The power of Christ's Church does not lie in the Vatican but in the Mystical Body of Christ. Christ is the head of the Church, not the Pope. The Vatican is the administrative body of the Church and its spiritual compass. The Pope is not some guru who advises the world on questions of human experience. We have all the tools available to us: The Holy Mass, Sacraments, Scriptures, Catechism, Dogma, and Encyclicals. We have the Apostolic tradition, Saints, and Doctors of the Church. We are not bound to pay any attention to what a pope, cardinal, bishop, or priest states either verbally or in writing that contradicts Church teaching.

Please note the verbal slyness of the Pope. I do not expect that any pope should offer "a definite or complete word on every (sic) question which affects the Church and the world". Right on, the Pope has no duty to discuss any and every question about the world, e.g., the sensibleness of the 0.25% interest policy imposed by the European Central Bank on savers. The Pope has nothing intrinsically to say about the conflict between Kenysian and Misesian/Hayekian economic theories, even if he had the slightest idea of what such theories are. But, I note with ironic joy, the economic policies now pursued in Europe and the USA constitute a factor that "affects the Church and the world." For one thing the Church of Germany might lose some of its 5 billion+ capital participation in the market and have less money to help the poor. That is big, but outside the Pope's magisterial duties.

But the admittance of divorced Catholics to communion certainly affects Germany directly and, implicitly, the whole Church. What about the morning after pill that kills here in Germany. No definitely interesting for a pope? Here is where the Pope should find his duties or quick his office.

What has the Pope done? Up to now little re Germany, yet he has proclaimed superverbally a general condemnation of capitalism (despite heavy Catholic interests in the market, an era fully outside of any "definitive word" from a Pope). He should have spoken with some limited definitive judgment on the German Church, particularly because the bishops in Germany are making a false choice.

What I am trying to do with the few words above is to show that the Pope uses terms in an inflated and falsifying way to disguise not using words in a way proper to his office. The Pope seems "obsessed" with ridding himself of his magisterial duties. The terminology used, inflated and distorted as it is, gives the Pope a cheep verbal victory, allowing him to hurry to the bruises and dirt of the streets, while bleieving Catholic becomes confused as to what to believe or must do it all for him/herself.

If, therefore, someone shall say that the Roman Pontiff has the office merely of inspection and direction, and not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in matters that belong to Faith and Morals, but also in those that relate to the discipline and government of the Church spread through the world; or assert that he possesses merely the principal part and not all of the fullness of this supreme power; or that this power which he enjoys is not ordinary and immediate, both over each and all the churches and over each and all the Pastors and the faithful: let him be anathema.

(Pius IX, Constitution Pastor Aeternus or De Ecclesia Christi
of July 18, 1870, in DR 1831)

H/T traditioninaction.org