[ealgeone]

The pope is infallible only when speaking ex cathedra about faith and/or morals, which relate to the teachings of the Church.

All popes have issued a number of writings...are they valid or not?

The Protestant Reformation was not a reform of the Catholic Church, it was a splitting away of many from the Church.

Guess the Counter-Reformation meant nothing was wrong in Roman Catholicism.

[Chicory]

Are papal writings valid? I don’t know what you mean by valid. Depending on the nature of the document, we must assent to varying degrees.

The Protestant Reformation did not reform the Catholic Church, so “reformatiion” is not the right word. It doesn’t mean that there was nothing bad happening in the Church. I am not knowledgeable about the issue of indulgences at that time, but that seems to have been the one thing Luther brought up which was in need of re-considering.