The Holy Spirit can work through someone to ensure perfect transmission. That certainly doesn’t mean (1) He is necessarily doing so through the Pope/Vatican, (2) that every word out of the Catholic heirarchy is from the Holy Spirit, or, (3) that they the exclusive outlet for such work.
People can also say, and genuinely believe, that the Holy Spirit is working through them when He isn’t. The source of the doctrine which says that the Spirit doctrinally works through the Catholic heirarchy is ... the Catholic heirarchy. To me ... that’s not good enough.
SnakeDoc
And yet, you take the Bible to be the true Word of God because those who published it said it was?
“The Holy Spirit can work through someone to ensure perfect transmission. That certainly doesn’t mean
(1) He is necessarily doing so through the Pope/Vatican,”
The vast majority of Popes haven’t made infalliable proclamations. So you are in line with what the Church teaches here.
“(2) that every word out of the Catholic heirarchy is from the Holy Spirit”
Also true, and this is why infalliability is limited to the Pope, and limited to matters of faith and morals, and limited to the explicit proclaimations, as was cited earlier in the thread. Everything else is fair game.
“(3) that they the exclusive outlet for such work.”
Where do they claim exclusivity? Catholics make the claim that the Pope believes X, and everyone else should believe X. Non-Catholics claim that just because the Pope believes X, doesn’t mean they should believe X.
Non-Catholics don’t claim infalliability. Ever. There’s a very good reason why they don’t, and we’ve touched on some of these reasons. However, to one looking on the outside of both, you really have to ask the question. Why don’t protestants affirm Luther’s infalliability? Because they don’t agree with him on all points so they would rather follow themselves.
As for following the heirarchy, the oldest NT manuscripts are the codex vaticanus and the codex sinaiticus. So you are using what the Pope says is true when you affirm sola scriptura. ;) Not to mention the endless Vulgates published over a millenium which formed the basis for the earliest modern translations.
So it’s pick your poison.