The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-05-19
InfaIlibility Reviewed.


Judging from the last sentence of the
Presbyterian's article, which we publish in
another column, we presume that it con-
siders the discussion on Infallibility about
at an end for the present. Certainly we
find nothing in it that calls for an answer
on our part. Leaving it optional, there
fore with our neighbor whether to publish
this article OF not, we proceed to review
the field of battle as it stands now.
We have sustained our position by sew
eral texts from the Bible which appear to
indicate Papal Iafallibility in the clearest
language Our respected opponent has
made but feeble efforts, if we may say so
without disrespect, to escape the conclu-
sion to which they 80 plainly lead US. For
instance, the text, "Thou art Peter, and
on this rock I will build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it," indicates clearly enough that the Church
was to be built on Peter. "Thou art Peter"
or Cephas; but Cephas or Peter means a
rock, and upon this rock will build"
etc. Peter was therefore to be the founda-
ton of the Church. Moreover, the gates
of He'll should never prevail against it !;
therefore it was to be infallible, and for
ever. If the Church is infallible, its foun-
datiOn must be truth-infallible. Peter
might die, but his Apostolic Office as foun-
dation-his infallibility-was to have the
same Immortality as the Church.
To this the Presbyterian had two answers ::
LIST, that our Lord, after making this pro-
mise to Peter, had reproached him, and
said, "Get thee behind me, Satan," etc. to
which we replied that this was an accusa-
ton of fault or sin, not of an error in
doctrine, and that the Presbyterian had
COMPOUNDED impeccability with infallibii;ty.
We showed, moreover, that at the date
when this reproach was made to Peter the
Church was not yet built upon him-he
was not Pope. The argument of the
Presbyterian was, therefore, worth nothing,
and left our conclusion perfectly I'M
touched.
I'd. In its next issue it tried another ex-
PLANTATION of the text, which was equally
transparent in its shallowness, viz: that as
we admitted Peter not to have become in
fallible at the time when the promise of
infallibility was made to him, he could not
become SO afterwards. We utterly de-
stroyed this little sophism by drawing at
tention to the exact language of our Lord ::
81 arill build my church )" 81 uiH give
unto thee the keys; )" being once convert
ed, convert thy BRETHREN" all pointing to
the future and not to something already
accomplished. Thus explanation number
two being utterly demolished, our inter-
probation of the text remained untouched,
and it remains so to this further
or other attempts than these two feeble
ones have been made to explain away this
| sense, looks clear enough.
We then proceeded to show from the
Fathers of the Church that they nearly all,
if not all, had occasion somewhere in their
writings, and some of them frequently, to
refer to the Bishop of Rome, or Pope, as the
successor of St. Peter, and as invested with
his attributes of Primary and Infallibilty.
This commenced as far back as we have
any writings of the early Christians, even
before the death of st. John the Evangel-
ist. One of tbs early Fathers-St. Am
brose-put the whole proposition into a
formula as succinct and perfect as any in
which human thought has ever been
condensed. " Ubi Petrus ibi Ecclesia -
"Where Peter is, there is the Church.
That means two things. LIST. The Pope
is virtually Peter, an d, Cd, Peter or the
Pope is the infallible index of the truth
that is in the Church.
To all this, which cannot be denied, we
have the answer that these Fathers some
times explained this text in several differ
emit ways. And to this we reply that the
Fathers used variety in their expressions,
as anybody else would, but never supposed
that those expressions were contradictory
or inconsistent. Having said in one place
that the Church was bailt on Peter, they
were not aware of any change of senti-
ment in saving that it was huilt IN his