Remarkable Assuredness

[Dimmesdale]

I was recently watching Ed Feser, a Catholic philosopher, and he said something which struck a cord in me. It was essentially that, in his view, while theoretically conceivable, it was to him an actual impossibility that the Pope should ever teach heresy ex cathedra. That is, by the full force of his authority, and therefore infallibly. This could not happen because, it would therefore falsify Catholicism.

There have only been two times Popes have spoken ex cathedra. And in all that time we have had 266 Popes. Some have not been the best of human beings, by a long shot. And yet, even the most corrupt have not dared to make pronouncements ex cathedra. They have been "restrained" in their daring by the Holy Ghost as it were, prevented from crossing this line by Providence. It is true perhaps that some human beings are evil enough that they would dare so far as to sully Christian doctrine and invalidate the Church. But none such persons have been granted access to the Pontificate. Those that have, have somehow or other been restrained.

All 266 then, have had their free will within the bounds of God. Not even the worst have dared to sully the Church. This in itself, may very well be remarkable. It must mean that those evil and corrupt Popes that (indeed) have existed, were awed by their religion enough not to have embarked on the worst sin, which would, I suppose, land them in the hottest part of hell. Or perhaps it just never crossed their minds. They were satisfied with earthly gains enough not to bother about sinning the most.

But what about future ideologues who truly have nothing left to lose?

I haven't seen the movie "Conclave" and do not know if I ever will see it. But there is a great deal of conflict and fomentation within the Church these days. A lot of controversy. And to some it seems as if the Church has become infiltrated more and more, becoming the hotbed of heresy and corruption, not only in earthly matters, but spiritual as well.

Given this cleavage, this inward disintegration, into factionalism and decadence, what guarantee do we indeed have that God will guide the Church if a newcomer to the Papal Seat decides, by dint of his own wilfulness, that he will actually do it. That he will ex cathedra, invalidate the Church of Rome?

That seems like a pedestrian enough speculation if you take into account the fact that God is sovereign over all free will creatures. That all of us, no matter our choices, have a leash that only goes so far. Granted.

But what I find truly interesting is using this idea as a jumping board into a potential to an argument for, not just Catholicism, but Christianity in general.

If, given another 1000 years of the CC's existence from now on, no rogue ideologue in our Postmodern Climate has still as yet ascended the Throne and made that Deathly Pronouncement, could it not be testimony to something more than natural? I can grant the last 2000 years as being sufficiently steeped in tradition as to not brook some wayward upstart from having his will but... in our climate? In our time? When "God is dead." When religion is "politics." When party spirit and intrigue reigns at the topmost levels... It appears to me our decadence would have little room for lending support to a sturdy foundation that could weather earthly assualts without some external guiding hand.

And so that leaves God who, in his wise-foreseeing, even if Catholicism were false, would still guide Her as the Representative Religion of the most Civilizational and Influential Christian Institution, as the most useful and accurate Bulwark of Christianity, and would therefore prevent any true imposter from doing irreparable harm to Christianity via its most vaunted proxy.

To me, this would be truly a miracle. And I would have to chalk it up to something more than natural, were I to see it.

And with that, I come to the very essence of fide et ratio conviction:

"I don't have an answer for you. I am simply convinced of what I am convinced of. NOT because I WANT to be, but because It Imparts Its REALITY upon me whether I like it or not."