re sspx schism bob van cleef writes if the papacy is infallible and this is a matter of faith then the pope cannot be wrong if on the other hand this is not a matter of faith but a matter of church law then we should still obey as the pope is the legal head of the church in other words given the doctrine of infallibility we have no choice but to obey this is a primary problem in the church today what you are saying is more or less heresy you might call it infallibilism it s the idea that the pope is always right in everything he says or does this is virtually all over the place especially in this country the pope is only infallible under certain very specific and well defined conditions when these conditions are not met he can make mistakes he can make big mistakes a couple historical examples come to mind bishop robert grosseteste was perhaps the greatest product of the english catholic church at one point during his career the reigning pope decided to install one of his nephews in an english see bishop grosseteste said that this would happen over his dead body though maybe not in so many words you have to treat popes with respect even when they are wrong the problem was that this nephew would just collect the income of the see and probably never set foot there this would deprive the people of the see of a shepherd bishop grosseteste was quite right in what he did another example is that of pope john xxii a pope of the middle ages he decided that souls that were saved did not enjoy the beatific vision until the last judgement he decided that this should be a defined doctrine of the church though he didn t quite get around to defining it now there s no way this is compatible with catholic doctrine the pope s doctrine was criticised by many in the church he went so far as to put a number of his opponents in jail even in the end he had to admit his mistake shortly before he died he recanted his successor made the exact opposite idea a dogma of the church if you consult any of the great catholic theologians who treat of such subjects such as st robert bellarmine a doctor of the church you will find detailed discussions of whether the pope can personally fall into heresy or schism the teaching of all such theologians is that the commands of a pope must be resisted if they are to the detriment of the catholic faith a pope s authority is given for the purpose of building up the catholic church commands in conflict with this purpose have no legal or moral force
