Yeah; we know...
Sure, there's a lot of commentary.
But if you want to get analytical about it, there's a good dozen levels of authority between "infallible" and "mere commentary."
For instance, there are a lot of things which are authoritative but not infallible. E.g. papal rulings which apply only for a particular time, or for a particular place, a particular person or group of persons, or a particular situation, may be authoritative but not universal, that is, not infallible.
An example would be, say, the method of choosing bishops. Church discipline encoded in Canon Law. The authority of abbots. The method of choosing popes. Priestly celibacy.
In contrast, most of what has come down to us via papal encyclicals and so forth, are exercises of the "ordinary magisterium." Restatement of perennial doctrines.
For instance: Jesus is True God and True Man.
That's authoritative, and it is so because it is straight out of Scripture. It doesn't need a special papal declaration because it's already explicitly and incontrovertibly "there."
The vast bulk of theological and moral doctrine is not in any sense innovation. It's repetition.
A ministry of repetition.
“But if you want to get analytical about it, there’s a good dozen levels of authority between “infallible” and “mere commentary.”
.......................
“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
- 2 Cor. 11:3
The Catholic church can take something as simple as
Romans 10:9-13 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
and complicate it way beyond what the federal government could even dream of.
Sheesh, Scripture is easy. It's all infallible and all authoritative.
You can accept it or not and believe it or not, but that's no different than the choice Catholics have with all their layers of authority between infallible and mere commentary.
You guys have made getting to God way to hard.
The pharisees had NOTHING on Catholicism.
Yeah; we know...