Pope Shocks Theologians By Suggesting He May Be Fallible
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Pope Benedict XVI has shocked theologians and opened a chink in the theory of papal infallibility by saying that people should feel free to disagree with what he has written in his latest book, a meditation on Jesus Christ.
Entitled “Jesus of Nazareth,” the first book that Benedict XVI has written since his election as pope in 2003 will be published next spring.
The first part describes Jesus’s life from his baptism in the river Jordan until his transfiguration, when he discloses his divinity to his disciples. Referencing hundreds of works of history, the pope writes that he believes Christ is a “historically convincing figure.”
In the foreword, he states that the book is “absolutely not” a work of Catholic doctrine but rather the “expression of my personal research.” He adds: “Consequently, everyone is free to contradict me. I only ask the readers that they read with sympathy, without which there will be no comprehension.”
No pope has ever opened up his work and opinions to criticism before. Nor has any pope tried to separate his personal and public personas, according to a professor of the history of the Catholic Church at Bologna University, Giuseppe Alberigo.
“I really believe this is the first time this has ever happened,” he said. “It is an extraordinarily important gesture. What it means is that the pope is not totally infallible. As well as being the pope, he is a common man, hugely studious in this case, but like all men he is subject to debates, arguments, and discussions.” He added that Pope John Paul II “could never have made a distinction between ‘official’ pope and ‘ordinary’ pope.”
The Vatican’s spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, said the pope had acted with his “usual simplicity and humility” in seeking to “freely allow discussion and criticism.” “What he writes does not constrain the research of theologians. This is not a long encyclical on Jesus but a personal presentation of the figure of Jesus by the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, who has been elected Bishop of Rome.”
However, Rev. Lombardi then warned that the message in the book should be heeded. “The fact is he has been elected Bishop of Rome and has the duty of sustaining the faith of his brothers, and so it is very significant that he has felt such a strong urge to give a renewed presentation of the figure of Christ.”
Some critics warned that the Pope could not be both a free-thinking theologian and the leader of the Catholic Church. A professor of philosophy at Florence University, Luigi Lombardi Vallauri, said: “It seems a coquettish thing to pretend there is a freedom of theology while knowing well that this theology rests on the shoulders of a pope. My impression is that this is the attitude of someone who wants to have his cake and eat it, to be both pontiff and an independent theologian.”