Word: papal
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...doctrine of infallibility-which holds that the Pope cannot be in error when he speaks ex cathedra ("from the throne") on matters of faith or morals -is both a cornerstone of the Roman Catholic Church and an obnoxious obstacle to other Christians. That, and the question of papal authority in general, has been so non-negotiable for both Catholics and non-Catholics that until recently even serious discussion of the problem was ruled out by ecumenical etiquette. Now the papacy and its powers are being studied in official talks between Catholic and Lutheran theologians in the U.S. Within Catholicism itself...
...charges seem a logical enough extension of Kűng's increasingly liberal theology. He has already argued for a lay and clerical role in the selection of bishops and has also suggested that procedures be adopted for deposing an incompetent Pope. His past positions have questioned papal traditions, but this time, however, he is challenging a fundamental claim of the papacy...
...argues from both history and philosophy. He recites a syllabus of papal errors, from the famous fallibilities of St. Peter to the "high-handed" decrees of Pope Paul. The whole idea of papal authority, Kűng says, was ambiguous as late as Augustine and not absolute until Aquinas, who leaned unwittingly on forged quotations from Cyril's Book of Treasures and other false texts. Belief in infallibility evolved later, and has been defined dogma only since Vatican Council I a century ago (see box). Drawing on Catholic historians, Kűng claims that infallibility as propounded by Vatican...
Only God. For all the debate and bad feeling that papal infallibility has caused-several bishops at Vatican I walked out rather than approve it-it has been used formally only once since then, in the 1950 pronouncement that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven after her life on earth. In Kűng's view, reform-minded Vatican Council II actually made things worse. It not only reiterated Vatican I's teaching, but went on to extend infallibility to the entire hierarchy. That affirmation was drawn from the direct, exclusive succession of Catholic bishops in an unbroken...
From past and present, here are some of the things that have been said about papal authority and infallibility...