Infallible Teachings

[Philthy]

I like it, but this was also brought up in a related thread and didn’t make much headway with the OP.

C’mon Teflon - dont be shy! Give me a critique with some bite to it! Don’t you have anything to add or remove from my summary - it was my first draft…it’s not really *that *good is it?

In essence, the answer boiled down to, “There is no comprehensive official list, nor can there be, but the Nicene Creed, Dr Ott’s list of “de fide” statements, and the Catechism provide enough details of Catholic dogma for serious inquiry and refutation attempts.”

Yea thats better…

I

think your response is quite reasonable, very accurate, and we’ll have to see the responses to it.

Meanwhile,

Q2:

Is the Pope infallible?

A: The Pope is infallible (protected from error by the Holy Spirit) only when teaching ex cathedra on a matter of faith and morals. The Pope is wise and correct on many issues beyond those within the realm of faith and morals, but not infallible. Infallibility is a function of the papal office, not the person, and is a result of Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell would not prevail against his Church.

This is very good…but it needs a little work…
One issue I see immediately is that most people will not know what “ex cathedra” means, and how, exactly, one knows when the Pope is speaking ex cathedra. Please tidy that up by including the definition of ex cathedra. Here is some stuff from Wikipedia

According to the teaching of the First Vatican Council and Catholic tradition, the conditions required for ex cathedra teaching are as follows:

1. “the Roman Pontiff” 2. “speaks ex cathedra” (“that is, when in the discharge of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, and by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority….”) 3. “he defines” 4. “that a doctrine concerning faith or morals” 5. “must be held by the whole Church” (Pastor Aeternus, chap. 4)

The second issue is that your last sentence should have been your first sentence! It makes a lot more sense to speak of infallibility residing with the occupant of the papal office first and then precede to describe when that occupant exercises that charism within the office. Yes?