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POINT: the Holy Spirit protects the deposit of the faith during such times. Always has, always will! The Church continues, and the succession is there for all to see.

POINT: The point is you long ago gave away any pretense of independant thinking. You gave your will and intellect to your Bishops and will dance to any tune they play.

Canon. 752 While the assent of faith is not required , a religious submission of intellect and will is to be given to any doctrine which either the Supreme Pontiff or the College of Bishops, exercising their authentic magisterium, declare upon a matter of faith or morals, even though they do not intend to proclaim that doctrine by definitive act . Christ faithful are therefore to ensure that they avoid whatever does not accord with that doctrine.

Why pretend otherwise?

"POINT: The point is you long ago gave away any pretense of independant thinking. You gave your will and intellect to your Bishops and will dance to any tune they play."

The Canon you quoted says assent to DOCTRINE declared upon a matter of FAITH OR MORALS.

Dancing is not required. ;) Anyway, it is not bishops, but only the entire College of Bishops in UNION with the Pope who have authority.

BTW, I have not given up any pretense of independent thinking. The beautiful thing about the Catholic faith is that it is reasonable and logically consistent. The more I read and learn, the more evidence I see of that.

Another thing: If you are not a Catholic, your search for truth takes a different path; i.e. you search for truth in the Scriptures, having discussions, etc. I am a Catholic. The Catholic Church has a credible claim to truth. To throw all that away, I would be starting from scratch, compelled by conscience to read everything ever written about Christianity. Then, in the final analysis, IF I thought my own interpretation was true and the Catholic Church's was not, HOW COULD I EVER BE SURE OF THAT? The splintering of Protestantism proves that it is possible for individuals to come to the wrong conclusion -- because they can't all be right. Truth is whole, not splintered.

POINT: If I could be right and the Pope/Church could be wrong, it is probably the more likely that I would be wrong and the Pope/Church right.

That is IMHO a very logical position to take. ;) As I said, you are on a different path to truth. I HAVE accepted the Church's credible claim to truth, rationally and logically.