September 16, 2009

Q: Is it true that Pope Honorius (625 A.D.) was condemned as a heretic by several Ecumenical Councils and numerous later popes, because of the position he and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople took during the Monothelite Controversy? Are some popes infallible and others are not? When is a pope infallible and when is he not? And how are we to know the difference?

A: It is true that the Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council condemned and anathematized Pope Honorius and Patriarch Sergius and others as heretics for the parts they played in the Monothelite Controversy.  (Monothelites held that Jesus had only one divine will, thus denying the teaching of the Church, which insists on two wills, human and divine.) This condemnation was repeated by the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787. Moreover, from the eighth century to the 11th century, this condemnation was included in the oath taken by every new pope.
The case of Honorius was well known and much debated in the period leading up to Vatican Council I in 1870. Nonetheless, the council defined that when the pope speaks ex cathedra—“that is, when in the exercise of his office as pastor and teacher of all Christians he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the whole Church”—his pronouncements are infallible. The general consensus of Catholic historians at the time of Vatican I, as well as later, was that although Pope Honorius publicly took an heretical position for which he was condemned, his acts did not rise to the level of an ex cathedra teaching and so do not threaten the integrity of the Church’s teaching on papal infallibility. The conditions for infallibility are quite stringent, and current Canon Law (No. 749.3) warns that “No doctrine is understood to be infallibly defined unless it is clearly established as such.”

This week’s apologist is Joel Barstad, associate professor of theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. Send your question to: editor@archden.org or mail to DCR Editor, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO  80210.