this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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[โ€“] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's not really how it works. Benedict XVI himself famously said that the Holy Spirit doesn't choose the pope directly, it just makes sure that whoever the Cardinals select isn't a complete nutter who destroys the Church. Read up on the bad popes, we've had literal murderers and men who bought the papacy. John XII was absolutely wild.

Sidenote, a lot of people get papal infallibility completely wrong when dunking on tradcaths. Yes, Catholic doctrine holds that the pope can be infallibe, when speaking ex cathedra. That's not when the pope gets asked something in an interview, it's a whole thing with a whole celebration and ritual for when they declare a new dogma of the Church. This has only happened twice, to establish 2 doctrines: the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. That's all any pope has said infallibly. Everything else a pope has ever said is just pastoral guidance from the most important figure in the Church, who is still very fallible.

[โ€“] Keld@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This glosses over the corrolary catholic doctrine that the pope cannot promulgate heretical doctrine as he is guided by the holy spirit. If the pope said some crazy shit in an interview, it's not "infallible", but it also can't be wrong on a doctrinal level.
The idea that there has only ever been two Ex Cathedra statements is also incorrect as per the Congegation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger declared that letters written by John Paul II on matters like women ordination were Ex Cathedra and also that in general a lot more stuff is Ex Cathedra than is "traditionally presented".

The angry atheists, as per usual, are closer to being right than the apologists.