Quote:
Originally Posted by DubaiSis
And my understanding of the infallibility of the pope is that never in history before JPII did any pope EVER admit to being ill because the pope, being infallible, can't get sick. So he's fine, he's fine, he's fine, he's dead. I will gladly surrender that belief if I was told wrong.
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I'm afraid you were told wrong. That sounds like the mixed-up idea of some overly pious (and superstitious) Catholic or of some virulently anti-Catholic Protestant. Either way, it's wrong. Infallible means trustworthy or without error.
Per Benedict XVI: "The Pope is not an oracle; he is infallible in very rare situations, as we know."
And per John XXIII: "I am only infallible if I speak infallibly but I shall never do that, so I am not infallible."
FWIW, I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm Presbyterian, not Catholic, and I don't accept the doctrines of the Petrine primacy or of papal infallibility. That said, I have a great deal of respect for the Bishop of Rome -- both the office and the holder of that office -- and the ministry of unity he can exercise.