The Keys Of The Kingdom

The Spirit of God present in the Church guarantees that the message given to men through Jesus Christ will never be lost, and that God's people will not lose their way to the Kingdom. Surrounded and protected by this exceptional gift, the community of the elect must live and operate with fallibility. To understand this situation is liberation for us all. No one must pretend that his statements come straight from God. Rather he should submit everything he articulates to the good sense of the community, and ultimately to those who have the final authority to judge, namely, the college of the bishops and the Pope, so that what is missing in his vision could be completed by the ministry of the Church. Dialogue is possible and necessary precisely because we are fallible; otherwise the Church would be a resounding cacophony of final statements.

The Good News never promised that each of us or every freely associated group will have the power to articulate the final truth, but it promised that "in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose" ( Rom.8:28 ). A biblical blank check--God takes care of our well-meaning mistakes.

Quoted from STUDIES in the Spirituality of Jesuits Toward a theological Evaluation of Communal Discernment by Ladislas Orsy,S.J.