The Pope, like our parents, is not infallible. Only in areas of doctrine. I quote from Catholic Encyclopedia; “It is only in connection with doctrinal authority as such that, practically speaking, this question of infallibility arises”.
Vatican II was not a doctrinal council. Pope John XXIII himself stated in his Opening Address at the beginning of Vatican II that the Council was not intended to be a doctrinal council concerned with defining any articles of Faith; rather it was to be a “pastoral” council that was concerned with representing the Catholic Faith in a manner acceptable to the modern world.
Now, I’d like to ask you a similar question to the one you have asked. In my time on this forum it has become obvious that a lot of Catholics, probably the majority, wilfully disobey the Pope, in areas such as contraception, abortion, attending mass, confession, belief in the true presence, belief in the existence if hell, morals, etc etc etc.
How can you, and those who sympathize with this vast number of Catholics, justify this act of willful disobedience, that at it’s very core is the antithesis of being Catholic?
In answer to your first comment the Pope can not err when pronouncing on Faith and Morals, not “in areas of doctrine.”
Second, the Pope must be assented to and obeyed, even when he is NOT speaking infallibly, that is Doctrine. He alone is able to reform what he has pronounced (fallibly), no one else may judge the Pope. So, if SSPX has a problem with something, they may formally request that the Pope pronounce on that thing, but they MAY NOT ABBROGATE to themselves the power of the Papacy. There is no such thing as privitized judgement. Only the Pope gets to decide what is the teaching of the Church.
“It is not to be thought that matters proposed in [Papal] Encyclical Letters do not in themselves command assent because (in Encyclicals) the pontiffs do not exercise their supreme power of their magisterium. For these things are taught by the magisterium, to which also the words apply, ‘He who hears you, hears Me’.”
Pope Pius XII
“God has given to His Church a living Teaching Authority to elucidate and explain what is contained in the deposit of faith only obscurely and implicitly. This deposit of faith our Divine Redeemer has given for authentic interpretation not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only to the Teaching Authority of the Church.”
Pope Pius XII
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“Let the teachers in ecclesiastical institutions be aware that they cannot with tranquil conscience exercise the office of teaching entrusted to them, unless in the instruction of their students they religiously accept and exactly observe the norms which We have ordained.** That due reverend and submission which in their unceasing labor they must profess toward the Teaching Authority of the Church, let them instill also into the minds and hearts of their students.”
**- Pope Pius XII, Humani generis, 1950
Obedience to the Magisterium and the Pope is what the SSPX Doctrinal Preamble is all about. Please note that the Preamble contains the very word
DOCTRINAL in its title. It is about the DOCTRINE of obedience to the Holy See. Apparently Rome doesn’t agree that SSPX is within their rights to decide what is and what is not to be believed.
Now in regard to this:
*Now, I’d like to ask you a similar question to the one you have asked. In my time on this forum it has become obvious that a lot of Catholics, probably the majority, wilfully disobey the Pope, in areas such as contraception, abortion, attending mass, confession, belief in the true presence, belief in the existence if hell, morals, etc etc etc How can you, and those who sympathize with this vast number of Catholics, justify this act of willful disobedience, that at it’s very core is the antithesis of being Catholic *
Of course they aren’t just wilfully disobeying the Pope, they are sinning against God. No one is justifying willfully disobeying the Pope on any matter whatsoever. The Pope, acting in the place of God on earth, is to be obeyed in all matters of faith and morals. Disobedience to God and God’s Vicar is the very definition of sin. Many of the people who believe such things and perform such acts are not acting so much out of conviction, but rationalizing their bad and sinful behavior.
In any case, they are not trying to
“institutionalize” their sinfullness. They are not going to Rome and saying “we will not serve until you give us our way.” It is their own privately held opinion. In other words, they aren’t trying to form a “Society” that condones all of the things you mentioned.
So your argument fails on two levels.
First, no one is sympathizing with sinners.
Second, individuals who hold wrong and sinful beliefs contrary to the Church’s teaching can not be compared to a group of people who have formed a “Society” in order to go against the Pope and the Magisterium and force their own collective** opinion **on the Highest Authority in Christendom.
And, please note that the SSPX’s viewpoints are merely OPINIONS. They have no authority whatsoever to have any sort of OPINION which contradicts the teaching of the Church and continue to call themselves Catholic.
