The Pope

[Golem]

When, and why, did the Pope become infallible?

[jno]

1870; for details see here

[dotjhawkes]

jno, how do you do the here bit, i have never learnt to do it, and as a potentially future owner/manager of the CB site it may be a skill i should acquire

[Robert G]

God knows.

[bernardo]

He didn't and he isn't.

[jno]

re: here (er, that wasn't a real one): cut and paste the URL you want to link to and hit the space bar (not the return/para key) and it should become a link - red and underscored. Then highlight it by clicking on it or dragging the arrow/cursor over it. Then just write 'here' or whatever you want on top of it (only one word). It will still be a link, red and underscored. Bingo

[jake-the-peg]

To drag this back to the original question.

Note the Pope is not infallible all time but only with regards to speaking ex cathedra - a bit like a modern day super-hero putting on his <Deep booming voice> "cloak of infalibility".

This doesn't happen too often I don't think. They're all scared of causing trouble further down the line and stopping some later pope changing his or her (just kidding) mind.