Is the Pope Infallible?

In Roman Catholic theology, Papal infallibility is the dogma that the Pope is preserved from error when he solemnly promulgates, or declares, to the Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals. This doctrine was defined at the First Vatican Council of 1870.

Whilst followers may confuse this with the simple Dogma that the Pope is never wrong, it should certainly be something that the Catholic Church airs and explains more openly after Pope Benedict XVI effectively apologized to Muslim Clerics on Saturday morning.

"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.

In Tuesday’s speech the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things.

The Pope is known to have strong feelings about the relationship between religion and violence and is unlikely to retract the sentiment of his speech fully – though for the Vatican the statement is effectively a retraction.

One of the issues with religion across the board is that Dogma is effectively a driving force for those worshipping and following a faith, be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any other religious belief.

In many religions the worry is that without Dogma the faith
would collapse and control lost.

We call on the Catholic Church to discuss issues of dogma more openly – explaining and reviewing the dogma on a periodic basis. If other faiths followed suit perhaps there would be less conflict in the world.