Just as Peter was not the dazzling originator of new teaching, his successors have more often served as a brake on innovation than as its impetus. This is as it should be. The Pope serves the Church best by saying “no” to errors and heresies. Continue Reading »
Any sort of “creeping infallibility” that would attach the same level of authority to every papal utterance or document must be avoided. To fail to draw appropriate distinctions—whether between binding and non-binding documents of the ordinary magisterium, or between the development and the evolution of doctrine—is to dim the light of the Petrine ministry and impoverish the faithful. Continue Reading »