Infallibility. (Apologetics).

There are many truths revealed to us by God which could never be proved by reasoning but which, once revealed, can be shown to make great sense. One of these is the infallibility of the Catholic Church. I don't know whether Hindus or Muslims consider their religion to be infallible. I will therefore limit my consideration to Christian groups, all of whom think that their religion is a revealed religion. Different groups have a different list of doctrines which they accept and they have to admit that contradictories cannot both be true. In actual practice they usually accept that their church is infallible. Otherwise why would they follow it in their lives and even be zealous in defending it?

This has certainly been true of the different Christian groups in the past. Anglicans, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Methodists considered that their religion was true and that these other religions were false except for the doctrines held by them that were the same as theirs. Today, with a loss of faith among these churches, even the more devoted of their followers are less sure than they used to be, and many have ceased to practice their faith or in many cases even to believe in it.

Something similar, but not quite the same, has happened in the Catholic Church. The number of practising Catholics in the Western World has decreased and many people no longer strongly believe all that the Church teaches.

Among Christians today, Catholics are almost alone in claiming that their Church is infallible. (I write "almost" because the Orthodox Church probably makes the same claim. But the Orthodox Church in each patriarchy is independent of the others, and there are some differences now amoung the patriarchies.) And the interesting question now arises why the other Christian denominations don't claim to be infallible, or even seem to want to be infallible. Why should they settle for a fallible religion? They claim to accept the Bible, and in it Christ has assured his Church that he will be with it all days, down to the end of the world. One answer is that (except for the Orthodox) they cannot trace their history back to Christ. And another reason is that they do consider their religion infallible but don't want to use the word. Otherwise, why would they practice their religion, at least as assiduously as they do? St. Paul said, "If the trumpet gives forth an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?" (1Cor 14:8) . How strong would the faith of Catholics (those who are now faithful Catholics) be today if they thought that their religion was as prone to error as the other Christian denominations are, and even claim to be?

If God sent his Son to become a human being, to teach a doctrine, to found a Church, to suffer and die, and to rise again for our salvation, is it thinkable that he would found a fallible Church to instruct mankind down through the centuries and sanctify them with Sacraments? That he would found a Church whose teachings were not known to be certain, whose Sacraments were not known to be valid? Would you be a practising Catholic today if you had to tell yourself that you believe this or that, but that you are not perfectly sure about it, that you go to Confession and receive Communion but are not perfectly sure that sins are forgiven or that what you receive in Communion is truly God Himself? Perhaps you would be, but would you be the kind of Catholic you are now?

We cannot prove by reason that God would reveal himself to us but could we not be sure that, if he did so, he would make sure that generations to come would be able to know what this revelation taught? We cannot prove that, if God revealed himself to us, he would have to provide for infallibility in the same way as he has done, but could we not be sure that, if he did so, he would provide some mechanism for it? It might be a General Council, it might be, in addition, the solemn teaching on faith or morality by the head of the Church at a given time, or it might be something different, but it seems clear to me that there would be some recognizable mechanism. And, knowing human nature as I do, I don't think it would be by a 50% vote of everybody.