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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
CATHOLICS AND THE POPE
The following questions and answers dealing with
Catholics and their relations to the Pope are taken
from a pamphlet issued by the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia. Copies of the pamphlet will
be mailed free to any address on request. This is
the second article of the series:
sin
“Does
?”
the
Pope lose his authority if he commits
No, his sin is personal; his authority is not. He is
not given authority for himself, but for the people,
who can not search his heart and, therefore, must
be able to rely upon his authority, whether or not
his heart is clean. This is true of the President, Gov
ernors, Judges and other public officials of our coun
try and it can not be otherwise in respect of the
Pope, Bishops and Priests of the Church.
' If the Pope were deposed what would happen ?”
His successor would be elected.
“Suppose two persons claim to be Pope, who would
decide the contest?”
Naturally, that body whose office it is to elect the
Pope, the College of Cardinals. As such a thing has
not occurred in five or six hundred years, however,
it does not occasion much concern among Catholics.
“Do Catholics admit that any Popes were wicked
men ?”
Yes, three certainly; four or five others, perhaps.
A number of others (not over twenty), although one
should not say they were wicked, were not exemplary
men. Of the remainder on the long list of more than
two hundred and sixty, all were men of very high
character and many were saints of God. It is a noble
record, reassuring, inspiring, incomparably more
splendid than any other line of men on earth, and
every Catholic is heartened and praises God and His
Church more and more as he knows more and more
of the history of the Popes through the centuries past.
“Are Catholics permitted to believe that any Pope
is in Hell?”
Catholics are not permitted to believe that any cer
tain person is in Hell (unless it be Judas whose fate
the Scriptures reveal). We are taught that it is a sin
against charity to say or believe of any man, regard
less of what we may know of him or how he lived
or died, that he is in Hell. Though we know men
who have denied and betrayed the Church, who have
rebelled against her authority, who have sought to
destroy her, who have spread false doctrines over the
world, who have doubted and blasphemed God, we
may not say or believe that a certain one of them is in
Hell. The Scriptures warn us, “Judge not.”
But what became of the unbroken succession when
it did occur?”
It remained unbroken, the same as does the suc
cession of civil rulers when two persons claim the
same office.
“Is the record of the Popes, their names, the time
of their election, the years they reigned and the dates
of their death, from St. Peter to the present time,
complete and authentic?”
It is; complete and authentic as the record of any
other historic succession; so that at any given time
in the nineteen hundred years since St. Peter, we know
who was Pope quite as well as we know who at
that time was Emperor of Rome or King of England
or successor of Mohammed.
“Who was the woman Pope?”
There has not been one. A story is related of one
called Popess Joan, but it is fiction. Some historians
who are otherwise fairly creditable used to repeat the
story, before the development of modern historical
criticism; it still is occasionally repeated by ignorant
or misinformed persons, or persons who delight in
bits of scandal or find profit in spreading falsehood
about Catholics; but no present day writer who values
his reputation for scholarship or truth will venture
to put forward the exploded myth about the woman
Pope.
“Was there ever a boy Pope?”
John XII was only eighteen years of age when by
combined force and intrigue he was elevated to the
Papacy, which he disgraced by conduct that was a
scandal to all Rome, for which he was deposed. This
occurred before the present method of Papal elections
was prescribed, when the people of Rome elected the
Pope, and more than once forgot their duty and sur
rendered their honor and their pride in the elec
tions.
“Are Catholics generally told about the lives of
(he Popes who were wicked men?”
Their lives are given in our histories and encyclo
pedias, which are available to all; but Catholics do not
make a practice of filling their minds with such things.
Most of us realise that evil has a strong corroding
influence. Unless it is necessary, therefore, we try
to avoid dwelling upon the wickedness of our fellow-
men, whether they were Popes or civil rulers or other
public men, or men in private life. It is enough for
us to know that all men are human, more or less
sinful, entitled to our charity and in need of our
prayers.
To show, however, that the character of a wicked
man who was Pope is not hidden from Catholics so
that they can not know it and may be deceived into
thinking that the Pope is sinless, we quote from the
Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII, page 426, where a
Pope is described as a coarse, immoral man whose
life was such that the Lateran was spoken of as a
brothel and the moral corruption in Rome became the
subject of general odium.” It might be difficult to
believe that such a man could in any way represent
Christ on earth, were it not for the fact that among
twelve whom Christ Himself chose, was Judas; which
is a warning to men for all time to come: As we dare
not condemn Christ, we may not condemn His
Church, for the wickedness of some of His followers.
If the Pope is not inspired, and not in any way
divine, how is he infallible?”
By virtue of his succession to St. Peter whom our
Lord made Chief of the Apostles and Supreme Shep
herd of Christendom, and to whom He gave the keys
of His Kingdom and whose acts on earth He prom
ised to ratify in Heaven. Since God can not fail of
His promise to ratify, and can not ratify error, He
must give His supreme agent such assistance in his
office as will prevent him from teaching error when he
teaches as the agent of God.