"The Fix is In" - Papal Infallibility

[bookslover]

If you'd like to know how Pope Pius IX hijacked Vatican I for the purpose of making absolutely sure that the "doctrine" of papal infallibility became official Roman Catholic doctrine, see (currently the) top post, "The Fix is In" at my "Reiterations" blog listed below. The quotation is from a book about Lord Acton written by Gertrude Himmelfarb, published in 1952.

It's long, but fascinating.

 

[johnbugay]

Schaff offers a fairly long history and analysis of this council in Vol 1 of his "Creeds of Christendom." He suggests (147) that "The destruction of the infallible and irreformable Papacy may be the emancipation of Catholicism, and lead it from its prison-house to the light of a new Reformation."

It's interesting that he was looking at its "destruction" from almost the moment of its inception. History since that time has forced Rome to backpedal from its boldest claims; Klaus Schatz, for example, summarizes what is now known about the history of the Roman church:

Reformation500: November 2006

There was no notion of an enduring office beyond Peter's lifetime

Jesus did not expect him to have successors

Peter's commission did not survive in the leaders of the Roman community who succeeded him

The primitive church was not aware that after Peter's death, his authority passed to the next bishop of Rome

The community of Rome was not aware that its next leader(s) were "successors of Peter"

No one within the first three centuries had any conception that there was a supreme bishop over all the church

Rome clearly now attributes "Petrine primacy" to "development." Such a develop did not occur until the middle of the fifth century, after the fall of Rome.

Under the heading, "On the permanence of the primacy of blessed Peter in the Roman Pontiffs," the Vatican I text says this:

For no one can be in doubt, indeed it was known in every age that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, the pillar of faith and the foundation of the catholic church, received the keys of the kingdom from our lord Jesus Christ, the saviour and redeemer of the human race, and that to this day and for ever he lives and presides and exercises judgment in his successors the bishops of the holy Roman see, which he founded and consecrated with his blood [46] .

Decrees of the First Vatican Council

The footnote in the document attributes this: "From the speech of Philip, the Roman legate, at the 3rd session of the council of Ephesus (D[enzinger] no. 112)."

Philip was only one of three Romans at the council; he was the priest (the other "Papal legates" were bishops.) This statement was not recorded as part of the official proceedings of the council: The Council of Ephesus. This speech was not ratified in any way; in fact, it likely was ignored.

Currently, the Catholic Church holds that Vatican I was incomplete, that it defined the papacy but not the episcopacy. This has resulted in a picture of pope and bishops as "a college" similar in structure to the "college of the apostles," in which Peter was "first". That succession continues to this day (they say).

Much of the theological wrangling on this topic today does try to reconcile the claims of Vatican I with this current "college of bishops" imagery.