Has the Catholic Church ever infallibly contradicted prior infallible statements?

Question

Here are the conditions for infallability:

a) Either the pope by himself or the united bishops in an ecumenical council...
b)...solemnly and formally pronounce, clarify, and define...
c)...a matter of faith or morals...
d)...as an official teaching, universally binding on all the Church.

A contradiction means that a new dogma (infallible declaration) is inescapably in conflict with a previous dogma, without recourse to interpretive clarification.

So yeah. Those rules set, has the Church ever formally retracted a dogmatic statement? If so, how and when?

Answer 1

No.

HOWEVER, the closest that a case can be made for a pope's actions contradicting infalibility would be Pope Honorius I in the 7th century AD. He was condemned as a heretic by the sixth general council (680). It takes a careful reading of history to understand why this case does not contradict the doctrine of infallibility., of which there is too little space here to get into. Simply read...
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07452b.htm
This is an important issue to understand when dealing with Orthodox Christians because it can shows up in the polemics.

Answer 2

Infallible Church Dogma declared by any one papacy cannot be "over ruled" by a future one.

Having said that, please note that truly infallible proclamations are few and far between. And it is okay for a future papacy to change an infallible proclamation from a previous papacy.

Do not confuse the Spiritual Law (dogma) with ecclesiastic law.

Ecclesiastic laws are based on dogma, but are not dogma itself. Therefore, they can be ammended, as time goes by, to a remain in sync with the demands of the church in any given time period. Most papal decrees are ecclesiastical. They can, and do, change over time; this is okay provided the ecclesiastic laws do not violate the dogma of the Church.

Answer 3

the Catholic Church has the rule of infallibility so as to promote unity in the church and not to subject the church to divisions among authorities. it is NOT meant literally. the Pope enjoys infallibility during his time as Pope. only that. it also allows his successor the freedom to make changes and such that he sees fit. it would be no good to be Pope and have others in the church questioning everything, as much as it would be bad to have your hands tied by the actions of a previous Pope. you are making a mountain out of a molehill, this is just a practical matter.

Answer 4

They used to tell you that you could not eat meat on Fridays, but now it is only during lent, and it is okay to eat meat on Friday any other time. This problem of contradiction probably has alot to do with why they are so slow to change anything. So many of the rules just don't make sense, and nobody can tell me why.

Alot of rules changed with Vatican II. The mass used to be said only in Latin, so that anywhere in the world that you went, you could go to mass and it would be the same, but then they realized that the mass appeals to people's hearts more when they hear it in their own native tongue, so they changed that too. Now they are backing up and making it more Latin again. There are alot of man-made rules, not God-made rules. It is very confusing.

Answer 5

Given the fact Catholics have been assassinating each other, arguing over doctrine and making up rules as they go along, it would be hard to believe they had not.

The Catholic church has been a corrupt organization since Emperor Constantine invented it in 325 CE (ad).

Answer 6

indulgences. ummmm........16th century? whenever the protestants left. at least i think that was a part of the dogma.

the catholic church is also phasing out limbo. but slowly so people don't notice, lol.

Answer 7

my BF says yes

i say yes

Answer 8

No.

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

Hell yes! They do it all the time!