What About Papal Infallibility?
Pope St Pius X pray for us!
It is important for people, especially the faithful, to realize that it is only under the strictest conditions that the Pope can actually speak infallibly, and that Pope Francis HAS NOT spoken infallibly on any issues and probably won’t. This does not mean that we should not listen to him, because we should. We should try and listen with an obedient disposition, but also realize because he speaks so often and off the cuff that he may err at times. This is why the press office of the Vatican has so often had to give clarifications.
It is also very important to understand that Bishops can and will make statements and possibly even teach heresy. We have seen this lately, especially in Germany! The faithful are NOT bound to follow ANY teaching that is contrary to an already established Dogma of the Faith. In fact, it would be a sin against Faith were the faithful to follow a new teaching that they knew was erroneous. As Catholics we have a responsibility to do our homework and find out what the Church actually teaches ; claiming ignorance is not really an option.
I’m going to get straight to the point. Dogma CANNOT change. All of this synod hoo-haa can do nothing to change what GOD HAS ALREADY REVEALED! God is immutable, He cannot change, and neither can the Truth become something contrary to what it is. Here is an example : someone wants you to believe that a chair is actually a chandelier, and that person has convinced many people in the room with fancy words and tricky philosophies that the chair has somehow evolved into a chandelier. But you know that chandeliers hang from the ceiling and give off light, and you still see people sitting their bottoms on chairs, not chandeliers. This doesn’t mean that the chair is a chandelier. The chair is still a chair even if everyone in the room is now saying that the chair is a chandelier. The Truth is the Truth!
So here goes, I’m going to type it now! Even if the Pope were to try and change the teaching, it wouldn’t, and couldn’t be changed ! There, I said it. The Pope is supposed to be a guardian and protector of the Faith, that is it! If the Pope teaches something contrary to the “constant and very firm” teaching of Jesus Christ through His Church, then we CANNOT follow that teaching, WE MUST STAY FAITHFUL TO CHRIST!
We need to pray for the Pope and the Bishops, especially the Bishops that are spewing heresy ; they NEED our prayers!
Here is a good article written by Father Parochus from the site What’s Up With the Synod? Give it a look
No, the Church is not infallible because the Pope is infallible. It’s the other way around.
One of the more upsetting results of this Synodal chaos is the division it is creating between believing and sincere Catholics. Sadly, one of the more dire results of the last 50 years of non-catechesis has been a grave defect in the knowledge of most of the faithful on the limits and nature of papal infallibility.
Today I received the following note from a friend:
“I am now arguing with my pro-life friends about the petition. They see any lack of papal obedience as shocking and scandalous. Grrrrrrr. Have you written about it? What can I send them to show how wrong they are.”
I recommended that she google the terms “papolatry,” that is gaining wide use recently, and the newer and perhaps somewhat more technical term “hypermontanism”. I added, “Ultramontanism = Good. Hypermontanism = Bad.”
In the interests of our charitable duty to instruct the ignorant, WUWTS offers the following brief explanation of the traditional understanding of papal infallibility, from a bona fide member of the clergy. …HJMW
Crash Course in the Church’s Infallibility.
The Church is not infallible because the Pope is infallible.
It is the other way around.
The pope is infallible because the Church is infallible.
Jesus the Divine Teacher continues to teach in this world the “message of truth”, which he originally gave to the Apostles and through them to the world. This is the Deposit of Faith and Morals. It contains primarily supernatural knowledge about God and how to get to Heaven to see and rejoice in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever. This revealed treasure also contains a crystal-clear reaffirmation of the Natural Law of right and wrong, “the observance of which is also necessary for eternal salvation”(Humane vitae). If I turn my back on God the Creator I can’t get to Heaven.
In her constant and very firm teaching the Church is protected by Christ. She will not betray Him or His teaching. She is infallible.
The Pope has the keys. He can even command us what to think. Or rather, he can bindingly declare what Christ has taught, and therefore what God has said, and requires that we believe. But Christ will NOT let His Church be bound into error. So…
When the Successor of Peter, teaching on a matter of Faith and Morals, AS Successor of Peter , binds the universal Church to believe or to absolutely and “definitively ” hold a particular truth, he shares in the infallibility of the Church.
We are only required to believe that the Pope is infallible when all the above conditions are fulfilled. We are very safe in following the teaching of Pope Saint Pius X, in his Catechismo maggiore, that the pope is infallible “only” (soltanto) under those conditions.
From the “Catechismo magiore” of Pope Saint Pius X:
199. Quando è il Papa infallibile?Il Papa è infallibile allora soltanto che nella sua qualità di Pastore e Maestro du tutti i cristiani, in virtù della suprema sua apostolica autorità, definisce una dottrina intorno alla fede o ai custumi da ternersi da tutta la Chiesa.
“soltanto” = “only,” as in, “at no other time or in no other way”.
This means it is impossible for the pope to *bindingly* contradict the constant and very firm teaching of the Church.
But by ambiguity, implication, association, action, or in other ways, the pope can sow doubt. As unfortunately we have been seeing these days.
end of article.
In JM+JT,
Lee
The Eleventh Article of the Apostles’ Creed
The Resurrection of the Body
The Eleventh Article of the Apostles’ Creed is The Resurrection of the Body. All of us must die because we have sinned in Adam. We as Christians should not fear death because we know that this is just place of testing, it is our exodus before reaching our Heavenly home with Christ, Our Mother, and His Angels and Saints, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” John 11:26. It is quite simple, when we die, our soul leaves the body.
This is our time of probation and testing in our loyalty to God. Did I take the time that was gifted to me to praise, reverence, and serve God, or did I waste it? I know that I wasted a good portion of my life serving myself and my disordered appetites. It is only because of the prayers of others like my grandmother and mother that somehow I came back to the Church that I had abandoned as a young teenager. Don’t wait 20 years like me! Time is short! God is sooooo merciful and gives us sooooo many chances to turn to Him ; please don’t wait until it is to late. God wants to Bless ALL of His children, but He is a Gentleman ; He won’t come in unless He is invited. Invite Him into your life, and into your families life. Everything we have is from Him, and Him alone, EVERYTHING.
The World is starving for TRUTH and something solid and real to grasp onto. I found answers to ALL of my questions here in the Catholic Church. The answers to life’s biggest and toughest questions are found in the writings and the “constant and very firm” teaching of Jesus Christ taught through His Church. You will find the Truth in the Holy Scriptures and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and also in the great writings of the Fathers of the Church, and from the writings of Saints like St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, St Alphonsus Liguori, St Louis Marie De Monfort, Venerable Fulton Sheen, Servant of God Father John Hardon S.J., Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, and so many more.
Back to The Resurrection of the Body. Once again, we must always be prepared for death because God keeps the time of our death hidden from us. This helps us to have a healthy respect and fear to always try to serve God a little better and a little more. It also helps to give ourselves over many times in life to God’s will and Providence until He calls us to our eternal destiny.
Speaking of eternal destiny, after death we are immediately judged and God will reveal the results of our eternal destiny to us. This is the Particular Judgement that we learned about a few posts back. The body will stay in the earth until the General Judgement.
The Glorified Body
This is the part that I have been trying to get to in this post. Learning about the Church and all She teaches is an amazing journey of wonder and awe. This topic absolutely excites me more than any other. I am fascinated by the topic of The Glorified Body. The topic of Our Mother Mary and this topic are probably the two that I love to read about, pray, meditate, and study the most.
At the General Judgement our earthly bodies will be reunited with our spiritual souls and joined together once more. If we died in a state of grace then we will rise up like Jesus did on Easter Sunday; Glorious, Glorified, full of Brightness and Splendour, and we will be adorned with our merits for all to see!
This may bring us to wonder what kind of qualities does one with a Glorified Body have? I love this part!
Impassibility: immunity from pain, suffering, sorrow, and death (no more aches or pains, and ALWAYS happy)
Subtility: freedom from all physical barriers to movement. Body and soul in PERFECT unison
Agility: the ability to move at the speed of light, totally at the command of the will ( for those who want to visit Saturn’s moons like me, well, we will be able to do this and ALOT more!)
Brightness, Clarity, or Splendour: extraordinary beauty, shining with the radiance of the sun Matt 13:43
Note: To remember the 4 qualities of a Glorified Body I use the acronym ISAB (Impassibility, Subtility, Agility, Brightness). It’s simple but little memory tricks like this really help with catechesis.
Now come on people, doesn’t this excite you? This is what we have to look forward to! This is what God has planned for us, He wants us ALL to be in friendship with Him so that He can share Himself and this awesome destiny with us. We have to be BIG PICTURE CATHOLICS! We must look at the end-game!
In JM+JT,
Lee
Rosary Crusade
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7
This October 7 in the year 2015 AD we will be setting out once again on a ROSARY CRUSADE ! I believe that the times that we are now living in are perhaps some of the darkest times in the history of the World! Over 42 MILLION OF GOD’S CHILDREN A YEAR killed in abortions ; there are only 319 million people living in the U.S. I don’t think that there could possibly be a time in the history of the World where there were more corrupt governments than there are right now. How could any civilized person ever watch those Planned Parenthood videos and defend that demonic organization? It’s just lie after lie after lie!
Right now as I type this a Christian genocide is taking place at the hands of muslims all around the World, especially in the Middle East. A Christian dies for their Faith EVERY 5 MINUTES! Christians are being crucified, chopped up, raped, sodomized, enslaved, and tortured just for being Christian! Muslims are doing this to our Christian brothers and sisters and many of the World’s leaders are turning a blind eye, especially in the United States. Instead, islam is being held up by some leaders as being a peaceful religion. IT IS NOT! “Mohammed and his little helpers” only bring death ; JESUS BRINGS LIFE!
Moving on to the Church now ; the abuses are absolutely staggering! Liturgical abuse, doctrinal abuse, spiritual abuses left and right, the list goes on. We have Bishop against Bishop, and Cardinal versus Cardinal. The pillar of civilization itself, the family, is being attacked by Bishops and Cardinals within our very Church’s Walls! The same men who should be defending the family and God’s Revealed Truth are trying to tear it down! We aren’t talking about just a few Bishops, Cardinals, and priests, but MANY ; almost ENTIRE BISHOPS CONFERENCES are trying to destroy the Church under the guise of tolerance and mercy. The Radical Homosexual machine has bashed through the gates of the Church and has entered into it’s very heart like a cancer. No human power can turn back what has happened. Satan and his demons are running rampant! Without God, we are doomed!
But there is HOPE! We have very powerful weapons at our disposal. We have God’s Word! We have Mighty Angels that are fighting for us, and with us, right now! We have an Army of Saints that hear our prayers and are fighting along side of us! We have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments of the Church! We have amazing Sacramentals (Holy Water, Brown Scapular, Crucifixes, Blessed Objects) given to us by Our Lord and Our Mother! Don’t forget, we have each other; WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER! We have Our Blessed Mother, and the MOST POWERFUL ROSARY! We have JESUS’ WORD ; in John 14, [18] He said, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.” We have to TRUST in JESUS! We trust in you Jesus! We KNOW that Jesus has already won the war, but we are here on Earth to do battle right now! God has chosen us for these very times. We are called to be Saints!
We MUST pray and fast for a turn around in this World! We are praying this Rosary Crusade for an END to ALL ABORTION ; we are praying this Rosary Crusade for PEACE in the WORLD, especially the Middle East ; we are praying this Rosary Crusade for the SYNOD on the FAMILY! JOIN US! We will be praying the ROSARY CRUSADE between Noon and 3 pm on OCTOBER 7 ; please post on Facebook, Twitter, EVERYWHERE! WE NEED SPIRITUAL WARRIORS TO JOIN US IN OUR CRUSADE!
Here is a short excerpt from TFP Student Action on the history of October 7 and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Victory at Lepanto :
“Pope Pius V, a Dominican prelate before his elevation, did what Catholics have always done in times of acute danger: fly into the arms of the most powerful Mother of God. As a follower of Saint Dominic, he knew the most effective means of imploring her help was through the recitation of the Holy Rosary. He ordered all monasteries and convents in Rome to increase their prayers for the impending battle and organized rosary processions in which he, as sick as he was, participated.
As the Christian fleet sailed toward the great clash of cultures (The Cross and the crescent), Mass was celebrated and the rosary recited daily on each vessel. This heartfelt request for divine assistance resulted in a crushing defeat of the Ottomans(muslims) at Lepanto that ended their dominance in the Mediterranean.
To celebrate Our Lady’s intercession, the Church has designated October 7 as the Feast of the Holy Rosary and Saint Pius V added Help of Christians (Auxilium Christianorum) to the Litany of Our Lady (Loreto). Similar acknowledgement to the Blessed Virgin’s intercession through the rosary were made when John Sobieski forced the Turks to lift the Siege of Vienna in 1683 and after the victory of Prince Eugene of Savoy at Temesvar in his successful campaign to remove the Ottomans from Europe in the next century.
While the din of battle gradually diminished at the bloody waters off Lepanto, Saint Pius V was going over accounts in the papal apartments with Bartolo Busotti, his treasurer. Suddenly, he arose with his face radiant with joy and announced, “Let us go and thank God, for this moment our fleet has defeated the Turks.” Human agency brought news to Rome two weeks later.”
Interesting note: Andrea Doria, one of the three principal admirals of the fleet had an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his cabin!
See you on the battlefield!!!
In JM+JT,
Lee
Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us!
Our Lady of Guadalupe pray for us!
Our Lady of Victory pray for us!
Our Lady of the Rosary pray for us!
