www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology How do we come to believe that the Catholic Church is infallible?

I'm writing a letter to Protestant family members letting them know why I've become Catholic and I realized I need to explain why Catholics believe the Church to be infallible. We cannot just claim 'because the Bible says so' since then we are arguing in a circle and committing a logical fallacy- we believe the Bible to be inspired because the Church says it's so, and we believe the Church to be inspired because the Bible attests to this. The Church came before the Bible and the Bible is used by Catholic apologists as an historical document to attest to the Church. I think the answer to why we believe the Church to be infallible must operate at a deeper level beyond merely the historical evidence. A Protestant apologist points out the epistemological problems in arguing for an infallible Church primarily based on an historical approach as he charges many of our mainstream apologists with doing: http://www.monergism.com/directory/link_in_frame.php?link=14745

What do you think? How would you respond to Enloe's charges? I think he raises a good question whose answers may help us process our faith and understanding of why we have faith in the Church we believe to be Christ's.

Christ is Risen!

Theodore

Theodore:

It might help to start with the definition of infallible, meaning unable to err in faith and morals.

When the Church passes along Christ's teaching, He has promised to be with her until the end of the age.

Without an infallible trait, how could anyone claim to know what Christian teaching, doctrine, or dogma is today? All we have to do is do a simple passing along of a story like I've done in teaching communication classes to demonstrate that without some infallible trait the message would long since have disappeared. And that infallible trait is bound up with the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit through and within the Church.

BOB

I think it was a pretty good article. Unfortunately, I do not believe that one can offer "non-question begging" arguments for the claim that the Church is infallible. But I confess that I am somewhat of a fideist and I do not believe that you can offer any non-question begging arguments concerning matters of religious faith.

I do not think that there is a single assertion by any Church that is not challengeable. The best one can do is (with the help of prayer and God's grace) study the evidence and accept that position that seems to be the most plausible, realizing that in terms of ordinary reason and logic, we can never attain certitude.

Joe

JOE:

Christ is in our midst!! He is and always will be!!

I think where logic and reason leave off, we've got to have faith. For example, how do we know who Jesus Christ is, except by the infallible teaching of the Ecumenical Councils that defined His nature and settled Who He is in relation to all of us. Without that assurance of the Church being infallible, we have no more idea who He is than the Muslims who claim that He is a mere prophet among many.

Or the teaching about the Holy Mysteries being His Body and Blood.

BOB

The argument that the Bible teaches us the inerrancy of the Church is not a circle, it is a spiral - which is a legitimate form of argument. Aren't you glad I told you that?

Fr. Serge

Just so the spiral is not influenced by gravity.

a hermeneutic spiral?

LOL !