By Martin Grichting, INFOVATICANA, May 23, 2026
Only papal coherence can heal the wounds of ecclesial unity.
To the liberal Catholic Lord Acton (1834-1902) is attributed the phrase: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In democracies it has been concluded that power must be distrusted and therefore limited. For this reason, it is divided, among other things, through the recognition of fundamental rights, the separation of powers (legislative, executive, and judicial), subsidiarity and federalism, referendums, and term limits. Through a “social contract” of all citizens, the Constitution, political power is agreed to be shared in this way. But even this does not always restrain it sufficiently.
In the Church, the problem of power is even more pressing. There, not all the means mentioned exist to fragment power. Rather, according to the doctrine of the faith and the Code of Canon Law (CIC/1983), the Pope “by virtue of his office possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church” (can. 331). ….
