Msgr. Richard C. Antall: The Fallibility of Popes, According to St. Paul and St. Gregory

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Infallibility is not to be generalized to all the pope’s statements, just as it must not be confused with impeccability. The pope is human and can sin like all of us. He can also be mistaken about things.

By Msgr. Richard C. Antall, Crisis Magazine, Feb. 23, 2023

Monsignor Antall is pastor of Holy Name Parish in the Diocese of Cleveland. He is the author of The X-Mass Files (Atmosphere Press, 2021), and The Wedding (Lambing Press, 2019).

Msgr. Richard C. AntallThe pope is infallible when declaring the truth of dogma under conditions that have been applied very strictly. The definition given at the First Vatican Council clearly implies those conditions:

When the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in exercising his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians he defines with his supreme apostolic authority that a doctrine on faith and morals is to be held by the whole Church, through the divine assistance promised him in the person of Saint Peter, he enjoys that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished to endow his Church in defining a doctrine on faith and morals. (Vatican Council I: DS 3074) …

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