The Pope's Infallibility (A Think)

The BBC contains an essay considering the nature of the Pope's infallibility, this morning. As you'll recall, last week the Pope quoted a centuries old document that criticized the Muslim religion. He later appologized. The BBC essay states: "Papal infallibility only comes into play with issues of faith that concern the whole Church. It doesn't apply when the Pope is expressing a personal opinion or, in this case, quoting from a historical text."

As a Jewish individual, the whole concept of infallibiity seems slightly out of place. However, as an educator I know that it is not my role to challenge the validity of religious concepts. However, it is my role to help my students understand the concepts and precepts of major religions around the world. Right?

How would I do that?

Lesson Ideas:
1. Some students may not know who the Pope is or understand his role in either the Church or society as a whole. Explain these ideas to students. Ask them to write down characteristics that they think the leader of a major religion should possess. (This is very similar to asking students to write down the characteristics that any leader should possess.) You might invite students to write down these ideas in a blog entry.
2. Tell students that according to Chrisian belief the Pope cannot be wrong when he makes pronouncements for the entire Church that he declares are indeed for the entire Church as official pronouncements. However, very few popes have actually issued statements that they wanted considered as incapable of being wrong. Ask students why they think a pope might not want to exercise this authority. What can we learn about power and the use of power from the infrequent use of this power? Ask students if they've ever had any power or authority that they've chosen not to exercise? (For example, when babysitting?)
3. Tell students that many people are mad at the Pope because he repeated something that somebody said a long time ago that was hurtful about the Muslim religion. Here's how one CNN article reports on the Pope's statement:

Citing historic Christian commentary on holy war and forced conversion, the 79-year-old pontiff quoted from a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologos."The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," the pope said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.' "Clearly aware of the sensitivity of the issue, Benedict added, "I quote," twice before pronouncing the phrases on Islam and described them as "brusque," while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them.

Ask students what the uproar over the Pope's declaration indicates about the power of language. The Pope was not even saying that Muslims have introduced evil and inhumaneness into the world. He was quoting an emperor from history who said this. But millions of Muslims around the world are upset with the Pope. Ask students if they've ever said something that they were sorry they said. Ask them why they said what they said and what they learned about saying things from this experience.
4. Tell students that the Vatican has hired them to spearhead the process of redeveloping relations with many Muslim nations and groups that were offended by the Pope's comments. Tell them that the Pope has already appologized but many groups are still infuriated. The Vatican expects students to write down a list of at least five ideas as to what the Vatican should do to help ease the stress between the Muslim and the Christian communities. This might be an approrpiate assignment to have students do on a wiki.

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