First, we acknowledge that there certainly have been popes in Church history who have led immoral lives. Then we politely challenge the inquirers to show where those immoral popes infallibly defined anything that contradicts the Catholic faith or Catholic moral teaching. The main challenge is to clearly differentiate between the immoral choices popes made in their private lives and their public Church teaching.
In a sense, the moral weaknesses of some of the Church’s leaders demonstrate that the Church is of divine origin and is divinely protected from error. After all, if the human beings who have run the Church for two thousand years have failed to sink it, the likelihood is great that the Church is supernaturally protected.
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