The Pope vs The Bishops

[Khet]

Sorry to use such a scandalous title to get your attention, but I am shameless.

I have grown up in the JPII age. This is obviously not a bad thing, but lately I’ve been reading and seeing things that have made me step back and wonder if the modern Catholic Church is putting too much stock in what our beloved Pope says.

As an example, I have heard on a few occasions (particularly on this forum, but elsewhere as well) that the Bishops don’t have the power to bind consciences, or that a certain Bishop doesn’t have the right to make a statement on something that the Church has made no official statement.

It is easy for us to look at our Pope as a rock star of sorts, but are we giving him more power than he should have? I am concerned for future generations who may not have such a great Pope, but who are haunted by the great deference we had for this Pope. I know, and certainly believe that Christ protects his Church, but in the past there have been better popes than others.

Our age has seen the most centralized Church in history, and I am glad of this fact, but should we forget (at least partially) from where we came. I look at the Second Vatican Council. It certainly didn’t end the way Pope John XXIII had planned when he opened the council. The bishops exerted considerable influence to get the VCII documents to where they ended up. Is this not a testament to the power God has entrusted to His bishops?

Again, I love our Pope, and I think he has done many, many great things for this Church, but I only hope that his current position doesn’t put the Church in jeopardy if a future Pope isn’t so holy.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The following paragraph’s of the Catechism of the Catholic Church seem to address some of your concerns:
889. In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a “supernatural sense of faith” the People of God, under the guidance of the Church’s living Magisterium, “unfailingly adheres to this faith.”
890. The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to preserve God’s people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church’s shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this charism takes several forms:
891. “The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful - who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals… The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,” above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme Magisterium proposes a doctrine “for belief as being divinely revealed,” and as the teaching of Christ, the definitions “must be adhered to with the obedience of faith.” This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
892. Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, to the bishop of Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible definition and without pronouncing in a “definitive manner,” they propose in the exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary teaching the faithful “are to adhere to it with religious assent” which, though distinct from the assent of faith, is nonetheless an extension of it.