"C. G. Estabrook" wrote:
>
> Not even the most extreme ultramontane (roughly, pro-papal) theologians in
> the RC church would contend that a call to lift the Cuba embargo or the
> birth-control statement of 1968 ("Humanae vitae") constituted infallible
> teaching according to the definition of Vatican I.
One RC friend (probably less learned than CGE but more so than I or anyone else on this list) once suggested that in a pinch and under the right conditions it could be argued that the doctrine of infallibility ('from the episcopal chair') had never actually (and fully) been invoked. I.e., it is probably impossible to compose a text that is free of any wiggle-room whatever. Texts are (ultimately) what they are construed to be by someone or ones.
Carrol