User:Cat Whisperer/Papal infallibility

Bibliography on Infallibility in the Catholic Church

Books edit

General / Overview edit

  • Gaillardetz, Richard (2003). By What Authority?: A Primer on Scripture, the Magisterium, and the Sense of the Faithful. ISBN 0-8146-2872-9.
This is an expanded version of Gaillardetz's doctoral dissertation.

History of Papal Infallibility edit

  • Hasler, Bernhard (1981). HOW THE POPE BECAME INFALLIBLE: Pius IX and the Politics of Persuation. (Translation of Hasler, Bernhard (1979). WIE DER PAPST UNFEHLBAR WURDE: Macht und Ohnmacht eines Dogmas (in German). R. Piper & Co. Verlag.)
  • McClory, Robert (1997). Power and the Papacy: The People and Politics Behind the Doctrine of Infallibility. ISBN 0-7648-0141-4.
  • Tierney, Brian (1988). Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150-1350: A Study on the Concepts of Infallibility, Sovereignty and Tradition in the Middle Ages. ISBN 90-04-08884-9.
Historical objections to the teachings on infallibility often appeal to the important work of Brian Tierney, Origins of Papal Infallibility 1150-1350 (Leiden, 1972).

First Vatican Council Period Works edit

Special / Theological Aspect edit

  • Chirico, Peter (1983). Infallibility: The Crossroads of Doctrine. ISBN 0-89453-296-0.
  • Lio, Ermenegildo (1986). Humanae vitae e infallibilità: Paolo VI, il Concilio e Giovanni Paolo II (Teologia e filosofia) (in Italian). ISBN 88-209-1528-6.

Church Teaching Authority: Historical and Theological Studies (Hardcover) by John P. Boyle (Author)

  1. Hardcover: 241 pages
  2. Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press (September 1995)
  3. Language: English
  4. ISBN-10: 0268008051
  5. ISBN-13: 978-0268008055

The Consensus Of The Church And Papal Infallibility: A Study In The Background Of Vatican I (Hardcover) by Richard F. Costigan (Author)

  1. Hardcover: 218 pages
  2. Publisher: Catholic University of America Press (September 15, 2005)
  3. Language: English
  4. ISBN-10: 0813214130


Dissenting edit

Errors in Magisterial Teaching edit

  • Bermejo, Luis (1990). Infallibility on Trial: Church, Conciliarity and Communion. imprimi potest by Julian Fernandes, Provincial of India. ISBN 0-87061-190-9.

Other edit

See also Ockham and Infallibility.

The Rome-based Jesuit Wittgenstein scholar Garth Hallett argued that the dogma of infallibility was neither true nor false but meaningless; see his Darkness and Light: The Analysis of Doctrinal Statements (Paulist Press, 1975). In practice, he claims, the dogma seems to have no practical use and to have succumbed to the sense that it is irrelevant.

historian Garry Wills, author of Papal Sin

Authority in the Church (Theology) (Paperback) by David J. Stagaman

  1. Paperback: 143 pages
  2. Publisher: Michael Glazier Books (August 1999)
  3. Language: English
  4. ISBN-10: 0814659454

Citation Details Title: AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH.(Review)(Brief Article) Author: Richard R. Gaillardetz Publication: Theological Studies (Refereed) Date: June 1, 2000 Publisher: Theological Studies, Inc. Volume: 61 Issue: 2 Page: 396 Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

Teaching Authority in the Early Church (Message of the Fathers of the Church) (Paperback) by Robert B. Eno

  1. Paperback: 168 pages
  2. Publisher: Health Policy Advisory Center (June 1984)
  3. Language: English
  4. ISBN-10: 0814653251

Book sections edit

"...the Vatican Council introduced no new doctrine when it defined the infallibility of the pope, but merely re-asserted what had been...and had even been explicitly proclaimed...by more than one of the early ecumenical councils."

Articles edit

  • Klaus Schatz
  • "The Doctrinal Weight of Evangelium Vitae", Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., Theological Studies, v. 56, n. 3 (Sept. 1995), pp. 560-565.

Vatican documents edit

In response to this confusion, the Church's magisterium has unambiguously stated, on at least three separate occasions:

“…This means that these definitions do not need the consent of the bishops in order to be valid,…”

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium

Vatican I

In the conclusion of the fourth chapter of its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Pastor Aeternus, solemnly promulgated by Pope Pius IX, the First Vatican Council in 1870 declared the following:


In a General Audience (17 March 1993) John Paul II indicated that ex cathedra teaching can eliminate doubt about existing teachings: "The reason for ex cathedra definitions is almost always to give this certification to the truths that are to be believed as belonging to the "deposit of faith" and to exclude all doubt..."

Catholic theologians agree that both Pope Pius IX's 1854 definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and Pope Pius XII's 1950 definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary are instances of papal infallibility, a fact which has been confirmed by the Church's magisterium

The Vatican itself has given no complete list of papal statements considered to be infallible. A 1998 commentary by Cardinal Ratzinger and Cardinal Bertone, the leaders of the CDF, listed a number of instances of infallible pronouncements by popes and by ecumenical councils, but explicitly stated that this was not meant to be a complete list.

Bertone statement

Theologians edit

  • Liberals
    • Richard Gaillardetz
    • Hermann Pottmeyer
  • Moderates
    • Francis A. Sullivan
  • Conservatives
    • Mark Lowery
    • Lawrence J. Welch

External links edit

See also edit