On Saturday, the bishops will meet to hear the final draft and vote on the document paragraph by paragraph. There will also be a vote on the document as a whole. Thereafter the document will be presented to Pope Francis. Cardinal Gracious reminded the media that this document is intended for the Pope, to help and advise him. It is not being written for the world.
4 comments:
Key word is advise. Thank you Fr AJM. We all need this reminder when there is a lot of crud going around on the Internet.
There is nothing in Catholic teaching that requires us to believe that Pope Francis will be guided by the Holy Ghost in regards to this synod.
Popes have special protection from error under certain conditions, but whether he is guided by the Holy Ghost is an entirely different concept. The protection is a negative protection.
Pope John XXII was not being guided by the Holy Ghost when he openly proclaimed heresy, John XII was not being guided by the Holy Ghost when visiting his mistress, nor was Stephen VI being guided by the Holy Ghost when he had Pope Formosus' body disinterred and placed on trial and then declared him an antipope and annulled all his acts.
The examples could be multiplied.
Maybe we could dig up Paul VI and annual his acts.
DJR
During his reign as Pope, John XXII argued in some of his sermons that those who died in the faith and in the state of grace did not enjoy the Beatific vision until the Last Judgement. This was his view prior to assuming the papacy as well. He did eventually come around to the view that those who died and were in a state of grace did indeed immediately enjoy the presence of God. While for a time he did preach a belief which went against what the Church informally taught, he did not formally proclaim heresy because the doctrine on the Beatific Vision was not infallibly defined until his successor Benedict XII did so.
Pope Formosus' condemnation had little to do with piety and more to do with politics.
A person does not have impeccability conferred on him we he is elected to take the Chair of Peter.
When he formally proclaims doctrine or dogma he does so infallibly. He is a human being who, as we have seen in the past, like any other human being, is capable of some of the worst sorts of deeds. There have been quite a number of Popes who have been saints though.
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