7/18/2026

 Saturday, July 17, 2026

1870 Pius IX and the First Vatican Council proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility

2024 I renewed my driver's license until 2032😱

2025  The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a statement published by IRNA, reported that two oil tankers have exploded after hitting mines south in the Strait of Hormuz.

In bed at 9:15, up at 4; 0425/72/63  108,   202.8, 0435 113/65/62; 77/83/68, cloudy; Beach hazards warning, waves 3-5 ft, dangerous currents

Morning meds at 10 a.m.     

Today is the anniversary of the dogma of papal infallibility, proclaimed by the First Vatican Council in 1870.  I grew up with the dogma and with photographs of the dour Pope Pius XII on the walls of seemingly every Catholic classroom, rectory, convent, and diocesan office.  I relate a humorous story about the dogma (to me, at least) in a moment, but first I note that perhaps what has been most persistent about this dogma has been the words in opposition to it penned by the British Lord Acton, one of the rare Catholic peers in the UK, in a letter to Archbishop Mandell Creighton:

       "I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility [that is, the later judgment of historians] has to make up for the want of legal responsibility [that is, legal consequences during the rulers' lifetimes]. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. "    

My humorous (to me) story:  My friend Katie McManus, another born-and-raised Irish Catholic, told me this tale.  She was at a party with other Catholics, and somehow the dogma of the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven came up.  One of the friends said it was unbelievable.  Another pointed out that it was a dogma and belief was required of Church members, to which the sceptic replied: "Well, I may have to believe it, but I don't have to think about it."

Today I remember Katie and her sceptical friend but mostly I remember Lord Acton's "Great men are almost always bad men . . . .."  Was he too cynical, or a realist? 

For many of 'the Faithful,' especially children, Catholic priests are men with authority, indeed absolute authority.  They are men with the power to miraculously convert bread and wine into the flesh and blood of Jesus.  Indeed, they are surrogates of Jesus Himself at the Last Supper in the Consecration during the sacrifice of the Mass.  The Church can't stop trying to sanctify its human clergy.  As Pope Pius X wrote in his 1906 encyclical Vehementer Nos:

It follows that the church is by essence an unequal society, that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the different degrees of the hierarchy and the multitude of the faithful. So distinct are these categories that with the pastoral body only rests the necessary right and authority for promoting the end of the society and directing all its members toward that end; the one duty of the multitude is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the pastors.

The most docile in flocks are the lambs, the children.  Until the Church abandons its theology and ecclesiology of the priesthood, children and others will continue to be sexually abused by Catholic priests. The Church's existential problem is that it can't recast its sacerdotal doctrines without destroying itself.  Despite the Vatican II romanticism about "the Church" being "the people of God," in real life, what separates "the Church" from all other forms of Christianity and indeed from all other religions is the priesthood and the hierarchy.  Take away the special divinely-appointed status of the priests, bishops, and popes, and what is left of "the Church" with a capital C?  The popes and bishops all know this; they are the Church, and they need to keep it that way or go out of business.  The role of the folks in the pews is simply to pray, pay, and obey.

Unsettling day.  I've been unsettled all morning, slightly anxious with no apparent cause, unsettled, queasy stomach, etc.  Very unpleasant feelings.