Is a Priest Infallible? Of Course Not

If you saw the film “The Banshees of Inisherin” you might remember the scene where the main character has an argument with the parish priest during confession.

It is a comic scene, as traditionally a priest is a patient tolerant semi-saint who does not lose his temper and the dutiful parishioner accepts his word as dogma.

Of course, real life is not like that and – unlike the Pope who is infallible in spiritual matters* - few Catholics think priests are infallible especially priests they have come to know personally.

I have had several disagreements with priests.

One was at confession when an elderly priest denied my statement that Jews did not believe in an afterlife. I was astonished that this veteran cleric was not aware of this. I know there is some ambiguity over the Jewish faith´s attitude to an afterlife and I don´t claim to know a lot about it but there is no comparison with Catholicism’s hidebound belief in eternal life. However, this priest simply denied my claim in a stubborn way but provided no evidence or even knowledge of the subject. I have often wondered since then if he ever made any attempt to find out afterwards. Obviously he had been taught nothing about Judaism at the seminary although so much of our Catholic faith stems from it.

Another was more recent and more heated. Where I live in Brazil it is not uncommon for priests to leave the distribution of communion to deacons or others. I have no problem with this when there is a good reason. About a year ago one of our parish priests became incapable of celebrating the mass in its entirety for health reasons and I understood why he left this task to others. On other occasions I have attended mass – most recently at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico – where the congregation was so enormous that even five priests were unable to give communion.

However, I do not approve of priests letting others distribute the host when they are perfectly capable of doing so themselves. Only last week I was outraged when the priest, a young fit person about 30 years younger than me, sat back and watched the communion being given by assistants who were not even deacons.

It was the second time he had done so during Lent. After the mass I asked him why he had given this sacred task to non-clerics. He became aggressive and said he was not obliged to do so personally. For me this was unacceptable and I told him that I had not taken communion on those days because I felt insulted that he had not fulfilled his duties.

I checked later and found that, of course, a priest does not have to give communion but only under certain circumstances and none of these had been met on this occasion.

It was obvious that this priest was annoyed that I, a layman, had not accepted his so-called explanation but I hope my questioning made him reconsider. I will find out the next time I go to mass where he is presiding.

·         Incidentally, a fairly recent concept in historical terms that goes back to 1870.

© John Brander Fitzpatrick 2025