LORD ACTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 105, 1 May 1875, Page 14

LORD ACTON.

This Catholic nobleman has written a letter to -Mr. Gladstone, on the subject of his pamphlet. It is a remarkable letter, and must gratify the enemies of the Catholic cause amazingly. Lord Acton, if I understood him, rejects the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, flat ; yet he professes to be a true Catholic. He is a disciple of Dollinger. He cannot believe the Pope infallible, because former occupants of the Papal Chair have, under the impulse of passion, or through mistake, done acts and sanctioned principles which the present Pope and Catholics, and indeed mankind in general, must denounce as wicked, or plainly wrong. It would take some one better read in Papal history and Catholic theology than I can pretend to be, to say whether Lord Acton's way of putting his alleged historical facts be fair and exact or not. But this much I know, that several Popes, from the days of St. Peter downwards, have said and done things they ought not to have said and done. So much I would grant to Lord Acton. I have yet to learn, however, that any Pope ever promulgated ex cathedra — that is speaking officially and in name of the entire Church — any religious dogma which a subsequent Pope condemnedas erroneous. The Pope though infallible when speaking ex cathedra, is liable., under ordinary circumstances, to be misled as a man through ignorance or passion, and to commit sin like other frail men. The wickedness or errora of Popes while merely speaking or acting in their individual character, cannot, and ought not, affect their claim to infallibility while speaking ex cathedra, as the official organ of the entire Church, after consultation with the representatives of the Church spread throughout the whole world, and solemnly invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is what I, as an unlearned lay Catholic understand about Papal infallibility. If lam wrong, I hope to be set right. I cannot but regard Lord Acton's letter as extremely mischievous and well calculated to mislead ; the more so as he is a person of considerable pretensions to learning and zeal for the Catholic Church, of which he is and still means, I presume, to remain a member. It will be a painful operation to excommunicate him. But painful though it would be, I suppose it must be done unless he renounce his error. His letter is somewhat misty, and after all he may find his way to submission after wandering about a little. He needs a guide, obviously. Laic.