The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary, mother of Jesus was—by a special grace of God—without sin her entire life.
On the other hand, Pope Gregory VII, intellectual progenitor of the Ultramontanes and nemesis of the lay faction in the investiture controversy, voiced an assertion of papal prerogative beyond even the strongest of modern apologists:
[1]Nevertheless, in Catholic thought, the exemption of the See of Rome from all error extends only to its definitive teachings on faith and morals, not to its historical judgments.
Quite the contrary, popes frequent the sacrament of Reconciliation (confession and penance) for the forgiveness of their sins, as all Catholics are required to do.
Those who are united with Christ will form the community of the redeemed, 'the holy city' of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb".
The beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual communion.
Evangelical writer Donald Macleod suggests that the sinless nature of Jesus Christ involves two elements.