Atty Stein: Does the Pope need anyone’s permission or consent to exercise Papal Infallibility?
Therese: No! Absolutely not!
Atty Stein: What about the Bishops? Does the Pope need their approval to be infallible in what he teaches?
Therese: No! And those who argue that the Bishops must agree with the Pope for his teachings to be infallible have it backwards. It’s not the Brethren who confirm what the Pope is teaching.
We read in “Lumen Gentium”:
“ . . . For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, namely, and as pastor of the entire Church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.” (Roger Trudeau-LeBlanc, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis : On the Ordination of Men Alone—A Case for Its Infallibility [2009], 12-13, emphasis in original)
