Impeccability is the absence of sin. Christianity believes this to be an attribute of God (logically God cannot sin, it would mean that he would act against his own will and nature) and therefore also an attribute of Christ.

Early Christians questioned whether the saints in heaven could sin: Origen claimed they could.

Roman Catholic Church Teaching

Impeccability and Heaven

Roman Catholic doctrine holds that they can not. Although Catholics believe in the gift of free will, saints in heaven already see God face to face and can not sin, i.e. they remain in God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states (emphasis added):

1045 For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been "in the nature of sacrament." Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion.

1060 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself will be transformed. God will then be "all in all" (⇒ 1 Cor 15:28), in eternal life.

Impeccability and Purgatory

Thomas Aquinas taught that souls in Purgatory cannot sin (Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part, Question 83, Article 11, Reply to Objection 3), let alone the saints in heaven. This is the teaching of the Catholic Church, although there are different opinions on the reasons for the impossibility to sin.

Impeccability and Mary the Mother of Jesus

The Roman Catholic church teaches that the Blessed Virgin Mary was, by a special grace of God, without sin her entire life. This included the moment of her conception, so the Virgin was even preserved from original sin.

The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic dogma that asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception. Some theologians have asserted this special grace extended to impeccability [understood in this context as the inability to sin]; others argue this could not be so, as a person she would have had free will, and therefore the ability to sin, but through her cooperation avoided it.

But while the Roman Church holds up the sinlessness of Mary on the one hand, it condemned Pelagianism as a heresy at the Council of Trent, which held that a human being could (while alive) become incapable of sinning.

Impeccability and the Pope

Impeccability is sometimes confused with infallibility, especially in discussions of papal infallibility. Impeccability is an attribute not claimed by the pope, and few would deny that there have been "bad" popes - Saint Peter himself denied Jesus three times. Some find this denial inconsistent with Pope Gregory VII's assertion:

The pope can be judged by no one; the Roman church has never erred and never will err till the end of time; the Roman church was founded by Christ alone; the pope alone can depose and restore bishops; he alone can make new laws, set up new bishoprics and divide old ones. ... He alone can call general councils and authorize canon laws; his legates .. have precedence over all bishops. ... A duly ordained pope is undoubtedly made a saint by the merits of St. Peter.^[1]

Nevertheless, in Catholic thought, the exemption of the Roman Church from error extends only to its definitive teachings on faith and morals: not its historical judgments. Similarly, papal "sainthood" does not suggest that popes are free from sin. Quite the contrary, popes frequent the sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) for the forgiveness of their sins, as all other Catholics do. Pope Benedict XVI confesses his sins once a week ^[2]

See also

• Christian perfection

References

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Summa Theologica

1. Power and the Papacy (ISBN 0-7648-0141-4), by Robert McClory, p. 19.
2. Fewer Confessions and New Sins http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7287071.stm

External links

• Catechism of the Catholic Church from the official website of the Vatican

• Summa Theologica from NewAdvent website

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Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Impeccability". Image Credit.

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