""Well postulated, Joe. But I return to my point, with which you obstinately refuse to engage, that the vast majority of Catholics worldwide are deeply and unquestioningly attentive, by their lifelong conditioning, to what The Pope says, ex cathedra or not [they should know the difference!]""

I am a lapsed Catholic, having problems with much of what I experienced at the hands of Jesuit teachers.

However I must support Joe in this matter. All Catholic children of my generation were most clearly instructed that Papal infallibility is strictly limited to matters of Doctrine and Dogma only, and that in all other respects he is as fallible as any other human being.

So why would you assume that we don't know the difference?

It is those outside, with insufficient experience of the way that Catholic children are taught, who come to inaccurate conclusions about our reaction to ex cathedra comment.

Don T.