An Apologetics Course . . . Can The Pope Be Infallible?
By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM
Part 45
The most common objection articulated by non-Catholics — especially Protestants — against the dogma of the pontifical infallibility is that no man can be infallible, every man is a sinner and in need of salvation. So, how can the Pope of Rome claim such a nonsensical power? Besides, nowhere in the Bible will you find the word “infallible” or the idea that Peter’s faith would never fail. This is a man-made invention by an Italian Pope in the 19th century. So there!
The first flaw in the objection is that the objector confuses chalk with cheese, as they say in Australia, and confuses infallibility with impeccability, or sinlessness. The Catholic Church has never said that St. Peter — or any of his Successors — was sinless, impeccable. Never!
The Popes go to Confession regularly, which indicates that they need forgiveness. The Popes pray the rosary, in which the recitation of the Hail Mary is made 50 times. In that prayer, you say, “pray for us sinners,” which is an evident manifestation of human sinfulness.
Moreover, there have been bad Popes in history. Possibly the guiltiest one was St. Peter, whose bravado elicited in Jesus the utterance of the prophecy that he, Peter, would betray the Son of God. And he did — three times, in fact. And yet Jesus maintained him as the visible Head of the Church.
If there were no one in the Church who held the gift of infallibility, we would never know the correct doctrine about anything. If all we had was the Bible, and no infallible Magisterium to interpret and guide, every Tom, Dick, and Harriet would interpret Scripture as they saw fit, according to their whims and preferences. Result: total chaos! That is precisely what happened with the Lutheran Revolution.
Unless, of course, they claim that every individual interpretation is correct because the Holy Spirit guides the Christian . . . and the Holy Spirit, like the Bible, is inerrant. If that were the case, and since there are thousands of different churches with different or even contradictory doctrines, one out of two explanations has to be true: Either the Holy Spirit is schizophrenic and misguides people into different directions, or the idea of Bible alone without an infallible Magisterium is totally wrong, purely and simply.
I do not think that it takes much soul-searching to find out which alternative is correct.
But Jesus built His Church upon Kepha, the Rock — Peter in current English. Not upon the New Testament, which had not yet been written, or the Old Testament, which Jesus came to perfect. St. Peter, always living in his Successors, is the rock on which the Church is built. He shall, through the assistance of Christ, who is always with him, guide the Church away from heresy. He, the one and only source of stability, cannot be a false or doubtful guide. He must, therefore, be able to speak infallibly.
But not to Peter alone, because Peter died and others succeeded him in his mission. Christ gave to Peter and his Successors “the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,” that is, He gave them the power of binding the consciences of men. He promised that whatever obligations they might impose would be confirmed in Heaven. In other words, He promised to support and guide them in teaching the truth so that they would only impose a just obligation.
But the head of the Church is the chief teacher of the Church and, from time to time, binds all the faithful to believe his teaching with an assent of faith. Since, from the promise of Christ, he cannot bind them to error, he must himself be secured against error in his teaching: The Pope must, when binding all the faithful, be infallible.
Unity in the truth is a necessary mark of the one Church of Christ — not a World Council of Churches! Remember always: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph. 4:5) in the One Church of God, the Pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15).
The Pope is the Pastor of the Universal Church. It was to Peter, and to Peter alone, to whom Jesus gave the command: “Feed my lambs” and “feed my sheep.” Peter has the command of Christ to feed all the faithful with spiritual nurture, to teach them all the doctrines of Christ, to administer to them the sacred rites which Christ instituted, to govern them in the form, and under the laws, prescribed by Christ.
But, if the Pope were to err in his ex cathedra teaching, he would not be the pastor, but the poisoner, the wolf, of his flock. Therefore, he must possess infallibility on those solemn occasions. He may commit an error as a private individual, but never as an infallible teacher.
This infallibility of Peter — and his Successors — is clearly affirmed in Holy Scripture: Christ said to him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you [plural], that he might sift you [plural] like wheat, but I have prayed for thee [singular] that thy faith may not fail; and when thou hast turned again, confirm thy brethren” (Luke 22:31-32). Christ said that the apostles would be assaulted by Satan, but He had prayed that St. Peter’s faith in particular should not fail, and His prayer was effective.
A man whose faith does not fail to confirm his brethren is infallible in matters of that faith. The word is the same, as anyone can see, to the irritation of non-Catholics.
Peter, therefore, was made infallible in matters of faith. He was to use his gift of infallibility to shield the faith of his brethren from the assaults of Satan. His office passed to his Successors. As long as the Church exists, it will be assailed by the enemy of truth. It will, therefore, always need an unerring guide, a Peter living in his Successors who shall confirm his brethren.
Peter’s utterances in matters not involving the preaching of the faith to confirm the brethren are not guaranteed by infallibility. For instance, he was wrong in avoiding the Gentile Christians in order to please the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem. St. Paul opposed him publicly on that, and resisted him to his face! Read the whole event in Galatians 2.
When the weak-kneed Popes gave in to the French kings and moved the See of Peter from Rome to Avignon, France (a political move, not a religious one), St. Catherine of Siena opposed Gregory XI and sent him a letter telling him to be a man and establish peace by returning to Rome. And he did!
A Ridiculous Idea
Of course, Protestants will not accept this fact and instead propose the idea that the gift of infallibility was given only to Peter and the apostles as a personal gift, not to be passed on to their Successors.
This gratuitous idea is so ridiculous that it does not deserves real scrutiny, because it would mean that Jesus protected the Church against error only while the apostles lived, and leaving mankind to their own devices after that — a poor kind of Shepherd, I’m afraid.
But this is not the faith of Christians: For many centuries, Christians universally held to infallibility, and Luther’s denial only caused chaos and confusion, fragmenting the Church into smithereens.
Next article: The faith of the early Christians was the same as the Catholic teaching on papal infallibility.
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(Raymond de Souza is an EWTN program host; regional coordinator for Portuguese-speaking countries for Human Life International [HLI]; president of the Sacred Heart Institute, and a member of the Sovereign, Military, and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of Malta. His website is: www.RaymonddeSouza.com.)
