Keep in mind that there are three ways to make foolproof statements: There are already excellent answers to the question. I would like to contribute with an analogy that could help further clarify the concept of infallibility. It refers to the terminology actually used, ex cathedra. Pope John Paul II`s assertion of the «doctrine of grave immorality of the direct and wilful murder of an innocent human being»[67] and «that euthanasia is a grave violation of God`s law, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable murder of a human person»[75] has also been similarly cited by the Congregation (i.e., infallible, although it is not taught ex cathedra). [67] A good parallel would be for the President of the United States to declare that something is legally binding on Americans by virtue of the office of President. It wouldn`t necessarily need to be in the Oval Office of the White House to make it legally binding. Now let`s move on to your question. If we look at the two previous ex cathedra statements by Pope Pius IX and Pope Pius XII, we can see some similarities: Professor Frank K. Flinn argues that Pope John Paul II`s statement on the ineligibility of women for the priesthood was not infallible; Kilnn believes that Cardinal Ratzinger`s subsequent response to the dubium on the subject was therefore wrong. [8] When he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), under the authority of John Paul II, declared in a formal answer (responsum) to a question (dubium) that John Paul II`s decision was not valid. On the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood, in her apostolic exhortation, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is part of the «ordinary and infallible» magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church.
[9] Pope Francis said in an interview that John Paul II`s decision was «the last word» on the ordination of women. [10] [11] [12] Ex cathedra is a Latin expression and does not mean «of the cathedral», but «of the chair». However, the term has religious origins: it was originally applied to decisions made by popes from their thrones. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, a pope who speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith or morality is infallible. In everyday language, the term is used in reference to statements made by people in positions of authority, and it is often used ironically to describe someone who speaks with arrogance or unwarranted assurance. The concordats concluded at the beginning of the century led to direct and sometimes intimate relations between the Pope and the governments, but above all the Vatican Council and its two most important declarations on infallibility and on the jurisdiction of the Pope also completely changed his position vis-à-vis governments. Their interest in the election – but therefore their right to face it – was also much more firmly justified. For by these decisions, the Pope has arrived in a position to assume episcopal rights in each diocese and to replace episcopal power with papal power. The episcopate is merged with the papal jurisdiction; the Pope no longer exercises, as before, special privileges determined individually, but all the abundance of episcopal rights is in his hands. In principle, he has taken the place of each bishop and, in practice, it is up to him alone to put himself in the place of the first vis-à-vis governments at every moment. Moreover, the bishops are only his tools, his officials without responsibility. In terms of governments, they have become the officials of a foreign sovereign, a sovereign who, by virtue of his infallibility, is a completely absolute ruler – more than any absolute monarch in the world.
Before granting such a position to a new pope and granting him the exercise of such rights, governments must ask themselves whether the election and the elect offer the guarantees they rightly demand against the abuse of such rights. [125] In his 1829 study On the Church, Delahogue stated: «Ultramontane theologians attribute infallibility to the bishop of Rome, who is considered in this aspect and when he speaks, as the proverb says, ex cathedra. This is disputed by others, especially the Gallicans. [82] There is no exhaustive list of papal statements considered infallible. I have learned about this and I do not know when something is proclaimed ex cathedra by the Holy See and when it is not. It seems that different Catholic apologists have different estimates of the number of times ex cathedra statements have been made by different popes in the last century. A 1998 commentary by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published in L`Osservatore Romano in 1998, listed a number of cases of infallible declarations by popes and ecumenical councils, but explicitly stated (No. 11) that this should not be an exhaustive list. The list included ex cathedra statements Ineffabilis Deus, Munificentissimus Deus and Benedictus Deus. [67] With regard to historical papal documents, Catholic theologian and Church historian Klaus Schatz conducted an extensive study, published in 1985, which identified the following list of documents ex cathedra:[68] Theologians can argue about this, but the answer seems to be: No, based on the definition of the First Vatican Council.