Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

256 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam

This secret of this wonderful unity of our Church is

Christ's promise that the Churchwill never fail to teach

the truth, Once we know what the Church teaches we

accept it. For we know it must be true ... AU Catholic

priests teach the same doctrine because they all obey

the Vicar of Christ. The ward 'vicar' means 'one who

takes the place ofanother.' The Pope is the Vicarof Christ

because he takes the place of Christ as Head of the

Church on earth. The Church remains one because all

her members believe the same Faith. They believe it

because the Church cannat teach what is false. This is

what we mean when we say that the Church is infalli­

ble. Christ promised to guide his Church, One of the

ways Christ chose ta guide the Church was by leaving

his Vicar on earth ta speak for him, That is why we say

the Pope is infallible. He is the Head of the infallible

Church. God could not allow him ta lead it into error, 5

Itis significant that Cardinal Heenan talks only of 'Christ', and not
of Jesus. He does not refer to the Gospels ta support his daims ­
because there is in fact nothing in the Gospels ta support them!
The dogma of papal infallibility has often proved awkward, and
especially in retrospect. For, as we have already seen, if all the Popes
were infallible, then why wasPope Honorius anathematised? Does
the relatively recent papal encydical which states thatthe Jews were
not responsible for the supposed crucifixion of Jesus mean that all
the preceding Popes who were of the opinion that the Jews were
responsible were not infallible after all? And since Jesus was in fact
not crucified at all, does this not mean that all the Popes who have
believed that he was crucified were not infallible at all?
Many Roman Catholics today have rejected the validity of
'Christ's promisethattheChurchwillneverfail ta teach the truth,'
which is not ta be found in any of the Gospels: The great gap be­
tween Church teaching and practice, ta give sorne examples of con­
temporary attitudes, troubled Cincinnati's Archbishop Joseph L.
Bernadin, who said in an interview in V.S. Catholic:

Sa many consider themselves good Catholics, even

though their beliefs and practices seem ta conflict with

the official teaching in the Church. This is almost a new

concept of what it means to be a Catholic today ... Once

it becamelegitimate(in 1966) ta eat meat on Friday one

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