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HASLER, August B., How the Pope Became Infallible : Pius IX and the Politics Or Persuasion Margaret O’Gara

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HASLER, August B., How the Pope Became Infallible : Pius IX and the Politics Or Persuasion Margaret O’Gara Document generated on 10/01/2021 5:24 p.m. Laval théologique et philosophique HASLER, August B., How the Pope Became Infallible : Pius IX and the Politics or Persuasion Margaret O’Gara Volume 39, Number 1, février 1983 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/400022ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/400022ar See table of contents Publisher(s) Faculté de philosophie, Université Laval ISSN 0023-9054 (print) 1703-8804 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review O’Gara, M. (1983). Review of [HASLER, August B., How the Pope Became Infallible : Pius IX and the Politics or Persuasion]. Laval théologique et philosophique, 39(1), 120–121. https://doi.org/10.7202/400022ar Tous droits réservés © Laval théologique et philosophique, Université Laval, This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit 1983 (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ COMPTES RENDUS lorsqu'on est en situation de majorité et de domi• of majority bishops at the Eirst Vatican Council nation (p. 97, cf. pp. 81, 105-106)? Peut-on to ensure the passage and reception of the tea• accepter qu'une communauté religieuse reven• ching on papal infallibility. Hasler presents a dique sa propre liberté, si elle ne s'engage pas à series of pictures to show the systematic plotting respecter réellement la foi et les droits fonda• for the definition's passage, the harassment of the mentaux des autres (p. 141)? En quels termes minority bishops before and after the Council, poser le problème de la liberté religieuse « pour the control of newspapers and conciliar commis• qu'il soit universalisable, et non pas pour que des sions by Pius IX and majority bishops, and the gens, entre l'Europe de l'Est et celle de l'Ouest, authoritarian and mentally unbalanced persona• l'utilisent lorsqu'ils ont à régler des problèmes de lity structure of the Pope. (He goes on to link suprématie ou d'équilibre» (p. 151)? Un État these pictures with what he believes is a con• religieux peut-il garantir la liberté religieuse tinuing tendency to the authoritarian exercise of (p. 155)? Peut-on séparer la liberté religieuse des papal primacy, exemplified for him in the Moder• autres libertés (p. 156)? Le concept de liberté nist crisis, the insistence on the proclamation o\~ religieuse s'étend-il à certaines sectes qui parais• the Assumption of Mary, the readiness of Catho• sent néfastes en raison de leurs méthodes de lics for a fascist political system, and the treat• prosélytisme et d'endoctrinement (p. 161, cf. ment of Hans Kiing.) Erom his historical analysis, pp. 170-171)? Suffit-il que chacun justifie ses Hasler concludes that the Council was not free. bonnes intentions en tirant d'un immense the• In his theological section, Hasler studies the saurus traditionnel des textes confirmant cette arguments proferred by the minority bishops in liberté religieuse, quand on sait que l'on peut y their stand against the definition of papal infalli• trouver de tout pour justifier des positions allant bility. Drawing on modern biblical exegesis and en des sens contraires (p. 262)? modern recognition of historical consciousness, On notera tout au long de ces discussions la the author finds in the minority's thought a largeur de vue de Mohammed Arkoun et la fidelity to history that contrasts strongly with the perspicacité d'Emile Poulat. C'est en bonne partie method used by the majority bishops and by leurs interventions qui, à mon sens, rehaussent le Pastor aeternus. He concludes that the definition ton du dialogue et lui donne une profondeur qui was the dethronement of history by ideology, a donne à réfléchir. doctrine with no adequate basis, a doctrine that shields the magisterium and the doctrinal tea• André COUTURE ching of the Roman Catholic Church from all Université de Moncton further criticism. What can be said of this book, which raises so many difficult and controversial issues in an enga• ging but somewhat simplistic manner? August B. HASLER, HOW the Pope Became Infal• One strength of Hasler's presentation is the lible : Pius IX and the Politics of Persuasion. sympathetic and generally accurate picture he Translated by Peter Heinegg. Garden City, paints of the minority bishops and the treatment New York: Doubleday, 1981. 400 pages. that they received. His book, by listening to the voices of the losers, forces us to take seriously Written in a popular style, this book allows the some of the unanswered questions that still sur• reader to focus easily on themes that the author round the First Vatican Council. While individual argued in a more scholarly manner in his Pius IX. points are sometimes misrepresented or misread, (1846-1878), Pdpstliche Unfehlbarkeit und 1. Va- nevertheless the sheer volume of detail showing tikanisches Konzil (2 vols., Stuttgart, 1977). the shadier side of the conciliar proceedings must Hence, both the strengths and the weaknesses of make for sober reading. Here the book is impor• the author's project stand out more clearly here. tant and cannot be ignored. The book has two sections, mixed together In addition, suggestive links are often drawn somewhat randomly. between the definition and an overly authori• The historical section sweeps from Jesus tarian and centralized exercise of papal primacy through the Constantinian era into the Nineteenth in the last century and a half. Century. It then recounts in detail the manipu• In several areas, however, Hasler's study is lative tactics used by Pius IX and a small number weak. 120 COMPTES RENDUS Frist, his polemical stance leads him to argue in a way useful for the ongoing discussion of positions without sufficient evidence. In Hasler's infallibility. eyes, the actors in the drama of the First Vatican Margaret O'GARA Council were all flawed. Some, such as Pius IX St. Michael's College and his small circle of ardent supporters, are Toronto portrayed as fanatics. Others, the minority bishops who all accepted Pastor aeternus after they had argued against a definition throughout the Council, Hasler sees as cowards. The rest of Michel COUSIN, Vivre la laïcité. Essai de Métho• the majority bishops are presented as a herd of dologie de la Philosophie et de la Morale sheep who mindlessly followed the fanatical Laïques. Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles. leadership of the Pope and his supporters. Fana• 1981. tics, cowards, and sheep : Hasler's treatment of Council members tends to analyze their motives Tout en voulant reprendre en son fondement la rather than their thoughts. Despite his sympathy question de l'éducation, ce petit ouvrage vise for the minority, then, he ends by suspecting surtout à apporter une aide à l'enseignant qui them of bad faith in places where he might more dispense le cours de morale « laïque » dans le cadre correctly have found simply bad theology — a des programmes officiels de l'enseignement public bad theology that led them to substitute obe• belge. Il est donc lié à un contexte culturel différent dience for critical reception of the definition after du nôtre, mais il pose des diagnostics susceptibles its passage. de nous interpeller, surtout à un moment où l'on s'interroge ici sur l'élaboration d'une morale This misreading of the actors in the drama purement « humaine », « non religieuse ». may be caused, however, by a more central Une triple préoccupation anime l'A. misunderstanding, which lies at the core of the book. Hasler operates with a faulty understan• D'abord une préoccupation que l'on pourrait ding of the definition of papal infallibility ; his qualifier « d'humaniste » et qu'on ne peut man• univocal understanding of its meaning reveals his quer de partager. « Ce que nous dénonçons, écrit- perceptualist epistemology that denies the need il, c'est... la priorité donnée à la vision techni• for any interpretation of dogma. Hasler himself cienne des choses, l'inflation technocratique qui seems to ridicule the effort at interpretation that noie la perspective humaniste et le chantage à la the minority bishops undertook and that today's rentabilité immédiate qui en fait s'inscrit davan• theologians continue. This univocal understan• tage dans le projet d'une société de gaspillage que ding of the definition is linked with an under• dans celui d'une éducation véritable » (p. 11). Et standing of history that manifests what Bernard l'A. affirme avec vigueur la nécessité de mettre Lonergan has called the ocular model of human l'éducation à l'écoute et au service de l'humain knowing, in which facts are thought to speak for dans l'homme, et donc, « de s'interroger sur l'être, themselves. Hasler raises the question of history sur l'homme et sur le sens souhaitable d'une and dogma that has troubled the Church since meilleure hominisation » (p. 9). On ne pourra y the Nineteenth Century, but he plays the two off arriver sans une véritable réflexion philosophique. against each other, ignoring the role that inter• On l'oublie trop aujourd'hui. pretation plays even in historical study. For him, La deuxième préoccupation de l'A. est réso• the definition is simple and clear in its meaning, a lument « laïque », au sens engagé et militant du meaning that denies historical facts and hence terme. « Comment rendre les cours de morale et de can have no function other than ideology.
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