The term Papal Infallibility is often misunderstood to mean that pontiffs don't make mistakes. They do, and a Holy Father only invokes his own infallibility when he is laying out incontrovertible Church doctrine. Still, the Pope is not expected to err, and the faithful are not accustomed to hearing him publicly correct his own missteps. And certainly Benedict XVI, a man of rock-solid (some might say stubborn) convictions, would be the last person you would expect to waffle or backtrack on his key pronouncements. Which is why perhaps the most troubling pattern of his reign is Benedict's notable tendency to do just that.

For the most part, his major writings and speeches, which by all accounts are the work of his pen alone, are consistently clear and often quite potent. But more and more, it seems, there will be some sentence or citation — or a blatant omission — that inadavertently ignites controversy, if not outright rage against the Pope. The Vatican eventually kicks into damage-control mode, and finally, Benedict is left with the awkward task of serious papal (and public) backtracking. Indeed, there was a "here-we-go-again" buzz circulating among Vatican insiders as the Pope went out of his way this week to clarify his view of the Christian colonization of Latin America that he'd laid out on his recent trip to Brazil.

More of the article here...

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Seems all the Vatican does is flip flop. If you're not going to mean what you say... Why even say it?

The Pope is an open mouth insert foot kind of guy. He definitely needs a new speech writer maybe he should hire one of Bush's. I am glad his power is limited to the Catholic church as that makes him their problem. We Pagans will not for get his comments about the Neo-Pagan movement in WWII blaming it for the actions of the Nazis. I am sure we will never receive an apology for that one.



LINK

In all it's Papal history, it's been one man as the emissary for the power that creates all that exists, that some call god. One man. Billions of believers, follow, hang on, every word of one man. The smallest sovereign nation, the largest religious cult populace, religious dictatorship on Earth.
What he means to say is, he's just a man.

The times they are a changing. Maybe people will realize that's all his office has ever afforded the world. Just one man. Playing the role, because the catholic faith figures, it's better to believe than not, so as to reign in the human animal from it's potential, as animal, to believing that's not true. And something called god, looks just like us, and lives to tell us what to do.

Thanks for the post Kratos.