Fallibility and Infallibility
By L. A. S.
A GREAT event is stirring the interest of the religious world, especially that portion of it which draws its inspiration from Rome. A new “successor to St. Peter” is being chosen. With much solemn ceremony, behind carefully closed and guarded doors, an election is being held, out of which will come a new head of the papal world, to be hailed as the “vicar of Christ,” the spiritual guide of the followers of the cross; one who can lead the church with unerring accuracy in the way of truth. Only the most extraordinary endowments of character could be in keeping with a position of such eminence and responsibility. Indeed, any possibility of error on the part of the “vicar of Christ” could not be admitted. As well might it be admitted that Christ himself could err, as that he whom Christ has constituted his vicar, to be the visible head of the church in Christ’s absence, and “hold the regency of God over on earth,” as the late Pope Leo declared, could lead the church astray. The papacy perceives this fact, and has dealt with it logically by proclaiming the dogma of papal infallibility. No man, however, is infallible. No candidate for the papal throne is infallible. He must therefore, in the papal view, be invested with infallibility at his election. But to suppose this requires also that the choice which placed him on the papal throne be also an infallible one. In other words, the two-thirds vote of the conclave of cardinals which elects a new pope must always be beyond the possibility of error. But no one of the assembled cardinals is infallible; all are fallible men. The sum of their fallibility is still fallibility, and not infallibility. There is no infallibility anywhere in the conclave before the election, yet there is infallibility there as soon as the election takes place; for the new pope, when speaking ex cathedra, can not err. Whence does this infallibility come? Obviously, it must come from nothing, for it existed nowhere previous to the choice of the pope. But who can bring something out of nothing?—No man, no assembly of men, but only the Creator, can do this. Creative power is the sign of the true God. It is claimed, of course, that the election of a pope is really the act of God, that the choice is directed by the Holy Spirit. But this is only a claim, for which there is no proof. The words of men, the acts of men, can never be of themselves infallibly right. God alone is infallible. His word alone is infallibly true. Only as any man speaks that word can he speak with infallibility; and this is as much the prerogative of one individual as another. In the gospel, authority and power are in the truth, no matter from whose lips it may come. In the papacy the authority pertains to the office, and the word is counted infallible because spoken by the person in that office. It is our work in the proclamation of the everlasting gospel to-day, to point the people away from that which is merely human, to the Word of God, as being the only word that is infallible, the only sure ground of faith, and the only source from whence can come salvation. L. A. S.