[tacticalogic]

(Everyone knows that Church tribunals ---as a function of politics, and not doctrine--- can be in error. One need only think of St. Joan of Arc, who was executed by an illegitimate ecclesiastical tribunal dominated by her political enemies, and later not only "apologized to" but canonized a saint.)

I'm not Catholic, or partiularly familiar with the inner workings of the Church's bureaucracies. From the outside looking that explanation seems to be something of an exercise in hair-splitting.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The distinction between a errors of clerical bureaucracy and errors of doctrine is important. Clerical bureaucracies, like any other human institutions, can be slack, unjust, ignorant, corrupt, scandalous, in error, etc. Catholic doctrine cannot be erroneous because it flows from divine revelation.

2 Corinthians 4: 7 "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us..."

And the error is "of us" and not "of God" or of the things that God guarantees. Our own failures are all too obvious.

[mbraynard]

If you would like to be educated, I recommend Triumph written by Henry Crocker. It documents a lot of the issues and gives clearity. Of course from your perspective without much info, it looks like hair splitting.