> On Tue, 14 Mar 2000 01:32:10 -0500 Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > Since 1870, popes have been considered infallible on matters of
> > doctrine.
>
> I thought it was only matters of ethical doctrine - and only ethical doctrine
> enunciated from the seat of St. Peter. If I'm not mistaken, there is actually
> very little in the RC tradition slated to be infallible...
That's true, but it's primarily if not exclusively matters of doctrine, not ethics. The definition from the the 1870 council is rather narrowly drawn:
"Romanum pontificem, cum ex cathedra loquitur, id est, cum omnium christianorum pastoris et doctoris munere fungens pro suprema sua apostolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab universa ecclesia tenendam definit, per assistentiam divinam ipsi in beato petro promissam, ea infallibilitate pollere, qua divinus redemptor ecclesiam suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit."
"The Roman pontiff when speaking in his official capacity
[lit. 'from the episcopal chair'],
that is, when -- exercising his office as pastor and teacher of
all Christians -- he defines by his supreme apostolic authority
a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the universal church,
through the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter
operates with the infallibility
by which the divine redeemer wished his church to be instructed
for defining doctrine in faith and morals."
The statement not only limits itself to a few official actions; it also contains in its last clause a curious ambiguity that perhaps reflects some of the practical and theoretical struggles within the late 19th-century leadership of the church.
C. G. Estabrook