I think Benedict/Ratzinger is an interesting phenomenon. He is a true intellectual. He may not agree with you, but he's open to discussion. I do not think he sees himself as infallible - but when he was John Paul II's Rottweiler, he seemed to consider John Paul II to be infallible. He tried to get John Paul's refusal to ordain women to be an infallible statement, but he missed one crucial element of infallibility. There was no universal acceptance of the refusal to ordain women, so the claim to infallibility of this statement lacks credibility.

A pope can't just use authority to declare a statement infallible - the statement has to be credible, and universally accepted. To a great extent, the Vatican seems to have backed off its attempt to define JPII's statement as infallible, but ordination of women is NOT a subject Benedict is willing to discuss.

-Joe-