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.
Huh. Just saw an ad for Dr. Phil: Jonathan and Victoria are going to be on his show.
So the pope could say, "ita must be the next pope, and by the way, I'm being all ex cathedra when I say that"?
I just saw that, too, sumi. I think I just threw up in my mouth a
lot.
