How can we trust Papal Infallibility when we don't even know some legitimate Popes?

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jas84173 said:
I agree. However how can one say that if we had an illegitimate Pope that things were set in motion that would not have happened if we had all legitimate popes. Like the butterfly effect? What if one of these illegitimate popes who thus were not infallible led us astray?
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I repeat that NOT A SINGLE INFALLIBLE TEACHING HAS EVER BEEN CHANGED. It would not matter if a bad Pope was in place because the Church and its teachings are protected by the Holy Spirit.
 
Can you please give me some proof that the Holy Spirit is protecting it?
 
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Christ told us that the gates of hell wouldn’t prevail against the church.
 
Other than the proofs from Scripture and the Fathers that can be cited, think about it reasonably. What would be the point of God revealing truth for the salvation of mankind, if it could be corrupted and lost and never reach successive generations? God’s revelation must not only be revealed, but preserved and transmitted for it to have its intended effect.
 
Also, we have at least some records of what these guys said and wrote — and anything that was big enough to lead the whole Church astray would have had to have survived in recorded form; a proclamation lost to history would not have an ongoing effect. We can literally look at those periods of history and see that no major doctrinal disputes were settled by a disputed Pope. (Heck, the Pope defining dogma by himself is a fairly recent development, and has thus far only been used to elevate the status of beliefs most Catholics already held; historically the way to settle a big dispute or introduce a major reform was to call a council.)

Sure,a false Pope might have issued day-to-day orders or expressed opinions that were not protected by the Holy Spirit … but legitimate Popes do that too. The butterfly effect is not some special danger in this case. Plenty of undisputed Popes have been unwise or wrong or outright wicked; the Holy Spirit only guarantees that they will not lead the whole Church into error, and we can look and see that they have not.
 
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