Question about Papal Authority and Omissions

[MonsterOfThomas]

I am a Catholic who regularly attends FSSP parishes.

Preliminary doctrines I am trying to understand:

1. The Papal Office is indefectible in its solemn, public teachings, solving of controversies, judgements and declarations. Thus Ecumenical Councils, ex cathedra pronouncements, and the solution regarding controversial issues (contraception, women’s ordination, etc.), and canonizations are infallible.
2. Papal error can only be judged by an Ecumenical Council (see Constantinople III and Constantinople IV teaching and circumstances)
3. Solemn Papal teaching is in some sense an ACT (this is how I interpret #1 above)

Questions: How does Catholic theology properly interpret Papal OMISSIONS that are NON-Acts? How does Catholic theology properly interpret the omission of a Pope to, say, carry out an otherwise traditional duty of the Holy See?

Now, a concrete example of the type of situation (that may not even be possible) that would seem to fall under these questions. I note and Pray: May the Holy Spirit please forbid such occurences, and I say it may not even be possible given the Infallible Teaching on the Indefectability of the Papal office.

Example: suppose a Pope refused to answer a Controversy (Say if Pope St. John Paul II decided to leave unanswered the question of women’s ordination, when Tradition need only be stated because of its absolute clarity on the issue), or approve the appointment of Bishops?

Thoughts? Are such situations possible given the teaching of our Holy Mother the Church? Or, does the Holy Spirit protect against the Holy See making such omissions?

 

[Abu]

Popes are as fallible as anyone due to the effects of Original Sin, except when defining faith or morals as Supreme teachers to the whole Church.

The three levels of teaching from Ad Tuendam Fidem are:
1) Dogma – infallible (Canon #750.1) to be believed with the assent of divine and Catholic faith.
2) Doctrine – infallible (Canon #750.2) requires the assent of ecclesial faith, to be “firmly embraced and held”.
3) Doctrine – non-definitive (non-infallible) and requires intellectual assent (“loyal submission of the will and intellect”, Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 25), not an assent of faith. See the Explanatory Note on ATF by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM

 

[MonsterOfThomas]

Popes are as fallible as anyone due to the effects of Original Sin, except when defining faith or morals as Supreme teachers to the whole Church.

The three levels of teaching from Ad Tuendam Fidem are:
1) Dogma – infallible (Canon #750.1) to be believed with the assent of divine and Catholic faith.
2) Doctrine – infallible (Canon #750.2) requires the assent of ecclesial faith, to be “firmly embraced and held”.
3) Doctrine – non-definitive (non-infallible) and requires intellectual assent (“loyal submission of the will and intellect”, Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 25), not an assent of faith. See the Explanatory Note on ATF by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM

Thank you for the more direct citations. To rephrase the question in their light: suppose Doctrine in the second level (e.g. the ordination of women), came to the chair of Peter and Pope St. John Paul II left the question open. Does the Holy Spirit protect Papal Authority in the practical undertakings of the teaching office?

 

[Abu]

MonsterOfThomas #3
To rephrase the question in their light: suppose Doctrine in the second level (e.g. the ordination of women), came to the chair of Peter and Pope St. John Paul II left the question open. Does the Holy Spirit protect Papal Authority in the practical undertakings of the teaching office?

The reality is that the ordination of women has never been undecided. Our Lord specifically chose only men to be His Apostles. “It is already part of the constant and universal Tradition of the Church, and it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, *Dogmatic Constitution on the Church *Lumen Gentium] 25, 2).”
[Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, *Response to a Dubium concerning the teaching contained in the Apostolic Letter [Epistle] “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis”: AAS 87 (1995), 1114].

The Apostolic Epistle Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of St John Paul II infallibly specifically addressed this issue as explained here:
Homiletic & Pastoral Review
Ignatius Press, February 1999
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis: A definition ex cathedra
By Ansgar Santogrossi
The ex cathedra doctrine in *Ordinatio Sacerdotalis *has six emphatic parts:
“Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance,
a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself,
in virtue of our ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk. 22:32)
we declare that
the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women
and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

These six emphatic parts of the doctrine each contributes to the gravity and significance of this doctrine and together reveal it as ex cathedra. “The Holy Father declares a divine thing (or an act of Christ) and he declares that this thing is definitive tenendam.” (Br Ansgar Santogrossi, O.S.B.).

 

[MonsterOfThomas]

Abu,

We’re talking past each other. I think its utterly undeniable that the Church cannot ordain women. That’s not what I’m inquiring about.

I’m asking about the scope of Divine protection over the Papal office.

Does the Holy Spirit ensure that the Pope will respond to controversies as they come, and shepherd the flock as needed-- or is it possible for a Pope to omit what is seemingly the duty to tend the flock?

 

[Abu]

MonsterOfThomas #5
Does the Holy Spirit ensure that the Pope will respond to controversies as they come, and shepherd the flock as needed—

No, and some Popes have followed or allowed polices which as Cardinal O’Connor has written “A pope could yield to political pressures. Popes have done so in the past.” [John Cardinal O’Connor – At the Storm Center of a Changing American Catholic Church, 1963, Nat Hentoff, p 43].

or is it possible for a Pope to omit what is seemingly the duty to tend the flock?

Succumbing to false ideas can be seen in some Popes such as Vigilius, and Liberius.

This does not alter the reality that Popes are infallible when teaching the whole Church on faith and morals.