{"id":93294,"date":"2015-07-29T00:55:19","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T07:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=93294"},"modified":"2015-07-16T15:06:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T22:06:27","slug":"a-reader-struggles-with-infallibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/07\/a-reader-struggles-with-infallibility.html","title":{"rendered":"A reader struggles with infallibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

He writes:<\/p>\n

Good afternoon!<\/p>\n

I have a question about church infallibility that I\u2019m hoping you might be able to answer (or direct me to a great answer already articulated by you or someone else).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m an almost-new Catholic (finished RCIA, soon to be accepted into the Church).\u00a0 I was raised Protestant \u2013 Lutheran as a kid, Fundamentalist\/Evangelical in my adolescence, and fell away from faith in my twenties.\u00a0 I\u2019ll spare you the details on how I arrived at the Catholic Church\u2019s door, but I do want to thank you for the work you do because you are on a short-list of people who saved my Christian faith by convincing me of the truth of the Catholic Church.\u00a0 The effects of that are far-reaching, as I\u2019ve brought my wife and toddler daughter into the Church with me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Glorious news about you and your family!\u00a0 Welcome!<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019ve converted, some of my non-Catholic friends and family have challenged the idea that the Church is guided by the Holy Spirit and has been given authority by Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Their contention is that can\u2019t be true in light of some of the Church\u2019s misdeeds in the past.\u00a0 I don\u2019t doubt that the Church is infallible, but I\u2019m having a hard time articulating why.\u00a0 That is, I\u2019m having a hard time explaining the tension between Church mistakes and Church infallibility.<\/p>\n

Do you have any guidance on this issue?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As to the question of the misdeeds of Catholics (and never forget that this includes Popes, priests, and bishops), the distinction you are looking for is infallibility vs. impeccability.\u00a0 The Church claims only the former and, indeed, presumes that infallibility is necessary precisely *because<\/strong>* of the sinfulness of the Church\u2019s members.\u00a0 It is *because<\/strong>* the Church is composed of sinners, scoundrel, and dunderheads that a special gift of the Holy Spirit\u2013infallibility\u2013is necessary to keep the Church from completely losing track of the gospel, not centuries after her founding, but five minutes after her founding.\u00a0 Infallibility is an entirely *negative<\/strong>* protection.\u00a0 It does not mean that Catholics are smarter, better, or holier than everybody else.\u00a0 It means only that the Holy Spirit, and him alone, keeps the Church from defining as doctrine things that are not part of\u00a0 the apostolic faith<\/a>.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a piece I wrote on it some time ago.<\/a>\u00a0In short, the only reason the Church is infallible is not that Catholics are awesome, but because the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church.<\/p>\n

Thank you again for what you do.\u00a0 I\u2019m an avid blog reader, a daily Connecting the Dots listener, and my Amazon wishlist is peppered with your books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m grateful to you for reading and listening! \u00a0God bless you and yours as you seek to follow Jesus in his Holy Church!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He writes: Good afternoon! I have a question about church infallibility that I\u2019m hoping you might be able to answer (or direct me to a great answer already articulated by you or someone else). I\u2019m an almost-new Catholic (finished RCIA, soon to be accepted into the Church).\u00a0 I was raised Protestant \u2013 Lutheran as a […]<\/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-93294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mailbag","tag-na"],"yoast_head":"\nA reader struggles with infallibility<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"He writes: Good afternoon! 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