Complex questions of papal infallibility
Analysis comes after ouster of Australian Bishop William Morris
May. 23, 2011
By Jerry Filteau
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/complex-questions-papal-infallibility
...“The pope can remove Morris even if it [the papal teaching on women’s ordination to the priesthood] is not infallible -- there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
He said he would “go along” with Sullivan’s reservations about the infallible status of the papal declaration in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
When NCR asked Sullivan whether he regards the teaching in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as manifestly infallible, he said, “No. I don’t think so.”
But he also said, “It’s infallibly taught -- at least the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has declared -- and I don’t want to contradict it.”
Fr. Charles E. Curran, a moral theologian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, also cited the canon that nothing is to be regarded as infallible doctrine unless it is manifestly so.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that Ratzinger wants to say it’s infallible, and that he has said that” in his 1995 response, as then head of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, to a question of whether the teaching against ordaining women priests was infallible, Curran said.
The congregation said at that time that the teaching spelled out in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis “requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the tradition of the church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium.”
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
The pope cannot proclaim a teaching that does not reflect the sense of the faithful. Pope John Paul did not follow the process of worldwide consultation with thelogians and bishops before he declared this teaching to be definitive.
Now Pope Benedict stands on the precipice. ( and discourages even discussion of the topic, making women's ordination a " serious crime",firing Bishop Morris of Australia etc)
It appears that Roman Catholic Women Priests are one of the Vatican's worst nightmares. When prominent theologians question the infallible status given to this teaching by our present pope, rest assured that their intellectual prod is an unwelcome challenge. However, if Benedict declares this doctrine infallible, the loss will be greatest for the magisterium . If Benedict declares women's ordination infallible from the chair of Peter, he would do serious damage to the magisterium's teaching authority.
I believe Pope Benedict, the theologian, knows that is too high a risk no matter how opposed he is to women priests and our supporters! However, I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in this "dance", and all shall be well!
Bridget Mary Meehan, RCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
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