He writes:<\/p>\n
Thanks for your \u201cQuestions About Magisterial Failures<\/a>\u201d article; it was very thought-provoking.<\/p>\n
A commenter, Steve Lauhoff wrote in part, \u201d I have gotten into many, many discussions with Protestants and atheists who equate a papal encyclical with infallible teaching.<\/em>\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
An encyclical is *authoritative<\/strong>* teaching and may (though typically does not) contain an exercise of the extraordinary Magisterium in which the pope \u201cdeclares, pronounces, and defines\u201d a dogma ex Cathedra.\u00a0 Insofar as it contains the ordinary magisterial teaching of the Church, it remains infallible since the ordinary Magisterium is infallible.<\/p>\n
That said, I think almost all the focus on \u201cinfallibility\u201d is a gigantic red herring.\u00a0 The habit of progressives is to appeal to \u201cprimacy of conscience\u201d to blow off any teaching of the Church that discomforts them.\u00a0 The habit of conservatives (especially with this pope) is to appeal to \u201cprudential judgment\u201d as the excuse for blowing off any teaching of the Church that bothers them.\u00a0 And both of them use \u201cHey!\u00a0 He\u2019s not speaking *infallibly<\/strong>* as their rationale for doing so.\u00a0 The thing is, he *is<\/strong>* speaking very knowledgeably as somebody who has done serious homework with the best minds available, whether question is the Pelvic Issues that irk Progressives or the Environment\/Money Issues that obsess conservatives.\u00a0 The pope is the only person on earth we Catholics routine demand infallibility of before we will listen to what he says.\u00a0 We never demand it of our doctor, garage mechanic, or plumber.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s silly\u2013and dangerous.\u00a0 Lumen Gentium<\/em> says:<\/p>\n
Among the principal duties of bishops the preaching of the Gospel occupies an eminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock. Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will.<\/strong> His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.\u201d (Lumen Gentium<\/em><\/a>, no. 25)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My reader continues:<\/p>\n
My understanding is that a Papal Encyclical intended as a doctrinal teaching document addressed to all the faithful, whereas a Papal Bull, at least by the time of Nicholas V, was more an ad hoc<\/em> instrument directed to a particular concrete issue, time & locale specific.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m not sure of the distinction myself, so I can\u2019t speak to that.<\/p>\n
Even granting for the sake of argument that Nicholas V was giving carte blanche<\/em> for chattel slavery to the Portuguese kings (and I\u2019m not doing so), wouldn\u2019t the fact that the instrument was a Bull instead of an Encyclical remove the issue from the realm of magisterial teaching?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Again, I\u2019m not sure of the distinction and so can\u2019t say.<\/p>\n
Also, are you aware of any Encyclical<\/em> where the Holy Father taught (what we have subsequently come to realize was) error? This question is all the more interesting in light of the upcoming Encyclical on Climate Change, whatever its contents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, the Letter of Clement takes for granted the existence of the Phoenix, so there\u2019s that.\u00a0 But I\u2019m no student of the history of encyclicals, so I couldn\u2019t really answer this intelligently either.\u00a0 I see no particular reason an encyclical would have to be inerrant on all statements of fact outside the faith and morals of the Church.\u00a0 But then again, I think the Church\u2019s habit of prudently using the best of human knowledge and wisdom from disciplines outside its field of competence generally stands it in good stead over the long haul.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He writes: Thanks for your \u201cQuestions About Magisterial Failures\u201d article; it was very thought-provoking. A commenter, Steve Lauhoff wrote in part, \u201d I have gotten into many, many discussions with Protestants and atheists who equate a papal encyclical with infallible teaching.\u201c An encyclical is *authoritative* teaching and may (though typically does not) contain an exercise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,650],"class_list":["post-93245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag","tag-na"],"yoast_head":"\n
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