More Q&A

"4) How much authority has the Pope been given? And can the Pope still make mistakes? And if I could further extrapolate the question, how much authority have priests and bishops been given? I know that if a priest rapes a child, it is not a reflection of the Church as a whole, but how do you determine then that one thing the priest says is "of the Church" while another thing he says should be ignored?"

Haha, he's been given enough. His is the authority granted to Peter by Christ in Matthew 16:18. He is the Steward of Christ's Kingdom, and thus has the authority of the King while the King is away. He likewise has certain powers of binding and loosing.

Papal infallibility is a tricky subject.

The Pope can and does make mistakes. Popes are human, Popes sin, and Popes are held accountable for their mistakes before God. The Catholic Church does NOT teach that Popes are impeccable, ie faultless, sinless, etc.

The Pope's authority is such that it is a teaching authority. He is able to teach infallibly on matters of faith and morality, because his office as the Pope is the universal leader of the universal Church. The Church's infallible teaching authority is on matters of faith and morality, the Pope shares in that authority because of the nature of his office and the authority Christ granted it.

This authority is VERY specific in terms of how and when it can be used. The Pope is not infallible all of the time, in fact, Popes are only infallible on exceedingly rare occasions. To teach infallibly, the Pope must teach AS the Pope. If he is teaching as a bishop, or a priest, or a theologian, etc it is not infallible. The authority comes from God through the office, nothing less will suffice. Likewise, the Pope must explicitly declare that he is teaching in such a fashion, no off the cuff remarks, no maunderings, no brainstorming, no pensive thoughts, etc. are considered infallible. There's no guy with a notebook following the Pope around and copying down everything he says to turn into doctrine. The Pope cannot teach infallibly on any issue that is not an issue of faith or morality, of course. Likewise, the Pope cannot change or reverse any already held infallible teaching of the Church.

Priests and bishops serve a specific function of service within the Church. Bishops are the spiritual successors to the Apostles, having received their Ordination in direct line from the Apostles through the working of the Holy Spirit and the laying on of hands of one previously so ordained. Priests are the servants of Bishops, extensions of the Bishops authority, and further workers for Christ.

Their ministry is to the Body of Christ. They are espoused to the Church just as Christ is espoused to the Church. Their vocation is to serve as alter Christi, or in other words, they are to serve as Christ served, ministering the Sacraments and teaching the people as He did.

The Sacrament that priests and bishops under go is one of authority. Ordination leaves what we call an indelible mark upon the Soul. Once a man has been ordained, the Holy Spirit has worked upon him in such a way that only the Holy Spirit could reverse. Once you're a priest, you're always a priest, just as once you are married in Catholicism, you're married until you die or your spouse does. It is through this working of the Holy Spirit that the priest can exercise some of Christ's authority in administering the Sacraments, they serve essentially as a channel for God's Grace, as Christ did on Earth, claiming no power in and of themselves, but only through the working of God.

This is the VERY short form, you've asked a big question right there. All of these are fairly short answers, but this one I'm trying to keep as short as I can.

Priests are, of course, human, as are bishops (popes with a small p, that's where the word first came into use in the Church). They are human, they sin, they make mistakes, and none of them have any sort of infallibility. The way we know whether what they say is correct is because all Catholics have access to the explicit writings and teachings of the Church, things like the Catechism, the Councillar writings, etc. If a priest says something strange, I can look up in the Catechism or the Code of Canon law, etc. and see whether what he said lines up with Church teaching. If it does not, I can disregard it unless it has some other value.

One purpose that bishops are supposed to serve is as checks against such problems. They have more authority than priests, and thus more responsibility. It is their responsibility to ensure that their priests are not teaching heterodox or heretical ideas to their parishioners. Thus a Catholic lay person, like myself, could go to the Bishop with a worry or a complaint about one of the priests. The advantages of a hierarchy is that we have channels of authority through which to make appeals. If the bishop won't listen, we can even appeal to the Pope, like in the Latin Mass issue, when the Pope forced bishops to allow it.

If it is an issue of legality, such as a priest raping children, we can also go to the police, of course. I'd encourage such, even if the bishop is doing something about it. Such things are disgusting.

"5) What is the Church's stance on the Trinity? Do they view the Holy Spirit as an active force in this world, or more as a concept? And do they consider all Biblical phenomena as literal or some as metaphorical (with special reference to the Books of Genesis and Revelations)."

We believe in the Trinity. I'm not really sure what you're asking in that first part, lol.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is active in the world. It is through the Spirit's power that Grace is spread, the Sacraments effected, miracles occur, etc.

The Church allows for different interpretations of the Genesis myths, if that's what you're asking. It does NOT teach specifically that they are scientific history, but it allows people to believe that if they want to. Most of us don't.

The Church certainly understands that some writings of the Bible are mythical, others are poetic, some are allegorical, others are historical narratives with specific focuses and intents. The Church doesn't treat the Bible as one monolithic work, and therefore has no problem with recognizing these differences and others in the various works. And the Church does not claim any scientific authority in its teaching authority.

The Church likewise doesn't have any problem with the discoveries of science, so long as those discoveries are not used to try and alter theologically held truths. In other words, the Church has no problem with the Big Bang, so long as it is not suggested that God was not involved in the creation of the Universe. The Church has no objection to evolution save that it must recognize that Man has a specially created Soul. Due to the nature of these theological reservations, science can never actually say that they are not true. Science cannot test and experiment for the soul, nor determine if God was involved in the Big Bang. Such things lie outside of empiricism, and science only works within empirical boundaries.

Thanks to this, the Church has no problem with Catholics understanding works in the Bible that are myths in a mythical sense. We certainly still believe that Mankind is Fallen, that the myths of Genesis, for example, contain many truths, but we're not always going to treat it like a perfect historical work describing the exact events of the morning of the world. I like to think of it this way. The Church's interpretations draw out the revealed truths of these sections, without need of altering the myths. So we can read them as we'd read any other mythic poetry: However we want. Those truths will remain the same because the Church has preserved them for us. So long as we don't attempt to apply them to science, for example, there shouldn't be any problems. Poetry rarely speaks to science, haha.

The Book of Revelation, is an interesting one. It is viewed as prophetic in many ways, but it also viewed as a coded message with several underlying meanings. One is that it is an encoded letter from John to Christian churches designed to only be intelligible to Christians due to the Roman persecution. Another is that it actually shows us the nature of the Mass in a coded, poetic form. For myself, I would not be surprised if all three were true. Scriptural writing is never simple and easy to understand, and God, far from being the simplistic, one-trick-pony writer that many assume Him to be when they take everything in the Bible literally, writes on several levels at once. Christ often teaches on several levels at once, why would God do any differently when inspiring men?

I recommend Scott Hahn's book on Revelation if you want to study that one a bit further. While I haven't yet read it myself, I've heard it is an interesting examination of the work. It's entitled the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, or something along those lines.