The Pope (book)

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The Pope (Du Pape) is an 1819 book written by Savoyard philosopher Joseph de Maistre, which many consider to be his literary masterpiece.

Contents

Sovereignty of papal power

Maistre argues that, in the Church, the Pope is sovereign, and that it is an essential characteristic of all sovereign power that its decisions should be subject to no appeal.

Role of papal infallibility

Maistre mostly writes from the perspective of the ordinary magisterium having an infallible character, whereas the First Vatican Council defined a dogma on the infallibility of the extraordinary papal magisterium, in the limited circumstances when the Pope decides that it is time to define a dogma. Nevertheless, among modern theologians it is generally agreed that certain forms of the ordinary magisterium can at times be infallible, such as the bull Apostolicae curae or the encyclical Ordinatio sacerdotalis, as John Paul II explained in Ad Tuendam Fidem.

Relations with temporal powers

Maistre examines the relations of the pope with temporal powers.

Relations with schismatic Churches

As to the schismatic Churches, Maistre believed that they would fall into philosophic indifference as Catholicism was the only religion fully capable of being compatible with science. [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magisterium</span> Doctrinal authority of the Catholic Church

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dogma in the Catholic Church</span> Articles of faith

A dogma of the Catholic Church is defined as "a truth revealed by God, which the magisterium of the Church declared as binding". The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The Church's Magisterium asserts that it exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form obliging Catholics to an irrevocable adherence of faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection with these.

The term dogmatic fact is employed in the teaching of the Catholic Church, to mean any fact connected with a dogma, wherein the application of the dogma is itself what constitutes, or more accurately canonizes, the fact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariological papal documents</span> Papal decrees and doctrines concerning the Virgin Mary

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The theological notes designate a classification of certainty of beliefs in Catholic theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papal infallibility</span> Dogma of the Catholic Church

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks ex cathedra is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apostolic Church and handed down in Scripture and tradition". It does not mean that the pope cannot sin or otherwise err in some capacity, though he is prevented by the assistance of the Holy Spirit from issuing heretical teaching even in his non-infallible Magisterium, as a corollary of indefectibility. This doctrine, defined dogmatically at the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870 in the document Pastor aeternus, is claimed to have existed in medieval theology and to have been the majority opinion at the time of the Counter-Reformation.

References

  1. Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.