text: Perhaps your comment would make sense, Marty, if you would substitute the word authoritarianism (of the Holy Father) for the word "authority."   The definition of infallibility was poorly defined by a VI in the 1800's that did much damage to the church.  Fact is that Pius IX dismissed the conclave when he did not have the votes for it but reconvened it after the Northern European and American Bishops were gone.  The fact is that Pius IX had shown himself to be emotionally unstable by the kidnaping a Jewish boy that a maid had baptized.