There's NO chance at all I would ever take a "maximalist ultramontane papalism" approach but I don't think even Newman would deny that that certainly WAS the view held by many Popes and their bishops in the past - that the whole world should be under the temporal as well as spiritual papal supremacy and in the clerical domination of society.
Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Letters, p. 112 said:
And just as the end at which the Church aims is by far the noblest of ends, so is its authority the most exalted of all authority, nor can it be looked upon as inferior to the civil power, or in any manner dependent upon it.
He also stated in his Encyclical on the "Evils Affecting Modern Society", page 11:
Cardinal Henry Manning (1892), the Archbishop of Westminster, stated:
In his book, "The Present Crisis of the Holy See", page 75, Archbishop Manning stated:
So, I hope you can understand that, when I read statements like those, other encyclicals and past ex cathedra proclamations of popes that there is no salvation to anyone who is not subject to the Pope of Rome, it isn't unreasonable to expect that this requires popes to be far different than any other Catholic. If, as FRoman Catholics frequently assert here, there is an "unbroken line of succession" all the way back to Peter and that the power and authority Christ granted to him is passed down to his successors, it raises the stakes and makes these men much more than merely bad popes - there should NEVER be one. If, as you say, they are "free to be stupid, confused or sinful as anybody else", then you are admitting - though perhaps not knowingly - that they are NOT Divinely ordained and anointed successors to Peter, and that whatever succession there was, it was one of the passing down of sound teaching rather than the authority of an Apostle.
Popes have to be obeyed in the sense of having the authority of their office, in the same sense that the Captain of a Ship has to be obeyed. This does not imply that either popes or captains have flawless judgment, special access to hidden truths, or protection from screwing up big. It means "this guy is in charge here."
We are obliged in general to obey authority 1 Peter2:13 (LINK) --- and that deserves a good long look, because it applies to Church authorities even more than to secular authorities. This has to do with authority in general. But nobody is obliged to obey a sinful order, and that is true whether the guy giving the order is captain or pope.
I often wonder how Catholics today would react if they had a Pope like Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), for example? Would you feel obligated to obey him and submit to his authority or would you withhold that obedience based upon whether or not what he said and how he behaved matches what you already know is the truth? Jesus said unto whom much is given, much will be required. I don't think it is wise to brush off the depravity of Church leaders while asserting ALL of Christendom must submit to their authority. It's no surprise that the Reformation came about in the years leading up to and after such an ignoble time in the Catholic church. This is why I know the Roman Catholic church cannot be THE one, true church Jesus established and, though many of her members no doubt are part of that spiritual temple, the Body of Christ remains a set apart assembly of the redeemed, washed white in the blood of the Lamb and preparing to meet the Lord in the air and so to ever be with Him in heaven.
Judge which one is closer to how the papacy is seen by trad. RCs.
According to Manning's theory, it is our duty to accept implicitly whatever the present Church teaches, and to be sure that, however opposed this may seem to what we find in Scripture or antiquity, we need not trouble ourselves about the matter, and that the opposition can only be apparent.
According to this theory, then, all the prerogatives of Scripture are annulled: the dicta of Pius IX. and Leo XIII. are as truly inspired by God's Spirit, and are to be received with as much reverence, as the utterances of Peter and Paul. Thus the function of the Church, in the latest form of Romanism, is made to be not so much to guard and hand down securely an original revelation as to be a perpetual organ for making new revelations.[11] Whenever a new controversy arises, the Pope is divinely inspired to discern its true solution, and to pronounce which of the parties is in the right and how far.
In this way Manning's party have now got beyond the old Ultramontane doctrine of the inerrancy of the Pope. This doctrine has been changed into that of his divine perpetual inspiration,[12] giving him a power of disclosing new truths as infallibly as Peter and Paul. Dr. Pusey called this theory a kind of Llamaism, implying as it does a kind of hypostatic union of the Holy Ghost with each successive Pope....
And, consequently, a thoroughgoing Infallibilist like Manning, is consistently a foe to all candid historical investigation, as being really irreconcilable with faith in the Church's authority at the only hand which they believed had power to save them from it. - THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH (1888 edition), GEORGE SALMON, D.D.; http://www.sounddoctrine.net/Classic_Sermons/George%20Salmon/infallibility_church.htm
Thus
“The real reason why I cannot be in communion with you [Catholics] is not my disagreement with this or that Roman doctrine [but see his quote at link below on disagreements with some Roman Catholic doctrines], but that to accept your Church means, not to accept a given body of doctrine, but to accept in advance any doctrine your Church hereafter produces. It is like being asked to agree not only to what a man has said but also to what he is going to say.”- C. S. Lewis, “Christian Reunion”, in Christian Reunion and Other Essays, edited by Walter Hooper, London: Collins, 1990, p. 17-18. http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.co m/2011/09/two-excellent-quotes-by-c-s-lewis-on.html)
We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty..." "We have addressed to Catholic people, either collectively or individually; and above all, let them lay down for themselves as a Supreme Law, to yield obedience in all things to the teaching and Authority of the Church, in no narrow or mistrustful spirit, but with their whole soul and promptitude of will." - http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/l13praec.htm
CCC 882 For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.
Can. 1404 M The First See is judged by no one. http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_P5A.HTM
15. From this it must be clearly understood that Bishops are deprived of the right and power of ruling, if they deliberately secede from Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must rest. They are therefore outside the edifice itself; and for this very reason they are separated from the fold, whose leader is the Chief Pastor; they are exiled from the Kingdom, the keys of which were given by Christ to Peter alone..
Nor is it lawful to interpret in a different sense what was given to Peter alone, and what was given to the other Apostles conjointly with him....
wherefore Gelasius on the decrees of Councils says: "That which the First See has not approved of cannot stand; but what it has thought well to decree has been received by the whole Church... - — Leo XIII - Satis cognitum; http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_29061896_satis-cognitum_en.html
Dictatus papae [1075] (a compilation of 27 statements of powers arrogated to the Pope that was included in Pope Gregory VII's register under the year 1075):
That of the pope alone all princes shall kiss the feet.
That a sentence passed by him may be retracted by no one; and that he himself, alone of all, may retract it. That he himself may be judged by no one. That no one shall dare to condemn one who appeals to the apostolic chair. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/g7-dictpap.asp
Surely you don’t think the Church is subordinate to the State?