FrRobSST:
Last time I checked, the exercise of papal infallibility requires a very specific form and it required a specific pronouncement by the Holy Father. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not have the authority to write an infalliable document. Only the Roman Pontiff may promulgate an ex cathedra statement. This has only happened twice, the promulgation of the Immaculate Conception and the promulgation of the Assumption.
I never said that the CDF had the authority to write an infallible document. I said, citing incontrovertible evidence, that the CDF stated that “the declaration of Pope Leo XIII in the Apostolic Letter
Apostolicae Curae on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations” was an infallible declaration. The CDF mentions other examples of infallible declarations such as the canonization of saints. Given the opinion of you a non-Catholic cleric whose orders might not even be valid since your “Communion” accepts as “priests” those whose orders have been infallibly declared invalid by Pope Leo XIII, and given the opinion of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith which actually unlike you, Sir, BELIEVES in papal infallibility, I will go with their opinion that Pope Leo XIII’s declaration is infallible. Should we as Catholics go to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Fatih to determine whether a particular declaration was infallible or should we go to a non-Catholic cleric? I think for the Catholic, the answer is clear.
Anglican priests sign their names that way. A few Orthodox priests I know sign that way. In my tradition, we do as well. As for confusion, I have made it clear since I joined this board that I am not affilliated with Rome. If people cannot make the connection, I will not be held responsible for that, nor will I be forced to deny the forms of address customary to my jurisdiction. I’ve went as far as I can to try to ensure that no confusion is engendered while, at the same time, remaining true to my traditions.
You say you’ve made it clear since joining the board, but how is it that you have made it clear when so many people have not been clear about it including at least one person after you added “Not in Communion with Rome” to your signature? I recall specifically the person being told by another in another thread, “You do realize that Fr Rob is not a Catholic, don’t you?” (a paraphrase – not necessarily the exact words). I’ve encountered non-Catholic clerics who do similar things yet even worse and it is very frustrating. Not just frustrating but in some cases it could put souls in peril. Consider if someone is critically ill in the hospital and asks for a Catholic priest. The hospital staff, confused by people like you, thinks that certain non-Catholic, perhaps not even validly ordained, clerics who have styled themselves as Catholic priests count as Catholic priests, and sends the critical ill person a non-Catholic cleric like yourself. If that critically ill person was in a state of mortal sin and needed to receive sacramental absolution, and the non-Catholic cleric styling himself as a Catholic priest was not validly ordained and attempted to give it to him, no sins would be forgiven and if the person dies, he may go to Hell. If that person were not critically ill, then even if the non-Catholic cleric were a validly ordained priest, the sacramental absolution would still ordinarily be invalid due to the lack of jurisdiction or faculities.
Further, I don’t seem to understand why some of you don’t see that the Churches in Communion with Rome do the honor of calling other Churches by their chosen name.
Why don’t you give that honor to us, by calling us the Catholic Church instead of the “Roman Church” which as I pointed out to you is in Catholic language a reference to the Diocese of Rome? BTW, in doctrinal documents the Church opposes the official name of certain “Churches” by saying that they are not Churches properly speaking but rather ecclesial communities.
yet someone else comes in who is a part of an admittedly small body
The problem with your ecclesial community is that it has an official policy of referring to its clerics as – and I quote – “Catholic Priests.” Even though in your signature you had “Primitive Catholic Priest” – at first without the disclaimer about not being in communion with Rome – in the official policy statement of your ecclesial community it simply says that you are right to refer yourself as a “Catholic Priest.”
The hospital situation I mentioned above is not merely a hypothetical. Things like that have happened. For example there has been a case of someone joining a non-Catholic ecclesial community, having being deceived into thinking it was the Catholic Church.
