Occurrences of Papal Infallibility

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Hey, I’m looking for anything that might be more definitive than wiki about how many times the Pope spoke infallibly. The wiki has a list of seven times, so it definitely doesn’t seem like a lot.

I read Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to defend against ordaining women, and Saint Pope John Paul II basically said that he does not have authority to ordain women. The letter isn’t made infallible because of Saint Pope John Paul II, but it is infallible, or a reminder of its infallibility because that’s what Jesus instituted, that He never ordained women to be an Apostle. It is dogma because it is like that since the beginning.

I’m just trying to find some more defenses against protestants who criticize Papal Infallibility as dictatorship. I want to reason with the fact that it doesn’t happen that often, and when it happens, what is being defined is always the truth and a good thing.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
It’s actually not very common. One of the more well known occasions of this happening is the infallibly defined immaculate conception Ineffabilis Deus - Papal Encyclicals
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Oh yeah, I should just copy pasta wiki’s list so people don’t have to bounce around.
  1. Tome to Flavian , Pope Leo I, 449, on the two natures in Christ, received by the Council of Chalcedon;
  2. Letter of Pope Agatho , 680, on the two wills of Christ, received by the Third Council of Constantinople;
  3. Benedictus Deus , Pope Benedict XII, 1336, on the beatific vision of the just after death rather than only just prior to final judgment;[63]
  4. Cum occasione , Pope Innocent X, 1653, condemning five propositions of Jansen as heretical;
  5. [Auctorem fidei](Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(name removed by moderator)) , Pope Pius VI, 1794, condemning seven Jansenist propositions of the Synod of Pistoia as heretical;
  6. Ineffabilis Deus , Pope Pius IX, 1854, defining the Immaculate Conception;
  7. Munificentissimus Deus , Pope Pius XII, 1950, defining the Assumption of Mary.
 
First of all. Have you even studied the concept of papal infallibility and the conditions under which it occurs?
 
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porthos11 said:
First of all. Have you even studied the concept of papal infallibility and the conditions under which it occurs?
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Yeah, the condition that it must be about faith and morals, and the Pope needs to explicitly say it is an infallible declaration.

I just found out about another infallible decree with the Apostolicae Curae. I guess there are more.
 
It’s more than two or seven. At the First Vatican Council, when some bishops wanted to condition papal infallibility on the Pope following some procedure or using some verbal formula, the relator for the Commissio de fide (charged with providing official doctrinal explanations of Council documents to the Council Fathers) said this could not be done, because there were already so many instances with various procedures or even none at all:
But, most eminent and reverend fathers, this proposal simply cannot be accepted because we are not dealing with something new here. Already thousands and thousands of dogmatic judgments have gone forth from the Apostolic See; where is the law which prescribed the form to be observed in such judgments?
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“Thousands and thousands” might be a bit hyperbolic, but the point remains–it has been more than two or seven! I assume where a document contains a long list of definitively judged propositions, each one is considered a single judgment (e.g. e.g. Coelestis Pastor of Bl. Innocent XI, Ex Omnibus Afflictionibus of St. Pius V, Unigenitus of Clement VI, etc.). Also included would be definitive judgments the Pope makes in his own name in the context of a partial or even ecumenical synod.

The First Vatican Council itself notes the variety of ways such definitions have come about:
  1. The Roman pontiffs, too, as the circumstances of the time or the state of affairs suggested, sometimes by summoning ecumenical councils or consulting the opinion of the Churches scattered throughout the world, sometimes by special synods, sometimes by taking advantage of other useful means afforded by divine providence, defined as doctrines to be held those things which, by God’s help, they knew to be in keeping with Sacred Scripture and the apostolic traditions.
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Unfortunately, likely due to a false irenicism (condemned by Vatican II), the dogma of papal infallibility has been unduly minimized. The unusual ceremonial attached to the two famous instances involving Marian dogmas (and their unusual circumstances, where rather than settling a controversy, they were a kind of capstone on a settled point) have also minimized the other instances. The fact is, Popes have intervened to provide definitive/irreformable judgments binding the whole Church many, many times.
 
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The very first instance was shown by St. Peter in Acts Chapter 15:7 where he declared that the gentiles should not be yoked with the law of Moses but rather should follow the Law of GOD which is written in the heart.
 
Wasn’t St. James the person who presided over the council in Jerusalem (since he was the first bishop of that city)?
 
rightness said:
Hey, I’m looking for anything that might be more definitive than wiki about how many times the Pope spoke infallibly. The wiki has a list of seven times, so it definitely doesn’t seem like a lot.
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After literal years of studying the issue in my spare time, I’ve come to the conclusion that no one really knows, nor do they really want to know.

Infallible or not, if it’s in the magisterium, a Catholic must submit to it - that’s the “cover-all” that effectively solves the issue for Catholics and would-be Catholics.
 
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He was but St James did not take the decision. What is also important is that none of the others argued after Peter decided. In other words they all accepted his decision.
 
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