I have watched several of Father Barron’s presentations on EWTN and find them very interesting and informative.  I wonder if he might be the
Fulton Sheen of our age.

Thank you so much for making the episodes available here.

I had trouble with his comments on infallibility. He claimed infallibility when the pope speaks in concert with the bishops. That doesn’t work when the pope has total control over the bishops and they are afraid to disagree. For example I suspect a lot of them disagree with the pope on contraception. However, if they speak out they will be sacked. I also think the pope is infallible when he speaks in concert with all of the bishops when they are free to speak and when he speaks in concert with the sensus fideum, the sense of the faithfull. Look at the times the magisterium was wrong; slavery, interest, religous freedom, Galilleo, the inquisition, the crusades and on and on.

Anon- I’d encourage you to learn a bit more about each of those issues and how the Church spoke on them. The pope has never made any infallible statements in support of, for example, slavery. In fact, each of those issues you bring up it seems you may have a misunderstanding of what the Church’s actual position was on them and whether or not anything infallible was said about them.

As for issues like contraception, the pope/bishops will never change what the Churches teaching on the fact that contraception is immoral - no matter what the “sense of the faithful” is. Because they can’t. The church doesn’t contradict old dogma with new dogma. It’s actually because the “sense of the faithful” and even sometimes individual bishops get off track sometimes (like thinking that contraception is okay) that it’s a really good thing that we have a Church that protects those constant teachings of the Church on faith and morals…and that can show us the way back to the Truth.

Here’s a good page to read more on infallibility that will probably clear up a lot of your confusion: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/papal-infallibility

God bless you!

Also, ANON, you may like this link on birth control and Church teaching: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/birth-control

My Catholic Faith is who I am and watching the Catholicism Series on EWTN filled me with the greatest sense of awe, I can’t imagine anything more glorious being produced. Fr. Barron has outdone himself!  One thing I wish for is the sound track, I do not find it listed as available.

You have it the nail on the head about contraception. When the birth control commission was on the verge of approving it the curial bureaucrats stepped in. They found enough evidence, scant though it was, to convince the then pope that to approve the commissions findings would be to admit that past popes had been wrong. This one thing that no pope will do is to admit that he and or his colleagues had been wrong, even if they were. There is no evidence that prior popes had spoken infallibly. Yes, I know the church is not a democracy but it is not a dictatorship either. Thank you for the references but I have been studying this issue since Vatican II. The church’s position will change because the Holy Spirit wills it. It was said in the middle ages that the church moves in centuries but that is no longer acceptable. In Christ’s own words, “woe to you scholars of the law who place heavy burdens upon the people but lift not a finger to help them.” When that time comes there are those who will have to answer for all the people who have been driven out of the church, whose marriages have had heavy burdens or been destroyed because of some popes who have been more interested in preserving their power and perks. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and there are no fancy robes or pointy hats which exempts humans from this rule. The people of God understand the error here, it is written in their heart and their conscience.

Anon - thank you, but you continue to show that you apparently have not studied the issue enough as it doesn’t seem you grasp even a basic understanding of Church teaching and history on this matter. I encourage you to do so as the explanation and understanding the Church gives us is beautiful and edifying. God bless you!

Mr. Warner I would refer you to the writings on this subject by eminent theologians Hans Kung and Charles Currtan. Kung also wrote a great book on papl infallibility. A more recent work is the book “A Sexual Person” by Salzman and Lawler from the theology faculty at Creighton Univ. On top of that hardly any non-Catholic theologians agree with the church. These men are the modern day prophets decrying the autocratic rulings of the scribes and Pharisees just as Christ decried the scribes and the Pharisees of the old law. John Paul and Benedict have been trying to pull the mantle of infallibity over every utterance they make. They have pulled absolute power to themselves. As I said before, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The church power structure will learn this eventually but the process will be painful and damaging to the church.

“Pull the mantle of infallibility over every utterance they make”? That makes no sense. To my knowledge, neither BXVI nor JPII have claimed to have made even a single infallible statement using “papal infallibility”. That’s why everything else you are saying makes no sense. And it’s why I urge you to learn what the Church REALLY teaches about papal infallibility.

I also encourage you to learn more about those historical events/issues you mentioned as if some sort of papal infallibility was applied or was exposed as error in the course of time. It’s simply not the case and reveals a severe lack of understanding of the issue on your part.

The Church has NEVER made an infallible statement proclaiming that slavery was morally acceptable. The Church has NEVER made an infallible statement proclaiming that interest (as we understand the word today) was morally unacceptable. The Church has NEVER made an infallible statement proclaiming that the Earth doesn’t revolve around Sun (and that Galileo was wrong in that regard). The Church has never made an infallible statement proclaiming that the evils of the inquisition or the wrongs done during the crusades were acceptable. All of which you are implying. It’s irresponsible to make such statements and to spread such misunderstanding. And anyone who is truly after the truth wouldn’t make such statements. Again, you need to learn at least some basics about what papal infallibility is and then read some history on the Church that isn’t skewed in bias.

Talk about bias, you are the pot calling the kettle black. And the church has never made ab infallible statement on contraception but John Paul, Benedict and the Roman curia want us to believe they have, all your demeaning comments notwithstanding.

Matthew,

Which pope declared the contraception doctrine infallible? I’m a young Catholic struggling with these issues and would love to know and understand the Church teachings in depth. Could you provide more readings on these topics?

Anon - if you truly believe Matthew is misguided, could you point me to some appropriate readings? Really looking for the definitive TRUTH - if there is one.

And by these topics, I mean infallibility, birth control, homosexuality/gay marriage.

Paul - thanks for your honest questions!

Just to clarify, Church teaching can be “infallible” in more than one way. One of them is through “extraordinary” teachings of the magisterium, like papal infallibility. But that is not the normal or most common way we receive infallible teachings from Christ’s Church. The common way is through the ordinary magisterium of the Church.

More on that here.

But I’d warn against taking a very legalistic or minimalistic approach to your faith (i.e. what is the minimum I must believe in order to be Catholic, etc.). Which is what we can easily end up doing when we are trying to distinguish infallible from fallible teachings of the Church. I’m not saying it’s not useful to do that sometimes - even important and necessary. But just pointing that point out as the richness of our faith and the depth of its truth goes far beyond what has only been defined as “infallible” teachings. And certainly even further beyond what falls under papal infallibility.

If you really want to learn what the Church teaches and why, read the catechism of the Catholic Church. It’s all spelled out in there really well.

For additional readings on these subjects, I’d recommend reading HUMANAE VITAE and Evangelium Vitae as good starts. Just google them and you’ll find them. They are encyclicals written by popes.

To understand the Church’s position on birth control and marriage, it helps to read it in the context of what the Church teaches about the human person as a whole. I’d also recommend reading something good on the “Theology of the Body” - check out Christopher West’s “theology of the body for beginners” to get started. It’s excellent.

Once you see these teachings in the light of everything else the Church teaches, you realize that they are not only definitive teachings, but beautiful as well. The few fringe theologians who try to claim these issues are not settled doctrine are usually taking them out of context of all Church teaching and are missing out on so much. Additionally, as we see with Anon, the promoters of such viewpoints usually have a very inaccurate understanding of the issues/teachings in play anyway.

I’d also recommend http://www.catholic.com/ as a great resource. Just type your question into their search box and you’ll get a lot of material that will probably help you out.

Have fun and God bless you!

I am a cradle Catholic who was once blinded by the worldly view on contraception.  As my faith got deeper, the veil was lifted from my eyes, and I now see how wrong contraception is.  The Church’s teaching truly is beautiful and I don’t feel burdened by it—I feel freed.  My prayer is that more people would be lead to this truth.

Paul and Anon, Matthew has answered you’re questions with sincerity and clarity (thank you!) I would just like to recommend an audio video on Church teaching on contraception by Dr Janet Smith which can be accessed on youtube called ‘contraception, why not?’ It’s excellent, God bless.