Hi, Heather —
Thanks for your question.
Let's start by correcting some incorrect
premises. The Pope doesn't have the
authority to change doctrine; neither
does the Church. The Catholic Church
has never changed a single doctrine.
Doctrines have, however, developed.
That is, as questions were asked
throughout the centuries, doctrines
have been clarified and further defined
but never has the Church said what
we believed previously is wrong.
For instance, the Church always believed
in the Real Presence of Jesus in
the Eucharist. Beginning with the
Gospels, and later in the writings
of the earliest of Church Fathers,
it is abundantly apparent that the
Church always believed Christ was
manifested at the moment of consecration
during the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.
It wasn't until the Lateran Council
that the Church further defined the
doctrine to explain how and what
happens. That's because for several
centuries in Western Church, this
question kept on coming up so relying
on Scripture, Tradition, and the leading
of the Holy Spirit, the Church explained
that the substance of bread and wine
change into the Body, Blood, Soul,
and Divinity of Christ, but the appearance
of Bread and Wine remain. This definition
didn't negate the previous understanding — it clarified it.
So Doctrine doesn't change. The Church
will never say the Eucharist is not
the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.
The Church will never say last year
we believed abortion was wrong, but
today it's OK.
Now it is important to differentiate
between doctrine (those things
that deal with faith and morals) and
practice, disciplines, and pastoral
provisions. For instance, the Western
Church for centuries offered the
Mass strictly in Latin. Previous
to that, the Mass was in Greek.
It did so because those languages
were the world
languages which everyone in
the West spoke. It wasn't because
of any belief in the language. In
the 1960's the Church changed that
practice because the circumstances
changed.
Another example is that prior to
Vatican II, all Catholics (again
in the Western Church) were bound
to abstain from meat on Fridays.
This was a pastoral provision. Catholics
worship as a community, not just
individually so on Fridays we made
a communal act of sacrifice by fasting
from certain foods. Today, Catholics
are free to choose their own sacrificial
act to perform on Fridays, but again,
it is a pastoral provision or discipline.
We are bound to these because we
are bound to obedience, not because
the provision itself is a doctrine.
There was never anything unholy about
eating a cheeseburger or hot dog
on Friday, but if you deliberately
did so (when the discipline required
that you abstained) you were
guilty of disobedience.
So to recap, neither the Church nor
the Pope changes doctrine. On the
other hand, disciplines and so forth
are subject to change.
So now having cleared that up, let's
move to your first question.
The Pope doesn't have a more direct
pipeline to God other than prayer.
However, when it comes to teaching
as the Universal Pastor, a definitive
truth about doctrine (faith and morals),
he is prevented by the Holy Spirit
from officially teaching error. This
is called infallibility. It is limited
to faith and morals and it is under
specific circumstances. Moreover,
it is not a direct line of communication
like divine inspiration. Rather it
is the Holy Spirit, preventing error
from being taught.
I'll let one of my colleagues answer
the other question regarding Jubilees.
In the mean time, I hope this clarifies
your first question and the incorrect
premise behind it.
John DiMascio
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