In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St Paul makes an impassioned plea for unity (1 Cor 1: 10-17). Dissension has arisen among the fledgling Church there, with some declaring themselves as followers of Apollos, some of Peter, and others as disciples of St Paul himself. With no desire at all to be the leader of his own party, St Paul makes it clear that factionalism has no place whatsoever in the Church, which is the one and undivided Mystical Body of Christ on earth.
Reading the Catholic press these days, it is to be lamented that we see a good deal of discord within the Church, and a resulting dissipation of energies which can only impede Her mission. Categories which might have a place in the secular realm are applied to us as Catholics, so that we find ourselves being labelled conservatives or liberals, progressives or traditionalists. As in the world of contemporary politics, these divisions are the cause of increasing polarisation. When we reach a point at which our disagreements are irreconcilable, then we find our beloved Church teetering on the brink of schism.
So where must we look for saving truth when all around us we hear a cacophony of voices conflicted on quite fundamental doctrines concerning marriage, the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, among other subjects better not mentioned in polite society? A clue to the answer is to be found in the Nicene Creed which we say or sing together at Holy Mass every Sunday, and in which we profess our belief in a Church which is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. True faith – genuine soul-saving doctrine – is to be found in teaching and belief which is in continuity and consistent with the Deposit of Faith which was entrusted by Our Lord to His Apostles, with nothing added and nothing omitted. The successors of the Apostles are, of course, the bishops, whose mission is to unpack and proclaim that Deposit of Faith in all its fullness, and to guard it against all contamination of error.
Some readers might be saying that this is all very well, but in our own times we cannot escape the fact that there are disagreements among bishops on quite basic teachings. Many of the German bishops, for instance, seem to be lobbying hard for what would be a radical overturning of many truths that have been believed and professed by the Church in every generation. The answer to this must be that we should beware of everything that savours of novelty. Anything that obviously contradicts and is inconsistent with what has been clearly taught and believed down the centuries is foreign to the Deposit of Faith and to be avoided like poison.
In a fallen world, every society governed by men is prone to division and dissension. The only solution to this is to have someone in authority with whom the buck stops. And so Our Lord appointed St Peter as the chief shepherd, and the rock on which He built His Church. The buck stopped with Peter, as it stops with his successors in every age. In order to assist our popes in this mission of adjudication, Our Lord has invested the office of the papacy with papal infallibility.
Our Oratorian saint and cardinal, John Henry Newman, was actually rather opposed to the promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility that took place in 1870. It was not that he did not believe in it. He certainly did. His concern was that it would be easily misunderstood and abused. The key to understanding papal infallibility correctly seems to be the realisation that it is a negative guarantee, which prevents a pope from positively teaching error whenever, addressing the whole Church, he invokes the authority of his office as successor of Peter and makes it explicitly clear that what is being pronounced on a matter of faith or morals is henceforth universally binding on the faithful. On the practical level, infallibility means that if time travel were possible, we could visit planet earth at any time between now and Our Lord’s return in glory and we would find the same Church, with the same hierarchical structure of (an exclusively male) episcopacy and presbyterate, the same seven Sacraments, and doctrine on faith and morals in perfect continuity with the faith of the Apostles.
Infallibility certainly does not mean that any pope is necessarily inspired by the Holy Ghost, or incapable of error in his own theological opinions or personal reflections. Historically, some popes have been renowned teachers, while others have been better known for aggrandising their families or leading the armies of the Papal States into battle. One or two have even made such a mess in the area of doctrine that they have had to be corrected by their successors. This means that we Catholics need to pray for our popes, to assist them in their mission. In our own time, with dissensions in the Church simmering towards boiling point, we should probably accompany these prayers with fasting and penance, as we ask God to bless and guide the Successor of St Peter in his task of unifying and governing the Church. Something to keep in mind as we prepare for our Lenten observances.
Father Julian Large