
The pope (literally, "papa," daddy, abba) may, under certain circumstances, exercise the infallibility of the Church,' teaching infallibly about matters of faith and morals.
The Pope cannot teach infallibly by accident. He must deliberately speak "ex cathedra," that is, "from the chair" of St. Peter.
- A cathedra is a judgment seat. Every bishop is the High Priest of his diocese and has a cathedra in his "cathedral."
The concept of papal infallibility does not imply papal impeccability. Someone who is infallible renders true judgments, without error. Someone who is impeccable commits no sins. There have been many bad popes whose sins are well known and profoundly scandalous. Not one of them changed the teaching of the Church. They just disobeyed the teaching of the Church on faith and morals.
It is not the teaching of the Church that becoming Pope renders a man incapable of committing sins. The history of bad popes shows this quite clearly. Their sins are monstrously evil, but their sins do not contradict the teaching of the Church that, under certain definite conditions, a pope may exercise the infallible teaching authority of the Church about some aspect of faith and morals.
Besides having the ability to teach doctrines about faith and morals without error, the Pope also has primacy over the whole Church. He is the boss. The buck stops there. He is the visible head of the Church, under the sovereign headship of Jesus.
These two doctrines, papal infallibility and papal primacy, make the Catholic Church unique in the whole world of Christendom. All who have left the Church directly or indirectly contradict these two doctrines.
Two examples of ex cathedra definitions
There are two and only two examples of popes personally exercising their gift of infallibility.
- 1. The Immaculate Conception of Mary (1854)
- Mary was conceived in her mother's womb without any stain of Original Sin. This teaching was defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854.
- 2. Assumption of Mary into Heaven (1950)
- At the end of her life, Mary was taken into Heaven in her own body. Her full human life in Heaven now foreshadows the resurrection of all of God's children. This teaching was defined by Pope Pius X in 1950.
The definition of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and of her Assumption into Heaven were the first and only times in history that a pope exercised the infallibility of the Church without summoning a council of bishops to cooperate in the definition of the dogma. Theologians disagree about whether Pope St. John Paul II exercised the gift of papal infallibility when he said that the doctrine that the Church is incapable of ordaining women to the priesthood is part of the Deposit of Faith. Every time that the Church has been asked whether women can be placed in the Holy Orders, the Church has said no. The teaching of John Paul II is not just that the Church has no power to ordain women but the doctrine that this teaching is already in the Deposit of Faith and therefore cannot be altered.
Some theologians argue that John Paul II's teaching on Natural Family Planning may also be an exercise of papal infallibility, although he did not say that he was speaking ex cathedra. I do believe that this teaching is part of the Deposit of Faith and cannot be reversed.
Follow Jesus, not Judas
In every generation, Jesus has been betrayed by men chosen to bring His message to the whole world. It began with Judas and has been a continual scandal ever since. I call this "the Judas Factor.
Questions from a student's student
- If the Pope has the gift of infallibility, and he is still a flawed human being with Original Sin, then couldn't he abuse his free will and declare something untrue as "infallible" ex cathedra?
The Pope does have the gift of infallibility.
The Pope, like you and me, is a flawed human being who suffers from concupiscence as a consequence of Original Sin.
Baptism does not make us "impeccable," that is to say, incapable of sinning, even though it makes us members of the Body of Christ and divinizes us.
Nor do Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Marriage, or Anointing make us incapable of sinning.
Ordination does not make men incapable of sinning, even though it does equip them to serve as ministers of the sacraments that require an ordained minister (Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing). Any human being can and may baptize another human being in an emergency, and the baptized man and woman who vow themselves to each other in union with the understanding of the church and who consummate those vows are the ministers of the sacrament of marriage.
Being elected to fill the office of St. Peter does not make a man incapable of sinning.
The doctrine of infallibility does not imply that there will never be a man so evil elected to the office of Peter that he will not succumb to the temptation to personally oppose what is already known to be part of the Deposit of Faith. I have collected a great deal of evidence that I am no good at predicting future events.
- - I predicted that the world would begin to end on October 13, 1972. I had the wrong century and millennium. I imagine that the day and month are wrong, too.
- - I predicted that we would never have a Polish pope.
- - I predicted that we would never have a Jesuit pope.
- - I predicted that we would never have an American pope.
I was wrong.
I cannot name the theologian who first proposed that if any man attempted to solemnly define a heresy, at that moment he would cease to be the pope.
That seems sweetly reasonable to me, although it might take a while to figure out how to unseat him and elect a replacement.
Given my lousy track record at predicting the future, I am not going to say that there will never be a man like that in the office of the pope.
I am not obliged by the Creed to believe in the goodness of popes, bishops, priests, deacons, men and women in religious life, married couples, or any of the other Christifideles.
I do believe that God will act to prevent the sins of popes or of any other members of the Church to kill the Body of Christ.
Jesus is risen from the dead, and He is LORD.
How He keeps his promise is His problem, not mine.
He is God the Son, eternally begotten of God the Father and, with the Father, the source of God the Holy Spirit.
The Church is God's problem.
I trust in God.
- Does that question make sense to you?
Yes, it does.
- How can the Church be guaranteed of true papal infallibility that rests upon an imperfect human capable of abusing it?
The doctrine of infallibility does not rest upon the imperfect men who have held the office in the past or will hold it in the future.
My faith is in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Nothing in the Creed obliges me to believe that God will ever mutilate us spiritually so as to deprive us of our own intelligence and free will. So long as God allows us freedom, which is one way in which we resemble God Himself, the children of God can sin against God and against each other. Jesus said, "You are Rock, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it" (Mt 16:18). Jesus did not say that Peter would build the church, nor did He explain how He would prevent evil from overthrowing His work.
- A prayer for the Church and for me
- "Jesus, I believe. Help though my unbelief. Thy will, not mine, be done in me and in Your Body. I surrender myself to You. Take care of everything."
Recent Popes
| 255 | 1846-1878 | Blessed Pius IX |
| 256 | 1878-1903 | Leo XIII |
| 257 | 1903-1914 | St. Pius X |
| 258 | 1914-1922 | Benedict XV |
| 259 | 1922-1939 | Pius XI |
| 260 | 1939-1958 | Pius XII |
| 261 | 1958-1963 | St. John XXIII |
| 262 | 1963-1978 | St. Paul VI |
| 263 | 1978 | John Paul I |
| 264 | 1978-2005 | St. John Paul II |
| 265 | 2005-2013 | Benedict XVI |
| 266 | 2013-2025 | Francis |
| 267 | 2025 .. | Leo XIV |
Other Ancient Sees
- Wikipedia, "Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria." Descended from St. Mark?
- Assyrian Catholic Church of the East — from St. Thomas (but not where Thomas died, so not like Peter and Rome and Mark and Alexandria?).
Official Titles of the Pope
- Bishop of Rome
- Vicar of Jesus Christ
- Successor of the Prince of the Apostles
- Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church
- Primate of Italy
- Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province
- Sovereign of the State of Vatican City
- Servant of the Servants of God.[91]
- "Pope" ... does not appear in the official list, but is commonly used in the titles of documents, and appears, in abbreviated form, in their signatures. Thus Pope Paul VI signed as "Paulus PP. VI", the "PP." standing for "Papa" ("Pope").
- The title "Pope" was from the early 3rd century an honorific designation used for any bishop in the West.[97] In the East it was used only for the Bishop of Alexandria.[97] Pope Marcellinus (d. 304) is the first Bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title "Pope" used of him. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome.[97] From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century,[97] when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome.
- In Eastern Christianity, where the title "Pope" is used also of the Bishop of Alexandria, the Bishop of Rome is often referred to as the "Pope of Rome", regardless of whether the speaker or writer is in communion with Rome or not.
- The Lord made St. Peter the visible foundation of his Church. He entrusted the keys of the Church to him. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to St. Peter, is "head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ and Pastor of the universal Church on earth" (CIC, can. 331).
- #937
- The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls" (CD 2).
References