Is the Roman Catholic Church Infallible?

The Roman Catholic Church claims absolute infallibility for itself, and since 1870 it has explicitly claimed infallibility for the Pope "when he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith and morals". The Catechism of the Catholic Church seems to go on to extend the same authority to the Bible: "This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of the divine Revelation itself".

Now their British bishops have published

The Gift of Scripture, which tells their followers that they are not to expect to find "full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision" in the Bible. It is particularly the early chapters of Genesis which fall victim to this expression of unbelief; the Garden of Eden and the creation of Eve from Adam's rib, for instance, are described as "symbolic language". At most, the book says, these chapters may contain "historical traces". Yet the Virgin birth and the resurrection of Christ are declared to be factually correct. The Bible is considered to be true in those passages which relate to human salvation.

And how is one to know what to believe in the Bible and what to dismiss as merely symbolic? One assumes that we must listen to Rome, which has always relied on tradition as its authority for bringing in doctrines with no foundation in Scripture. Rome always wants to feel in control. She, we are expected to believe, has authority over the Bible. But, in reality, the situation is the other way round: the Church is under the authority of God speaking exclusively in His Word. Indeed, that is one of the marks of the true Church, a test which Rome plainly fails.

Michael McMahon, a Scottish priest and one of the writers of The Gift of Scripture, has said: "In order to believe that every passage of the Bible is the literal truth, you have to suspend your critical faculties. You have to suspend the God-given ability to reason." Yet Roman Catholics are expected to suspend their critical faculties when the teachings of their Church are presented to them; they are required to accept as true whatever doctrines Rome teaches, whether they are aware of them or not. In any case, it requires the total suspension of one's critical faculties to believe that a priest can change bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, while the bread to all appearance remains bread and the wine remains wine.

Although, until now, Rome has claimed to believe in the infallibility of Scripture, that claim was fundamentally flawed because she gave the same authority to tradition. What is to be believed may have changed; but the total control exerted by the Church is still the same. Yet God's Word has not changed, and never will. The inspired, and therefore infallible, testimony of the Psalmist, as he addressed the Most High, remains totally valid: "Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgements endureth for ever" (Ps 119:160). May the Word of God - true in its entirety from the beginning, and for ever - be our unchanging guide throughout our lives!