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I honestly believed that you folks thought the man to be infallable.

I honestly believe that you believed that. :-)

When J2P2 was dying, one of the deputies kept saying to me, "He's just a man." I was confused until I realized that he was one of the many who have listened to those who hate Catholicism to form his opinion about what the Church teaches.

First we distinguish between infallibility and impeccability. Popes can and do sin, some really a lot. They generally have confessors, which they wouldn't want if they didn't sin. Dante has a pretty dense population of popes in the Inferno.

Second about infallibility, one way to start thinking about it, to get the flavor, is to think that it does NOT, so to speak, inhere in the person, but rather in the office and its exercise. When Papa Ben XVI writes Jesus of Nazareth, he clearly says that this is NOT infallible, it's just his personal opinion.

So I get the book, NOT to get the authoritative inside skinny on IHS, but more out of (nauseating Catholic term alert!) filial affection. I want to know what Papa Ben thinks because he's the Pope and because my pastor, who studied under him, says it's a really good book. So two "fathers" recommend the book. I can't read ALL the books about IHS, so I'll read this one. But I won't bow to the east or anything. I'll argue with it in my alleged mind and with my homies.

So, while I guess there could be disagreement about how many infallible statements have been made, we can learn from the way they get made.

In the Marian dogmas what we have are questions which have been discussed for a LONG time. The Immaculate Conception had been on the table at least 500 years before a Pope finally said enough already.

In addition there is usually "popular pressure" to resolve the issue. Say a bunch of people are referring to Mary as "The Immaculate" and another bunch are saying, "Now hold on a minute." And there is a ginormous body of scholarly discussion.

With that background, and considering that Popes recently have been pretty scholarly and thoughtful themselves and surround themselves with similar people and can pretty much get through anybody's receptionist to get the opinion of whomever they want, the Pope huddles with his homies and can get a very informed and complete digest of the opinions and arguments either way..

Also, there's a whole lot of praying going on.

And also, there is very great confidence in the promises we hold IHS to have made to His Church.

AND there's the meaning of "apostle" which seems to be "a person sent with authority."

So THEN the Pope rears back and lets fly with a statement, usually including the words of great mojo, "I declare and define ... ."

In the case of the Immaculate Conception, we hold that the statement was strongly confirmed by visions, including those to Bernadette and to Catherine Laboure. (My tag is a prayer which Mary revealed to Catherine Laboure as part of the "miraculous medal" vision.)

If the Pope says, "I like the Patriots in the Super Bowl," the understanding of infallibility is not touched by the outcome. We'd pretty much need a registered and notarized letter from God saying, "She was not either immaculately conceived," before the doctrine (of papal infallibility) would be in trouble.

All this is not meant to be persuasive, but merely a description of what the doctrine means to us, and as such, I hope it's helpful.