Letters

Four conditions (letter)

Fr G.H. Duggan SM

Contents - Jun 2003 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Three Feasts: Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity - Peter Westmore Liturgy: John Paul's new encyclical on the Eucharist targets liturgical abuses - Michael Gilchrist AD2000 staff members awarded federation Centenary Medals - AD2000 News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Interview: Vatican II and the liturgy, 40 years later - Zenit News Service Events: Corpus Christi Procession - Brisbane, 22 June 2003 The environment: rediscovering the balanced Catholic perspective - Michael Casanova Laity: The role of lay Catholics in a time of crisis - Mary Ann Glendon Those dreadful old Catholic hymns? - Fr Fabian Duggan OSB The seal of confession: how a priest put his life on the line - Clem Lack Letters: Eucharistic encyclical and the priesthood (letter) - John Kelly Letters: Requirements fulfilled (letter) - John Young Letters: Four conditions (letter) - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Holy Orders (letter) - Francis Vrijmoed Letters: Brisbane Synod (letter) - Alistair Barros Letters: Catechetics (letter) Letters: Teilhard de Chardin (letter) - Grahame Fallon Letters: Latin Mass (letter) - Philip Robinson Letters: Death by 'nice blokes' (letter) - Lisa-Maree Letters: Abortion (letter) - Betty Griffin Letters: Prayer to Our Lady of Good Counsel (letter) - Marie E. Curtin Books: Culture and the Thomist Tradition : After Vatican II, by Tracey Rowland - Fr Peter Joseph STD (reviewer) Books: From Physics to Metaphysics, by Fr Francis J. Selman - Michael Casanova Books: The Story of Christianity : 2000 Years of Faith - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Family in the Bible, edited by Richard H. Hess and M. Danial Carroll - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Our books are the cheapest! Reflection: Church scandals: focus on the message, not just the messengers - Fr Kevin Brannelly

I am afraid Father Crothers is mistaken in holding that when Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis declared that the Church has not the power to confer the Christian priesthood on any woman, he was not exercising his prerogative of personal infallibility.

When the First Vatican Council defined the dogma of papal infallibility, it stated that for a papal statement to considered as infallible it must fulfil four conditions. It must concern: a matter of faith or morals; it must be definitive; it must be issued by the Pope as successor of St Peter as Head of the Church and its Supreme Teacher; it must be addressed to the whole Church, not just any part of it.

It will be noted that these do not include an explicit statement by the Holy Father that he is exercising his prerogative of personal infallibility.

FR G.H. DUGGAN SM
Upper Hutt, New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 16 No 5 (June 2003), p. 14