In the first three chapters of Pastor Aeternus, the Council showed that Christ conferred the primacy of jurisdiction on Peter and his successors. Infallibility, in the proper sense, is a supernatural charism which antecedently preserves one from error. This is not to be confused with divine inspiration. The gift of infallibility requires that there be a cause which is an "a priori" way unfailingly preserving the person from error. With God it is omniscience. If human beings are ever infallible, it must be because of special divine assistance. When we say that the whole body of the Church is infallible in its profession of faith, we mean that, because of the guidance of the Holy Ghost which Christ has promised the entire body of the faithful cannot err in what they, with moral unanimity, firmly profess to be the Catholic faith.
The vast majority of Christians agree that the Scriptures are infallibly true with regard to the essential religious message they proclaim. Furthermore, most Christians agree that the Church as a whole, despite mistakes, is indefectible. Although the Church may fail in many ways, nevertheless, because of Christ's promise to be with her and to send the Holy Ghost to enlighten her, the Church universal will not fall away completely and irrevocably from the truth of the gospel.
Roman Catholics believe that the pope, as head of the Church, possesses that infallibility with which God has endowed the Church. The basic reason for saying this is that if the pope could err in his solemnly defined teachings he could lead the Church into error. If that were to happen, the Church would no longer be the "pillar of truth" (1 Tim 3.15) that the Scriptures proclaim to be, and the Holy Ghost would have failed in His promised task of leading the Church into all truth (Jn 16.13).
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
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