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Can you provide the document from Vatican I that says the Pope is only infallible on faith and morals when he speaks "ex cathedra". My understanding of that term is only when he pronounces as official doctrine/teaching something that has never been a formal,written part of the "deposit of faith", must he pronounce "ex cathedra".Examples are the Immaculate Conceoption and the Assumption.

Issues of faith and morals that are developed or expressed in a way that is more understandable to persons living in the prevailing culture are teachings wherein his infallibility is in effect.These will never contradict Scripture or Tradition,they merely clarify,illuminate,elaborate,refine or emphasize a heretofore lesser known facet of the Truth.

Good to see you back,with you and Catholic Guy gone for a while things were getting pretty dull.However,with both of you back,there are times when I yearn for dullness.(o_-)sara

The First Vatican Council, Sess. IV, Const. de Ecclesiâ Christi, c. iv, states: "We teach and define that it is a dogma Divinely revealed that the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals, and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves and not from the consent of the Church irreformable." (Catholic Encyclopedia)

This Divine assistance, however, "was not promised to the Successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine." The gift was granted solely to guard the deposit of faith--that is to say, to guard what had always been believed and handed down from apostolic times. It is Tradition that rules the Pontiff, not, as many neo-Catholics would have it, the Pontiff who rules Tradition.