A Comparative Study on the Religious Ruler's Infallibility in Catholic and Shi a

Catholic and Shi’a believe in infallibility of religious ruler from error. Therefore, they have drawn a method for this. Catholic Church, based on the Vatican I's decree, has approved the infallibility of the Pope. On the other hand, in Shia thought, the religious ruler does not have the characteristic of "infallibility or impeccability" but the possibility of error would remove by the precise and strict monitoring. The purpose of this study is to compare between the chosen methods of Catholics and Shi’as for removing an error in the religious ruler. Therefore, first, we will study about the Catholic and Shia methods, then we will analyze them. Explaining the status of religious ruler in Shia and Catholic thought is the most important achievement of this research. The characteristics of religious ruler in Shia minus infallibility are drawn in such a way that there is no possibility of error. While due to belief in infallibility of the pope in Catholic Church, there is not any possibility for his error.