Pope accused of abusing power
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ANDREW BROWN
Religious Affairs Correspondent
Britain's leading Roman Catholic theologian yesterday accused Pope John Paul II of a "quite scandalous abuse of power" in his attempts to close off forever discussion of the ordination of women by claiming his ban on them is infallible.
Professor Nicholas Lash, the Norris-Hulse professor of divinity at Cambridge, said: "This kind of high-handed insensitivity is likely to provoke tensions within the Roman Catholic Church as great as those which the ordination of women has produced within the Anglican Communion."
The immediate cause of Professor Lash's outburst was a document issued a fortnight ago by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican body which oversees doctrinal purity and sacks theologians who stray from it. This claimed that the Pope's encyclical of last year, which announced that the faithful must believe "definitively" that women cannot be priests, was part of the Church's infallible teaching, since it was proclaimed by the Pope and bishops together.
The letter appeared two days after the publication of a petition signed by 1.5 million German Catholics, calling for women priests. It has infuriated Catholics who see it as an attempt to introduce infallibility by the back door, since the bishops have not even discussed the matter.
Papal infallibility, defined at the first Vatican council in 1870, when it caused a schism in the Church, has only once been formally invoked, in 1950, when it was used to proclaim that the Virgin Mary had been transported bodily to heaven. The conditions under which it may be exercised are narrowly defined and do not cover the ordination of women.
In an article in the Tablet, Professor Lash writes: "The attempt to use the doctrine of infallibility ... is a quite scandalous abuse of power, the most likely consequence of which will be further to undermine the very authority the Pope seeks to sustain."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments