jinc1019.
Bringing up the Fourth Lateran Council would not make the point about the body of Bishops allegedly being able to over rule the Pope. Why? Because the Bishops were part of the Fourth Lateran Council.
Bringing up Pope Leo X’s Papal Bull of 1520 (Exsurge Domine - Bull of Pope Leo X - CONDEMNING THE ERRORS OF MARTIN LUTHER) can lead us off track too and I see you wisely started another thread on that subject (a good alternative).
I am already participating in
that thread but since there are hypotheticals concerning the historical context, I probably won’t have much else to say.
You said that it will never be the Bishops ALONE verses the Pope. I agree. I was using that as a
Reductio ad absurdum to show that following the Bishops (who are opposed to Papal authority on doctrinal preservation) would lead you into error.
Our Lord always preserves a remnant of the faithful, so how much more would He preserve many of the Bishops (to remain in union with St. Peter).
Still nobody (except the so-called “Papal absolutists”) here is addressing WHO has the ultimate authority to preserve doctrine. You have gotten a nebulous “the Bishops” answer. Look at “Orthodoxies” if you want to see where that gets you.
I am afraid that when “ultimate authority” gets bantered about loosely, it always comes down to the old: “me, myself, and I” routine.
I have maintained ultimate authority is with the Magisterium. I have maintained that the Magisterium is the Pope and the Bishops in union with the Pope (explicitly citing CCC 100).
I have agreed that the Pope does not have any power in the sense of changing doctrine; yet I have not seen anybody assert such mythology on this forum thread (so why the opposition to this point when nobody is trying to make it?).
I have also asserted the Pope cannot officially authoritatively (i.e. ex-cathedra) teach doctrinal error and he will always preserve Apostolic doctrine in such instances.
Do you think the Pope can possibly teach error in this capacity? If he can, WHO do you bank on for your authority? You? The Bishops? (then you have to answer “how many of them”)?
These are the unanswerable variables with such a position.
St. Peter was the only one given the Keys (yes of course Jesus holds the Keys in an ultimate sense). The other Bishops have a share in that (they would have to. That’s WHY they can elect a new Pope when a Pope dies). But as I quoted Pope St. Leo earlier, “ . . . although the keys are bestowed upon all, the keys are entrusted only to one.”
I’ll put a few more CCC salient quotes as some people will be reading this thread and want to copy and paste it for their files in this area.
CCC 85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ."47 This means that
the task of interpretation has been
entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
CCC 86 “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant.
It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly,
guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.”
CCC 552 a,c Simon Peter holds the first place in the college of the Twelve; Jesus entrusted a unique mission to him. . . .
thus assures his Church, built on Peter, of victory over the powers of death. Because of the faith he confessed Peter will remain the unshakable rock of the Church.
His mission will be to keep this faith from every lapse and to strengthen his brothers in it.
CCC 553b . . Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and
in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom.
CCC 567 The kingdom of heaven was inaugurated on earth by Christ. “This kingdom shone out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of Christ” (LG 5). The Church is the seed and beginning of this kingdom.
Its keys are entrusted to Peter.
CCC 862 “Just as the office which the Lord confided to
Peter alone, as first of the apostles, destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of bishops.” Hence the Church teaches that “the bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ.”
CCC 1594b . . . As successors of the apostles and members of the college, the bishops share in the apostolic responsibility and mission of the whole Church
under the authority of the Pope, successor of St. Peter.
None of this is to deny the authority of the Bishops. All of this is to assert the proper order of authority.