In a posting I cannot automatically quote in Googe Groups Matthew
Johnson wrote,
in part, "Don't forget: when JFK ran for President here, a lot of
people were nervous about electing a man who considers the Roman Pope
infallible. He had to bend over backwards to show that he would show
reasonable political independence from the Pope."  Anyone who was
nervous for that reason only demonstrated that he had no idea what the
doctrine of papal infallibility is.  It applies ONLY to formal
definitions of doctrine, in which the Pope exercises the infallibility
of the Church in stating that certain statements are indeed statements
of God's revealed truth.  They are similar in concept to the
definitions of the First Council of Nicea about the Trinity and the
Incarnation in reaction to the Arian heresy.  No statement about a
particular political issue in the 20th or 21st century could possibly
fall within the scope of papal infallibility.

-------

Marty Helgesen
Bitnet: mnhcc{at}cunyvm   Internet: mnhcc{at}cunyvm.cuny.edu

"It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up
believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it."
                                    R.A.K.

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   ----

[People were certainly nervous. I would say it was more because the
Pope commanded obedience by Catholics than because he was considered
to be infallible. The feeling was that a Catholic president would have
to obey the pope on controversial issues. You can see the issue
playing out more recently in questions of what the responsibility of
Catholic politicians is to implement Church ideas on abortion. However
this is certainly not limited to Catholics. Many people have similar
concerns about Bush's evangelical commitments. Really any politician
is going to have commitments to something (I certainly hope). As long
as voters know in advance what it is, they can decide whether they
find it acceptable. But when JFK was running, there was somewhat more
suspicion or hostility between Catholics and Protestants than there is
now. --clh]
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