Infallibilty

[tghockett1]

I believe that I understand the teching of papal infallibility.  What about all of the other teachings of the church though?  I've heard it said several times that the catholic church is incapable of teaching error.  Obviously the church is capable of error.  How does this work if the whole church or the majority of the church were to fall into corruption how could we claim that it would still teach truth.  In other words, what defines church teaching if not the actions and words of the clergy?

[CatherineM]

The Church is perfect. The humans who are the Body of Christ are not perfect. When it comes to the big stuff, the Holy Spirit makes sure we humans don't get it wrong. Also with the big stuff, we take a very long time to set it in the stone of infallibility. The rest of the stuff we deal with on a daily basis can be imperfect. Priests are humans first. They can make all manners of mistakes, but that doesn't make the Church corrupt. When Jesus said that not even the Gates of Hell would corrupt the Church, that includes us fallible humans. Doesn't mean we don't try to screw stuff up on a routine basis.

[CatherineM]

I just got this message, and don't have time until Saturday to do it justice, so hoping that someone else can pick it up.




Hi I just got you reply in the phorum about my infallibility question. I had some follow up questions but it won't let me post in there. Anyways, I understood most of what you were saying but can you explain a little more what you mean when you say "The Church is perfect. The humans who are the Body of Christ are not perfect" I read this one over and over again and I couldn't figure it out.

Next, does the church have a list of infalliblbe teachings? if not where would one go to find the church "law". I'm mostly wondering because someone recently told me that the churches teaching against contraception is not an infallible teaching and so we're not bound by it. Obviouly when I have questions I usually go to the catechism but is that even considered church dogma? Is the catechism essentially infallible. where would someone to find out exactly what the church teaches? Hope this question is making sense.

Thanks