Well, ZC, we know it's important to YOU...LOL...I hardly see you talk about anything else. :)
And I feel the need to remind you that the inerrantist position has not been repudiated. I would agree with you that people, even bishops and even popes, have been trying to play footsie with it, but what right have they to trump numerous dogmatic statements in this regard?
I thank you for not misunderstanding my criticisms of Catholicism. Many Catholics so have inerrancy and sola scriptura intertwined in their minds that they respond to defenses of the former with refutations of the latter. I also hope you have noticed that I have never accused Catholics of worshiping the Devil, or conspiring to rule the world, or seducing nuns in confessionals, or any number of other Protestant motifs (and my attacks on Catholic "works" are entirely within the context of the hypocrisy of defending Catholic "works" while attacking Jewish "works." In other words, I attack the Church for betraying its own alleged beliefs (as well as for proving such a disappointment in my own spiritual journey--the Catholic image is far, far removed from the Catholic reality). But despite this I'm tarred with the same "bigotry" brush as genuine sola scriptura Protestants who believe all that other stuff about the Church.
And I feel the need to remind you that the inerrantist position has not been repudiated. I would agree with you that people, even bishops and even popes, have been trying to play footsie with it, but what right have they to trump numerous dogmatic statements in this regard?
Dogmatic statements that have been locked in archives for centuries and are no longer quoted or taught are, for all practical purposes, useless. You've heard of "out of sight, out of mind," right? But in addition to the simple silence there is the fact that it is quite commonly taught either that the Church never believed in inerrancy, or else used to until forced by new knowledge to recant.
Let me know when the ancient statements on inerrancy get the same publicity as the encyclical on birth control.