Does this disprove papal infallibility?

[_Christopher]

I am having some problems and I will appreciate an answer, please.

In Unum Sanctum, the Pope of the time said that if the Greeks claimed to not be subject to him, then they are not part of Jesus’ flock, ie, “not saved”. Relations with the Greek Orthodox have thawed since then a bit and today the Church doesn’t teach that they are unsaved. Even their Sacraments are valid.

This contradiction makes me question the Church on this issue. If I can question the Church on that issue, and if the Church could be wrong, then I question infallibility in general.

Help please.

 

[Jan_Wakelin]

The Bull Unum Sanctum was written by Pope Boniface VIII. This is the part I believe you are referring to:

Therefore, this one and single Church has one head and not two heads,—for had she two heads, she would be a monster,—that is, Christ and Christ’s vicar, Peter and Peter’s successor. For the Lord said unto Peter, ‘Feed my sheep.’ ‘My,’ he said, speaking generally and not particularly, ‘these and those,’ by which it is to be understood that all the sheep are committed unto him. So, when the Greeks and others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they must confess that they are not of Christ’s sheep, even as the Lord says in John, ‘There is one fold and one shepherd.’

The Pope is saying that if the Greeks say they are not under the Pope, then they are saying they are not Christ’s sheep. But of course they *are *Christ’s sheep, so then they are under the care of the pope, even if they refuse to acknowledge it.