Infallibilty of the pope

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Just as said, and for the record Pope Francis haven´t used it a single time since he became Pope - which practically means that he haven´t said anything binding for the Faithful.
 
In addition to defining doctrine ex cathedra there is another way to use the Pope’s special charism as the bishop of Rome. When the Pope endorses a new definition of the faith as the result of the work of an ecumenical council he is acting with the special charism of papal infallibility which is only for bishop of Rome.
 
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Papal infallibility has been used sparingly throughout Church history. Many people misunderstand and think that we believe everything the Pope says is true, but that is not the case. It sometimes reaches the point of being ridiculous- I was once asked if we believe the weather would change if the Pope said it would.
 
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No, we are also bound by the pope’s ordinary Magisterium, not just rare ex cathedra proclamations.
 
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Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I do think that when a pontiff declares someone a blessed or a saint, those are infallible declarations.

Or so I have been told. If that is true, then yes, Pope Francis has made some infallible statements.
 
It’s generally accepted that papal elections, canonizations of saints, and papal recognition of ecumenical councils are “dogmatic facts” and thus infallible (though not dogmas of the faith). The Holy Spirit protects these special events in the life of the Church as it is essential that the faithful have peace of mind that a pope is a valid pope, a saint is truly a saint, or that a council is truly ecumenical (and binding).
 
So does that mean that Saint Christopher is still in fact a saint?
 
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Yes. The only thing that changed is that his feast day no longer is on the church’s liturgical calendar
 
There are about 10 000 officially recognized saints. Only a couple hundred would have universal memorials on the Church’s calendar… only so many days in the year. Any saint can still be honoured though.
 
The Feast of St. Christopher is May 9 on the Byzantine calendar.
 
Salibi said:
Papal infallibility has been used sparingly throughout Church history. Many people misunderstand and think that we believe everything the Pope says is true, but that is not the case. It sometimes reaches the point of being ridiculous- I was once asked if we believe the weather would change if the Pope said it would.
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St. Pope John Paul II explained in General Audience, L.G. 25, not just extraordinary exercise but ordinary exercise of teaching authority is binding on matters of faith and morals:
This is the service to the truth entrusted principally to the successor of Peter, who already in the ordinary exercise of his magisterium acts not as a private person, but as the supreme master of the universal Church, according to the clarification of the Second Vatican Council about ex cathedra definitions (cf. Lumen gentium, 25). In fulfilling this task, the successor of Peter expresses in a personal form but with institutional authority the “rule of faith”, to which the members of the universal Church must follow - simple faithful, catechists, religious teachers, theologians - in seeking the sense of permanent contents of the Christian faith also in relation to the discussions that arise inside and outside the ecclesial community on the various points or on the whole of the doctrine.
10 marzo 1993 | Giovanni Paolo II
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LG 25 (excerpt):
This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.
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A Pope is infallible when he makes a definitive judgment as to what doctrine all Catholics must believe or hold in order to maintain the unity of faith required for communion in the Church. This is because the whole Church cannot defect from the truth. If the Pope as chief teacher erred in such a manner, either the whole Church would fall into error, or the Church of Rome where the primacy resides would be separated from the universal Church, and both are impossible.

At the First Vatican Council, when some bishops wanted to condition papal infallibility on the Pope following some procedure or using some formula, the relator for the Commissio de fide (charged with providing official doctrinal explanations of Council documents to the Council Fathers) said this could not be done, because there were already so many instances with various procedures or even none at all:
But, most eminent and reverend fathers, this proposal simply cannot be accepted because we are not dealing with something new here. Already thousands and thousands of dogmatic judgments have gone forth from the Apostolic See; where is the law which prescribed the form to be observed in such judgments?
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“Thousands and thousands” might be a bit hyperbolic, but the point remains–it has been a lot. The First Vatican Council also notes the variety of ways such definitions have come about (including when the decisions of a council are promulgated in the Pope’s name):
The Roman pontiffs, too, as the circumstances of the time or the state of affairs suggested, sometimes by summoning ecumenical councils or consulting the opinion of the Churches scattered throughout the world, sometimes by special synods, sometimes by taking advantage of other useful means afforded by divine providence, defined as doctrines to be held those things which, by God’s help, they knew to be in keeping with Sacred Scripture and the apostolic traditions.
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But other than that, the Pope can err like anyone else–he is not the Holy Spirit incarnate. The “religious submission” spoken of in other posts is not the unconditional obedience of faith. It is based on the hierarchical structure of the Church and the divinely instituted (why it’s “religious”) role of bishop as teacher, especially the bishop of Rome as chief teacher.

I like to think of it this way: in a classroom, a student should generally take to heart and mind what the teacher teaches. That is the rule–the teacher is authorized to teach and the student is there to learn. Students should not be disruptive, nor should they let the lesson go in one ear and out the other.

But sometimes the teacher might teach something that just doesn’t seem right to the student based on his prior learning from other trusted, authorized teachers. The student may need to seek further explanation or clarification. There’s nothing wrong with this.

The teacher may mistakenly get something clearly wrong, that the student might want to address with the teacher after class in a respectful way. There might even be rare, extreme situations where a student might be obliged in conscience to stand up right then and there and defend the truth or good morals for the good of all.
 
Sad so many people got rid of their St Christopher medals
 
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If people did that, it is sad. Saints have come and gone on the calendar–there’s only so much room. There are still plenty of parishes named for him (and they can still be named for him) and his memorial is celebrated on certain local calendars. Medals of him are still made and sold in parish stores, etc.
 
MarilynnD said:
When does the pope use his infallibility?
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If he’s smart, never.

The existence and exercise of that disputed power is probably the single greatest impediment to pan-Christian unity.
 
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