The Pope is infallible, according to Catholic doctrine, *only* when he speaks ex cathedra. There have only ever been 2 Papal Infallible statements, both of which were about Mary -- and neither statement was by JPII. (The statement about Mary's immaculate conception -- NOT the conception of Jesus, but her own conception -- was in 1854, and the statement about Mary's bodily assumption into heaven -- like the Rapture, basically -- was in 1950.)
signed,
Doesn't Believe Either One, But Has 12 Years of Catholic School In Her Brain
So is the Pope infallible becaue he says he is, or is there some group of non-Popes who decided that he is infallible?
So is the Pope infallible becaue he says he is, or is there some group of non-Popes who decided that he is infallible?
Papal infallibility was decided on during the first Vatican Council, I believe.
So is the Pope infallible becaue he says he is, or is there some group of non-Popes who decided that he is infallible?
IIRC, a council of bishops (or cardinals?) decided that yeah, okay, whoever is pope gets to be infallible.
t edit
sj is correct -- it was Vatican I. Pope Pius IX basically steamrolled the idea through: "My mind is so made up that if need be I shall take the definition upon myself and dismiss the Council if it wishes to keep silence. "
So, in answer to tommyrot's question, officially some non-popes said the pope is infallible, but in reality, it sounds like Pius IX declared himself infallible no matter what anyone else said.
But does the Pope get to decide when he's infallible (I mean, he only is sometimes. He could say, "No. We won't get salmonella from this cookie dough" and be wrong, and the Catholic Church not come crashing down, because he's not all-Holy-totally-right-all-the-time.)?
U can be the president.
I'd rather B the pope.
The rest of us have decided we'd rather have you as President. Because then the current resident would not be.
But does the Pope get to decide when he's infallible
He gets to pick, I'm assuming, when he's ex cathedra and when he's not.
