PAPAL INFALLIBILITY: THE REMAINING AGENDA

...He thought they wanted to base their discussions on the bible...

...I, 77) The position of the inopportunists can be summarized from observations of Dupanloup, bishop of Orleans...

...I will never speak ex cathedra, therefore I am not infallible...

...Was there an implicit desire to protect the Incarnate Word from our sinful flesh, a failure to recognize that the "Word made flesh" accepted our real humanity in all its alienation...

...The infallibilists, known to their contemporaries as neo-ultramontanists, fought for a strong definition...

...Such a simplified statement of the dogma without a careful analysis of the restrictions, which Ott gives in small print, leads to two conclusions, neither justified by the actual definition: that the corporate action of the bishops in council would no longer be necessary or useful and that the pope could act above and apart from the church...

...This is to return to Vatican I and seek to understand the dogma in the context of its actual definition...

...As long ago as 1930 Abbot Cuthbert Butler had written: "Though at the time of the council [Vatican I] it was infallibility that raised the greatest storms, alike outside the council and in, and still at this day is the great bugbear of the Protestant mind...

...Only the papacy remained as a source of serious doctrinal difference...

...Newman and Gladstone: the Vatican Decrees, [1962], 226...

...The bishop of Lausanne, a future cardinal, preached on the three incarnations of the Son of God, "in the womb of a virgin, in the eucha-rist, and in the old man in the Vatican...

...It has become commonplace to line up the adversaries in great debates as progressives and conservatives or liberals and reactionaries...

...PAPAL INFALLIBILITY THE REMAINING AGENDA PHILIP S. KAUFMAN Vatican Council II pointedly did not define anything On March 4, 1974, the national Lutheran-Catholic dialogue issued a long awaited statement, "Papal Primacy/Converging Viewpoints...

...Hefele, the great church historian, was perhaps the most adamant of the opponents to definition...

...choice which was made...

...Sinai...

...The leadership in the movement to unite Italy passed to the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia under the able, but anti-clerical, Cavour...

...Peter and peals of thunder punctuating each yes vote, reminding the participants of the giving of the law on Mt...

...De Fide)" The average, educated Catholic, brought up on the Baltimore Catechism, would only want to add "when he speaks on faith and morals...

...And finally such a definition would lower the esteem of the bishops in the eyes of the faithful...

...Benedict Center, an ecumenical conference center at Madison, Wisconsin...

...From an Italian source came the opinion that "when the pope thinks it is God who is thinking in him...

...they got a definition of infallibility...

...Without pinning down exactly how it was to be done, the council indicated some of the means used by popes to determine what is revealed truth: "according to the exigencies of time and circumstances, sometimes assembling ecumenical councils, or asking for the mind of the church scattered throughout the world, sometimes by particular synods, sometimes using other helps which divine providence supplied...

...Papal rule was restored in 1850 under a pope who saw liberty, liberalism, indeed all the principles of the French Revolution, as destructive of every social, moral and religious value...

...5:21) Vatican Council II pointedly did not define anything...

...Newman, commenting on the assistance granted the popes that they might "inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation" wrote: "In order to secure this fidelity, no inward gift of infallibility is needed, such as the apostles had, no direct suggestion of divine truth, but simply external guardianship keeping them off from error...

...From the language of Pastor Aeternus and much of the subsequent discussion, one would think that papal infallibility had been exercised frequently and on grave issues...

...When the vote was completed, both dissenting bishops went up to kneel before the pope and make their submissions...

...38, March 14, 1974, 585-599...

...Vorgrimler, ed., Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, [1967], I, 119) The actual definition was not susceptible of such simplistic explanations...

...The christological content of the church's first mariological statement at Ephesus in 431, calling Mary "the mother of God," is that her Son is truly God, the Son of God...

...There were only two negative votes...

...Butler, I 73) In France, Louis Veuillot, editor of Univers, substituted the pope's name for God in the hymn at Nones of the Roman Breviary, "Rerum Pius tenax vigor," and applied to Pius the words describing the Holy Spirit in the Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus "To Pius IX, Pontifex-King: Father of the poor, Giver of God's gifts, Light of men's hearts, From heaven direct on men the rays of your light...

...A fierce storm broke out with lightning around the dome of St...

...2 Cor...

...Neither was defined to stop a great heresy which threatened the life of the chuich...

...But if the infallibilists won the battle they lost the war...

...The election of Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferritti, who took the name of Pius IX, was widely hailed as a victory for the forces of progress and reform...

...Indeed, may there not be a hidden docetic tendency here...

...Butler writes of "the personal magnetism that by its charm and by its sorrows drew to Pius in an unprecedented degree the respect, affection, veneration of all Catholics...

...is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed his church to be endowed in defining doctrine concerning faith and morals...

...Newman, in his "Letter to the Duke of Norfolk," was to write: "It can hardly be doubted that there were those in the council who were desirous of a stronger definition, and the definition actually made, as being moderate, is so far the victory of those many bishops who considered any definition on the subject inopportune...

...The position of the pope was interesting...

...Dialogue in the 1960s had produced substantial agreement on creed, baptism, eucharist, and ministry and orders...

...Butler observes that "the excesses of the new ultramontanists . . . did exercise a profound influence on the atmosphere in which the council was held...

...It is to be understood that they were not the isolated extravagances of a few extremists...

...Pope Paul found the opinion, that councils would no longer be needed, sufficiently widespread in 1964 to contradict it in his opening address to the 3rd session of Vatican II...

...I asked one of the consultants to the dialogue how they happened to start with the more difficult subject...

...In 1860 Cavour persuaded the inhabitants of the Romagna district of the Papal States to vote for annexation with Piedmont-Sardinia...

...Newman and Gladstone, 189) As defined then, papal infallibility is a negative charism which protects the pope from defining as revelation what is in fact not revelation...

...Two elements are important for understanding the definition of 1870: the personality of Pius IX and the political situation in Italy which led to the fall of the Papal States...

...They did not define the infallibility of the church and deliberately avoided settling controverted issues on that doctrine...

...However, this neutral attitude was not long maintained...

...The outcome of the dialogue on papal primacy certainly justifies the FATHER PHILIP S. KAUFMAN is a monk of St...

...The end of the temporal rule of the pope was at hand...

...His holiness tells them plainly that they are not on his side...

...John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, and theological consultant at St...

...Butler, II, 133) They accepted a compromise statement which read: "The Roman Pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra...

...It need hardly be mentioned, except that the desire explicitly to reject it influenced the wording of the final decree...

...William George Ward, editor of the Dublin Review, held that the pope's "every doctrinal pronouncement is infallibly directed by the Holy Ghost...

...Origins, Vol...

...The definition would increase the obstacles to achieving unity with other Christians and unnecessarily antagonize governments...

...The "temporal power" of the pope as civil ruler of the Papal States had only existed since the "donation of Pepin" in 756...

...The issue had been raised at the Council of Trent, but was dropped by the pope to avoid division among the bishops...

...Now there are two problems involving the pope's role in the church: papal primacy which concerns the pope as ruler, and papal infallibility which concerns the pope as teacher...

...And there is the delightful story that Pope John^ shocked a group of seminarians by saying: "I am not infallible...

...I cannot help thinking that the matter of the primacy...

...This may not be too difficult to find for the dogma of the Assumption...

...Butler, II, 202...

...It has been suggested that the doctrinal significance of every mario-logical statement must be its christo-logical content...

...There were serious theological and historical problems as yet unresolved...

...Would anyone suggest that the world into which Mary and Jesus were born was different...

...According to a contemporary observer ". . . bishops who were disposed to adopt a neutral or moderate attitude find themselves sorely tried in a personal interview...

...All of this has been theory, an attempt to understand what was actually defined at Vatican I. What about practice...

...God's truth could only be realized in a person and his name is Jesus of Nazareth.a person and his name is Jesus of Nazareth...

...The bishop of Tulle referred to Pius as "the Incarnate Word continuing himself...

...Their purpose was devotional, expressions of two popes' great love for the Blessed Virgin...

...The controversy over Hans Kung's, Infallible...

...The revolution of 1848, the flight of the pope to Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples, and the proclamation of the Roman Republic by Mazzini quickly brought to an end the hope expressed by the great French Catholic layman, Ozanam, that Pius IX would bring about "the alliance of religion and liberty...

...But, even more significantly, the choice seemed to violate an established pattern, adopted in the dialogue, of moving from the easier problems to the more difficult...

...It denies the need for a subsequent ratification by the bishops while in no way denying the need to consult the church prior to issuing an infallible statement...

...49) As for the appropriate means by which pope and bishops make inquiry concerning matters to be defined, Gerard Philips has an excellent summary based on the teachings of Vatican II...

...in reality presents much greater difficulties to non-Catholics of all kinds...

...The pope's refusal to grant political liberty to his own subjects played into the hands of the anti-clerical leaders of the risorgimento...

...When that statement had had the desired effect he explained: "The pope is only infallible when he speaks ex cathedra...

...So papal infallibility was defined, not absolutely, but in relation to an ecclesial infallibility not yet defined...

...When it was introduced and the date of its discussion gradually advanced on the schedule, Pius seemed to take an entirely passive role, acquiescing in the activity which others promoted...

...The pope sent letters of commendation to Ward, whose views he must have learned from Manning since he knew no English...

...Most of the opponents of the definition left before the formal session, reluctant to offend a beloved pontiff by voting against the decree in his presence...

...He was known to disapprove of the reactionary policies of his predecessor, Gregory XVI...

...Nor can the personality of Pius IX be ignored...

...Butler, I, 212-13) (Of course, Pius IX had set a precedent for this new use of the defining power when in 1854 he had defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception as an act of devotion...

...More serious was the conviction that the pope could act in isolation from the church, as he taught the church what to believe...

...It was said that the little rock had yielded to the big rock...

...The inopportunists included those who opposed the doctrine of papal infallibility as well as those who accepted the doctrine but considered a definition inopportune...

...It was six years before all of the bishops had submitted...

...It is undoubtedly Christ's victory over death expressed in bible and creed as the resurrection from the dead and in this dogma applied to her through whom he became a member of our race...

...This should be recognized as the powerful source of the movement to define papal infallibility...

...An Inquiry, made papal infallibility a very timely topic...

...But Pius also sent letters to Veuillot whom he read in the French...

...But what is the meaning of the Immaculate Conception in view of rethinking of the doctrine of original sin...

...As reliable a source as Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, heads his section on papal infallibility with the statement: "The pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra...

...Neither proclaims a truth central to the church's teaching on salvation...

...3, No...

...Leo XIII made him a cardinal...

...Cuthbert Butler, The Vatican Council, [1930], II, 71...

...Butler, I, 76-7) Such ideas were by no means limited to journalists...

...The infalli-bilists won the immediate battle...

...one of them was cast by Fitzgerald of Little Rock, Arkansas...

...The bishops at Vatican I rejected the strong wording proposed by the theologians: "The Roman Pontiff cannot err when...

...There is a popular account of the final vote on July 18 in the presence of Pius IX...

...Even more significant is the next sentence which makes clear that it is not inspiration by which "they might make known new doctrine, but that by [the Holy Spirit's] assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith delivered through the apostles...

...It is interesting to contrast the popular understanding of the dogma of infallibility with the actual definition as interpreted by Newman...

...Pius IX and very many Catholics throughout the world viewed the gradual annexation of the pope's territory as an attack on the papacy and indeed on the church itself...

...These consist of diligent use of scripture, recourse to the free and uricensoied work of scholars, sensitivity to the insights of the faithful, ecumenical dialogue, and "a frank and courageous dialogue with the spiritual and social realities of each age...

...I am not concerned with the history of the origin of the doctrine, which Brian Tierney has traced to the spiritual Franciscans of the thirteenth century, but only with the immediate historical background and contemporary understanding of the dogma defined in the constitution Pastor Aeternus, July 18, 1870...

...By the time of Pius IX the necessity of the temporal power had been elevated almost to the level of a "doctrine" supported by theological arguments...

...Lying between these two "parties," but with little influence on the debate, was the Gallican position, that a dogmatic decree of the pope becomes known to be infallible and irreform-able because of the subsequent endorsement by the bishops...

...Now there is a simple and yet conservative approach to the question of papal infallibility which has proved quite helpful in defusing the dogma as a problem in informal ecumenical dialogues...

...When," he asked, "has definition of doctrine de fide been a luxury of devotion, and not a stern painful necessity...

...John Henry Newman wrote that "a council's proper office is, when some grave heresy or other evil impends, to inspire the faithful with hope and confidence...

...Such is not the case...

...Liberal Catholics hoped that union would be achieved under the leadership of the papacy...

...The unanimity required for a solemn definition had been achieved...

...There is much to be said for the contention that no historically conditioned, verbal statement can ever encompass the truth of God...

...But when one recalls that conciliar definitions should be adopted with practical unanimity, their victory was scarcely as overwhelming as it has usually been described...

...In the practical order there will probably never again be a solemn, dogmatic definition by pope or council...

...Manning, archbishop of Westminster, the leading English-speaking infallibilist, spoke of the pope as the incarnation of the Holy Spirit and identified papal infallibility with "inspiration," an idea explicitly rejected in the final decree...

...Who better than Pius IX...

...Gerard Philips, secretary of the Theological Commission of Vatican II, has written: "The Second Vatican Council was at pains to show that it was an error to think that the pope set himself above the church and outside the church when he spoke ex cathedra...

...They find it vain to declare their devotion or their sincerity...

...Perhaps even more significant are qualifying ideas in the paragraphs preceding the formal definition...

...However, that choice is surprising for two reasons...

...Since there is nothing explicit in the bible on papal infallibility, but a great deal which could involve primacy, that seemed to be the better choice...

...He had supported the risorgimento, the movement for unification of all Italy into a single, national state...

...The atmosphere both inside and outside the council has been described in detail by Abbot Butler...

...Recognizing the danger of such oversimplification, it is convenient to designate two parties, both inside and outside the council, the infal-libilists and the inopportunists...

...That doctrine is increasingly seen as an expression of the reality of the sinful situation in the world into which every child is born and therefore the absolute necessity of grace...

...The dialogue explicitly limited its discussion to papal primacy, recognizing that papal infallibility is an issue still to be faced...

...It should be noted that my concern is not with the infallibility of the church, but only with the infallibility of the pope...

...Lumen Gentium, #25, Abbott trans...

...he defines...

...II, 199) As the temporal power of the beloved pontiff declined, there developed a strong movement to exalt his spiritual power...

...they are among his enemies...

...The outcome of the struggle is sufficiently well known...

...Only two papal decrees are recognized with certainty as ex cathedra definitions-the Immaculate Conception defined by Pius IX in 1854 and the Assumption defined by Pius XII in 1950...

...Infallibility was not on the original agenda of the council...

...Vorgrim-ler, I, 214) The final phrase of the definition, "and therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are irreformable of themselves and not from the consent of the church," is simply a direct refutation of the Gallican position...

...In this popular version of the scene nothing is said of the test vote five days earlier when 451 approved, 88 rejected the definition and 62 gave conditional consent, evenly divided between those who wanted a stronger definition and those who would have further weakened it...

...To define a dogma from such motives was a departure from an almost completely consistent tradition-to define only in order to resolve grave conflicts...

...Only priests and laity were involved in the schism which the definition provoked...

...What is the christological content of the two defined marian dogmas...

...their loyalty is not sound...

...There was no necessity for defining...

...Newman, it may be recalled, was under a cloud as long as Pius IX reigned...

...For our sakes God made him who did not know sin, to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God...

...According to Vatican II "whenever either the Roman pontiff or the body of bishops together with him defines a judgment, they pronounce it in accord with revelation itself...