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.
I’m sorry your experience with the Church has been distressing.
Would you please, to enlighten me, tell me what you believe is inerrancy, what is it you want to define, and what you believe has been the church’s failure in this regard?
I know where you are coming from and as I’ve said before, I agree with your position on inerrancy and I wish people would listen to it. You probably wouldn’t like my views on Genesis 1 at all LOL, but I’ve been down the slippery slope of Biblical higher criticism long enough to know it’s the text I have to trust over my own interpretation thereof. The text says what it says. Now maybe we didn’t interpret something right, but the error lies in our heads, not in the text as written.
You may be surprised...I think people are coming around on the inerrancy score. There’s perhaps more intellectuals in the Catholic world willing to subscribe to it now than, say, 20-30 years ago. I think people will come around.