Cristiano;8001824:
Who says that the council was not infallible? I see that the Church did not see the need to declare it infallible and that makes a lot of sense to me. Here I am not talking about religion I am just talking about plain formal logic. If I do not declare that my dog is a male, does that make it a female? No, it simply leaves the possibility that it could be either male or female and you just do not know.QUOTE]
Pope Paul says that the Council was not infallible. I gave you a quote earlier. Pope Paul said it over and over again. Is the Pope not the final authority on Earth? He is the vet who is telling you that the dog is a male. When you hear the vet tell you that the dog is a male, do you go against his/her years of experience by correcting them and saying it’s a female? There is no other option when the vet tells you that it’s a male.
Let’s not equate two things that are not equal. Vatican II did not define dogma. Therefore, it made no infallible decrees. Pope Paul was speaking about this fact.
However, Vatican II discussed many infallible doctrines and built on them. They were infallible before Vatican II and continue to be so.
The authority of a Council is not diminished in any way, because it does not define dogmas. Catholicism is bigger than dogmas. There is a great deal that has to be discussed in the Church, not just dogmas. The Council discussed those other subjects.
Finally, not infallible does not mean that it is in error or that it teaches error. Nor does it mean that you and I have the authority to tear it apart. We have no authority. We do what the Council says we must do. Authority does not have to speak infallibly to have rights. Its rights come from the law giver, not from infallibility. Christ gives the bishops their authority, even though they may not be speaking infallibly. As long as they are not commanding sin, they have the right to expect assent.
This was made very clear by Francis of Assisi in one of his writings in 1212 when he said that if authority commands that which we believe to be in error and that which it commands is not a sin, then we are bound to obey, because what pleases God is not that we be right, but that we be obedient as Christ was obedient.
We need to put this whole excuse to rest that the Council and the bishops have no right to expect assent, because they did not speak infallibly, dogmatically or because in our opinion they are mistaken. If they are not asking you to commit a sin, then there is not legitimate excuse. The Church, not the individual, must define a sin.
Teresa of Avila taught something that I have found very helpful in my life.
**We are preparing ourselves for the time, which will come very soon, when we shall find ourselves at the end of our journey and shall be drinking of living water from the fountain I have described. Unless we make a total surrender of our will to the Lord, and put ourselves in His hands so that He may do in all things what is best for us in accordance with His will, He will never allow us to drink of it. **
Therefore, I avoid turning my relationship with the Church, the Council and the hierarchy into a battle of wills. If Teresa and Francis are right and we have no reason to doubt them, real holiness is achieved when we surrender our will to legitimate authority, not when we’re right. None of the masters of Christian Spirituality has ever said that one has to be right to be virtuous. They have all said that one has to be obedient and at times submissive. I have always said, “Pilate was not right, but Christ submitted and in doing so he won our souls back.”
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF