Vatican Embassy Protestor

[StealthySkeptic]

I keep on running into this one.
Infallibility in the Catholic Church (papal infallibility) only goes to the Pope, not priest-rapists or the bishops who protect them.
Even papal infallibility has its limits. The pope is not somehow morally superior to the rest of humankind. Not even the things he teaches are necessarily infallible. In the event that Church doctrine is in question, the pope can make an ultimate infallible pronouncement to end controversy.

So he's infallible.

Except when he's not.

As an ex-catholic, I can tell you that you're not questioning Papal infallibility deeply enough nor paying enough attention to its impacts. You need to remember that Catholicism is hierarchical and totalitarian: all decisions are signed off by the Pope. That includes all local decisions, which are signed-off by proxy (infallibility is transmitted from one layer of the hierarchy to the next). Therefore it's the ultimate enabler for despicable acts because the church is forced to cover them up in order to protect the entire concept of Papal infallibility.

I cannot kudos this post enough times. I also know for a fact that it is canon law that every Catholic is required to obey the decisions of the Church and never consider them wrong on anything. The Church is allowed to, for instance, deny communion to Catholic politicians who don't vote the way they say. Of course, that doesn't mean that (as in the 1960 election) anyone should believe Catholic politicians will be chained to Rome. But the authoritarian vein running through the Church since the time of the Roman Empire is certainly there.