Is the Pope infallible?

The present Pope himself says people can question him:

The Pope has shocked theologians and opened a chink in the theory of papal infallibility by saying that people should feel free to disagree with what he has written in his latest book, a meditation on Jesus Christ.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/23/wpope23.xml

No Pope has ever opened up his work and opinions to criticism before. Nor has any Pope tried to separate his personal and public personas, according to Professor Giuseppe Alberigo, a professor of the history of the Catholic Church at Bologna University.

considering he is a former Nazi, i would say no

No, he's a human just like everyone else. I'm sure people thought priests were infallible until they started touching little kids. Everyone is capable of making mistakes and doing bad things.

The pope definetly fallible because he is just a human like the rest of us. Everyone is fallible and makes thousands of mistakes. The pope is no exception.

If you're a good Catholic, yeah.

Yes. No Pope in over two thousand years has erred in his teachings.

No, he is man, not a God, he will make mistakes.

Nobody is...

Only if he speaks "ex cathedra" (from the throne). He can be wrong on anything else. (This is Catholic belief, not Biblical)
However, let me tell you a funny story, told to me by an Orthodox priest friend of mine. One day he was with the Patriarch of Antioch, who had just had an historic meeting with the Pope. Since both Rome and Antioch claim that Peter founded their sees, the headline on the newspapers read
"Two successors of St Peter meet".
My friend cheekily asked,
"If you are both successors of Peter, which of you is infallible?"
Just as cheekily, the Patriarch replied
"Must be him, because I know I'm not."
LOL

If you want a great read, historically accurate and full of titillating gems like murder, sex, and absolute power, read the history of the Catholic Papacy and The Vatican.

The doctrine of Papal Infallibility does not mean the Pope is always right in all his personal teachings. As Catholics, we are quite aware that, despite his great learning, the Pope is very much a human being and therefore liable to commit human error. On some subjects, like mechanical engineering or nuclear physics, his judgment is liable to be very faulty.

Were the Pope to say: "Pepperoni is the only acceptable pizza" we in no shape or form would be expected to forever deny ourselves any other type of pizza, because pizza has NOTHING to do with the papacy, Catholicism, or religion. His opinion of pizza would NOT be infallible.

The doctrine simply means that the Pope is divinely protected from error when, acting in his official capacity as chief shepherd of the Catholic fold, he promulgates a decision which is binding on the conscience of all Catholics throughout the world. In other words, his infallibility is limited to his specialty--the Faith of Jesus Christ.

In order for the Pope to be infallible on a particular statement, however, four conditions must apply:

1 He must be speaking ex cathedra . . . that is, "from the Chair'' of Peter, or in other words, officially, as head of the entire Church;

2 the decision must be for the whole Church;

3 it must be on a matter of faith or morals;

4 the Pope must have the intention of making a final decision on a teaching of faith or morals, so that it is to be held by all the faithful. It must be interpretive, not originative; the Pope has no authority to originate new doctrine. He is not the author of revelation — only its guardian and expounder. He has no power to distort a single word of Scripture, or change one iota of divine tradition. His infallibility is limited strictly to the province of doctrinal interpretation, and it is used quite rarely.

For a complete understanding of the Pope's infallibility, however, one more thing should be known: His ex cathedra decisions are not the result of his own private deliberations. They are the result of many years — sometimes hundreds of years — of consultation with the other bishops and theologians of the Church. He is, in effect, voicing the belief of the whole Church.

He is human so that means he can make mistakes.

1) In my opinion, no. But I am not infallible...
;-)


2) "In Roman Catholic theology, only the actual 'act of teaching' is properly called "infallible". For example, according to Roman Catholic dogma, Pope Pius IX's teaching regarding the Immaculate Conception was infallible; it is grammatically incorrect to say "the pope is [sometimes] infallible" or to say "the Immaculate Conception is infallible". Nonetheless, these phrases are frequently used in conversations or Catholic writings.

According to the First Vatican Council (1870-71) and as reaffirmed at Vatican II (1963-1965) the Pope is infallible when speaking ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals.

Infallibility does not refer to the inability to sin (impeccability), or to the personal holiness of a person, although it is occasionally misunderstood in that sense."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infallible


3) "In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is the dogma that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error[1] when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals as being contained in divine revelation, or at least being intimately connected to divine revelation. For all such infallible teachings, the Holy Spirit also works through the body of the Church to ensure that the teaching will be received by all Catholics.

This doctrine was defined dogmatically in the First Vatican Council of 1870. According to Catholic theology, there are several concepts important to the understanding of infallible, divine revelation: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Sacred Magisterium. The infallible teachings of the pope are part of the Sacred Magisterium, which also consists of ecumenical councils and the "ordinary and universal magisterium". In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is one of the channels of the infallibility of the Church. The infallible teachings of the pope must be based on, or at least not contradict, Sacred Tradition or Sacred Scripture. Papal infallibility does not signify that the pope is impeccable, i.e., that he is specially exempt from liability to sin.

According to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism: "In reality, the pope seldom uses his power of infallibility......rather than being some mystical power of the pope, infallibility means the church allows the office of the pope to be the ruling agent in deciding what will be accepted as formal beliefs in the church." Since the 1870 solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility by Vatican I, this power has been used only once: in 1950 when Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as being an article of faith for Roman Catholics."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_infallibility

No, but if the catholic church said he wasnt infallible he would no longer carry the same authority and people would question the church and it would fall apart. Its like protestants say the Bible cannot be wrong. Although catholics read the Bible they do not read it as much as protestants do. The idea is that so the decisions made my the leader of the church cannot be questioned. The pope is like the Bible - it keeps a religion going only the Bible is often intereted in different ways whereas the word of the pope is more clear to the followers.

yes. he is a human. Peter denied Jesus 3 times.

Haha, yes always! No, he's actually fallible and flawed like the rest of us.

Jack

The Charism of Truth Handling: Infallibility
Jesus Christ was sent by the Father and was known as an authentic Teacher. Forty times in the New Testament, Christ is called "teacher" (didaskalos, also translated as "Master"). Twelve times Christ is called "Rabbi" (master, the address of teachers):

Mt 23:8, 10
As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Messiah.
Mt 7:28-29
When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Jn 1:17-18
... because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him.
Jn 13:13-15
You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.
The Gospels record Christ handing over to the Apostles his own mission, or divine office which he had as man.

Jn 17:18
As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
Jn 20:21
(Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
Mt 10:40
Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Lk 10:16
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.
Mt 28:18-20
Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
Christ is revealed instituting a perpetually enduring truth-teaching, truth-handling authority in the Apostles.

Mt 28:20
... teaching them (all nations) to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.
Jn 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.
Jn 15:26
When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me.
Jn 16:12-13
I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.
Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Roman Catholic Christians believe that Christ's teaching authority and truth charism continues in His Body the Church in the successors both of Peter and then the apostles, and then to their successors: the successor of Peter in the Bishop of Rome, and the successors of the apostles, the episcopoi or bishops from apostolic time to the present.