Was Pope Honorius Condemned for Heresy By St Leo II?

[RomanCatholic66]

If a Pope is Condemned by a Valid Council of Heresy, how do I answer a Protestant that a Pope cannot teach error?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Its important to look at exactly what Pope Honorius was condemned for. It was not that he taught anything heretical but that he allowed/permitted heresy.

The Church had been divided by the heresy of the Monothelites. They had claimed that Christ had but one will which was his divine will. The orthodox teaching is that Christ has a divine will and a human will. Pope Honorius did not want to cause a schism in the Church so he refused to officially define the nature of Christ’s will:

Honorius wrote that, “on account of the simplicity of man and to avoid controversies, we must, as I have already said, define neither one nor two operations in the mediator between God and man.”

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=3301

Pope Honorius was condemned decades after his death for allowing the heresy to spread by not cracking down on it. He was not considered to have actually taught the heresy as Christian doctrine. This is confirmed by Pope Leo II’s explanation of the condemnation:

Catholic Encyclopedia:

“And with them Honorius, who allowed the unspotted rule of Apostolic tradition, which he received from his predecessors, to be tarnished.”

“With Honorius, who did not, as became the Apostolic authority, extinguish the flame of heretical teaching in its first beginning, but fostered it by his negligence.”

Pope Honorius was condemned for not stepping in to stop a heresy and thus was considered guilty of its spread. He was not, however, condemned as actually believing or teaching the heresy.

Infallibility does not mean the Pope always has the absolute best way to deal with every problem. Infallibility simply means that when the Pope makes an official teaching on faith and morals that the teaching will be correct. In this case the Pope didn’t make a teaching and therefore could not have contradicted infallibility.