(June 22, 2015 at 9:24 am)abaris Wrote:(June 21, 2015 at 7:25 pm)Randy Carson Wrote: Well, the Borgia popes were pretty bad, but yes, generally speaking God leads the cardinals to choose the man God desires as pope. And from that point, yes, the pope is PREVENTED by God from teaching error in his formal capacity as Pope. He can still be in error privately.
Not as bad as their successors made them out to be. Alexander VI offered a safe haven for the jews being thrown out of Spain after the reconquista, Just to give one example. But it's certainly correct that he was corrupt to the bones, especially when it came to his family.
Interestingly enough, some have pointed out that the really bad popes seem to have been so busy engaging in wordly affairs that they did not bother with anything that might have been false doctrine. Weird, but true, I think.