Pope Benedict asks crowd of 50,000 to 'pray for me and my successor' at penultimate address

Your headlines are so ungrammatical and stupid. He's an old man. Is it a shock that he is asking that you pray for him now? Do you know what prayer is? I know many of youse liberal omadhauns have thrown out the baby with the bath water, but still.

No, Dr McHugh - papal infallibility goes back to Christ Himself. It was certainly defined as a dogma of the Church at the First Vatican Council, but that does not mean that it was "invented" only at that point. Most councils or doctrinal/dogmatic statements have the purpose of clarifying or restating a belief which may have been questioned at some point. For example, the Council of Trent using the term "transsubstantiation" to describe what happens to the bread and wine during Holy Mass does not mean that the Church did not believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist until the 16th century - it was to clarify the Church's belief, held since its foundation, which had come under attack during the Protestant "reformation". The early Church Fathers confirm the long-held belief in the Real Presence. The same is true about papal infallibility. It is affirmed in the earliest days of the Church in the writings of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, St Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose of Milan and Augustine. Secondly, if the Pope only "became" infallible in 1870, then how could the same Pope Pius IX have declared infallibly the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854. Of course, to advance your agenda, which is merely to attack the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, you conveniently misrepresent the actual meaning and scope of the very definition of papal infallibility. It does not mean that the pope can do no wrong. Indeed, while Pope Benedict has done more than anyone before him to address the issue of abuse, even if he had erred in dealing with the issue it would not in the least disprove the dogma of papal infallibility as defined by Pius IX.

"What, they wonder, happens to papal infallibility when a pope resigns? Does it transfer to the new pope and take leave of the old?" Papal infallibility is a man made creation since 1870, when Pope Pius IX had the arrogance to declare himself infallible. The often quoted phrase "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" was spoken by the English Catholic Historian Lord Acton who was totally opposed to Pope Pius IX 1) declaring himself infallible and 2) pressuring the bishops to confirm his infallibility. Certainly, when we witness the poor policies of Pope Benedict XVI in allowing clergy sexual abuse to flourish worldwide for years, with untold damage to the lives of so many victims, we can see that the Pope is not infallible. The Pope tried to protect the institution and the predator priests, and either did nothing for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, or even allowed the victims to be re-victimized by the church's denial of the truth of clergy sexual abuse. The only one who is infallible is God. Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, Illinois