Protestants (including Baptists) have insisted upon acknowledging Scripture alone as their authority for faith and practice. Catholics, who affirm the authority of the Magisterium and of the Pope speaking ex cathedra, have often pointed to divisions among Protestants as proof that Sola Scriptura is inadequate as a principle of authority. That argument has never been completely convincing, but it had more plausibility when Roman Catholicism seemed to be moving in a single direction under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Under Pope Francis, however, conservative Roman Catholics are having to do their own dance around Papal authority, which, it turns out, is not all one thing. In a perverse way, it’s funny to watch. You read about some of this dance in an article at First Things entitled “Creeping Infallibility.”
