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Article: Pope Pius IX, Breaking Precedent
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 29, 1989
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Russell Shaw {letter, Dec. 23} was in error regarding the new
doctrine of papal infallibility mentioned in Elizabeth Eisenstein's
letter {Dec. 16}. Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) developed this
unprecedented doctrine on his own authority, since his stage-managed
Vatican Council in 1870 made no pronouncements at all. It is
misleading to refer to church councils including one, Constantinople
IV (869-870), which occurred when the bishops of Rome were still
primarily pastoral rather than governmental in ideology. Before 757
AD, when the bishop of Rome acquired the Duchy of Rome and became a
secular ruler, the Roman bishops considered themselves pastors,
successors to the apostles and "first among ...