Is the Pope Infallible? It depends.

Is the Pope Infallible? It depends. | Intellectual Takeout:
Since Pope Francis has seemingly jumped into the American presidential election with his comment about Donald Trump and building a wall on the southern border of the United States (see below), it’s worth clarifying what the Catholic Church actually teaches on papal infallibility.

“‘A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,’ Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico.”

Understandably, there’s been quite a bit of furor over Pope Francis’ comment. Even here at Intellectual Takeout, we felt compelled to point out that quite a few popes have engaged in wall building.

In all the discussion, though, we noticed a number of comments about papal infallibility. Is the pope always right? Simply put, no.

So what does papal infallibility mean and how does it work? For that answer, we turn to Catholic Answers, an organization setup to answer those kinds of pressing questions about Catholics. Here’s the short answer:

“Papal infallibility means that the pope is protected from error when he ‘proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals’ (CCC 891). This does not mean that he is impeccable (incapable of sin) or inerrant (incapable of error).”

Here’s a longer answer: