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It was then that I realized that becoming Catholic meant trusting that the Holy Spirit would guide the Church. It doesn't mean intentionally turning away from the Spirit and intentionally putting the Pope up in His stead. From without, that may be what it looks like. But from within it's not gee, door 1: Holy Ghost; door 2: Spirit of God.
Perhaps I was using too much short hand. :) I didn't mean to imply that I think the Holy Spirit doesn't guide the Pope. He certainly does because he is a Christian. My beef is with any idea that the Pope is the only one on the planet who gets super-duper grace, to the point of divine perfection (ex Cathedra). From without, that not only makes him appear to be a "king", but a king with a unique pipeline to God. From without, this would appear to put him on an equal footing with the Apostles and the prophets. It is a difficult concept for us to accept. :)
So even taking the most cynical, Machiavellian POV, you'd suspect that the Pope isn't going to rear back and "declare and define" without a sense that "the Church", or a big chunk of it, is behind him. He may not need legions or divisions to back him up, but the heating bill at the Vatican has got to be heroic.
And at least on the two great Marian pronouncements, the Pope has not spoken without a lot of urging from the Church over time and space. So, I'm suggesting, FUNCTIONALLY it's like there's a charism given to the Church as a big, huge blob, and another charism given to the Successor of Peter as something like a pressure valve.
Fr. John Richard Neuhaus interestingly phrased the doctrine of Papal infallibility in negative terms. Not "Whatever the Pope says is true," but "The Pope won't 'declare and define' something that ain't so."
So it's not like the entire Church is sitting there like lumps until the Pope says something or other. It's more like everybody is saying, "Come on, say such and such," and then the Pope does or he doesn't.
That way his uniqueness is seen as not isolated, but part of a great, complicated, fermenting, and very alive mess -- which, after a little more than a decade of experience accords well with what the RCC looks like in real time.
To me this mitigates and renders a tad more palatable the idea of the Pope having special mojo. As a group we ALL have mojo, and the Pope is the "governor" in the mechanical sense.