kalbertone #305
Vatican 1 gave this but was a incomplete council due to political turmoil.Vatican II finished it up.It would of been unheard of for the pope to assert his authority outside his own archdiocese throughout the first 1,000 years of church history.The Popes unrestrained power in absolute monarchy(which the church is not) should of ended at Vatican II. But John Paul II & Benedict have dissented against Collegiality,subsidiarity in favour of a totalitarian type church which is not modelled on the apostles
Perfidy and lack of knowledge is endless here – another dissenter trying to play “pope”. Even after the fiasco over “conscience” – his false “PRIMACY & Superiority of CONSCIENCE” (see post #288) – he’s learned nothing.
The God-given primacy of the Popes, so eloquently affirmed at Vatican I, was expressed very early in the Church.
Already, Peter had exercised his supreme authority in the upper room before Pentecost to have Judas’ place filled. At the first Apostolic Council of Jerusalem Peter settled the heated discussion over circumcising the gentiles and “the whole assembly fell silent” (Acts 15:7-12). Paul made sure that his ministry to the gentiles was recognised by, Peter (Gal 1:I8).
The third successor of St Peter, Clement, wrote to the Catholics of Corinth in A.D. 95: “If any man should be disobedient unto the words spoken by God through us, let them understand that they will entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger… Render obedience to the things written by us through the Holy Spirit.” (I Clem. ad Cor. 59,1).
Fr Stanley Jaki shows that the reality of the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome was expressed even by Protestant theologian Adolph von Harnack, with reference to the first century! Those who know nothing of history can now learn from history. The Infallibility and primacy of The Vicar of Christ was not disputed in Christ’s Church, at the beginning.
About Pope Victor I’s declaration by edict, about the year 200, that any local Church that failed to conform with Rome was excluded from the union with the one Church by heresy, none other than Adolph von Harnack admitted that Victor I was “recognised, in his capacity of bishop of Rome, as the special guardian of the ‘common unity’… " (See
And On This Rock, p 118, 1987, Trinity Communications, Fr Stanley L Jaki).
Harnack asked: “How would Victor have ventured on such an edict – though indeed he had not the power of enforcing it in every case – unless the special prerogative of Rome to determine the conditions of the ‘common unity’ in the vital questions of faith had been an acknowledged and well-established fact?”
The doctrine of Papal infallibility is found in Scripture (Mt 16:17-19; Jn 21: 15-17; Mt 28:19-20; 1 Tim 3:15),
and for the final proposed dogma of Vatican I there were 471 bishops for and 130 against; more than two-thirds bishops for. Sixty-six bishops then returned to their dioceses before the Public Session, but all eventually declared full acceptance of the defined doctrine. [Dr Leslie Rumble, *Questions People Ask, Chevalier, 1975, p 159].
The denigration of the dogma of papal primacy and infallibility is a monstrous fantasy, and Vatican II repeats the teaching in the *Dogmatic Constitution on the Church *(
Lumen Gentium) (#18):
“This sacred synod following in the steps of the First Vatican Council… This teaching concerning the institution, the permanence, the nature and import of the sacred primacy of the Roman Pontiff and his infallible teaching office, the sacred synod proposes anew to be firmly believed by all the faithful….”
On the genuine doctrinal development of collegiality, *Lumen Gentium *(
Dogmatic Constitution of the Church), 25, teaches clearly:
“But Episcopal consecration, together with the office of sanctifying, also confers the office of teaching and of governing, which, however, of its very nature, can be exercised only in hierarchical communion with the head and the members of the college.”
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church - Lumen gentium
www.vatican.va
……“collegial infallibility…marks a turning point in doctrinal history.” [See Fr John A Hardon, S.J., *The Catholic Catechism, 1975, Doubleday, p 232-233]. This refers to the bishops around the world when teaching in accord with the Pope; when reflecting historical continuity of teaching; and in an Ecumenical Council when approved by a Pope.
So going against the Pope is NOT sanctioned by Vatican II which is completely consistent with Vatican I.
The dissenters just don’t know what they are talking about.