On the Immaculate Conception, Papal Infallibility, and Operation-of-Error Curse ~ Catholic Lecture.

This lecture was done on 6-1-2025, the Lord’s Day within the Octave of the Ascension. It can be accessed in the RJMI Video Lectures menu or the RJMI Audio Lectures menu at website: www.JohnTheBaptist.us
The lecture deals with RJMI article titled Refutation of “How Many Popes Does It Take to Deny the Immaculate Conception?” Here is a short answer to the question:
* As long as the Immaculate Conception is not a dogma and thus is an allowable opinion, any number of popes can deny it or believe it and not be guilty of heresy. But it only takes one pope to settle the legitimate dispute if his teaching is infallible, either for or against the Immaculate Conception.
* In 1854, Pius IX attempted to infallibly define the Immaculate Conception and thus make it a solemn magisterium dogma; but he was an apostate antipope, and hence his definition was null and void.
* The key to answering this question properly is to understand what it takes to make an allowable opinion a dogma and thus to understand that dogmas are made in two ways: 1) by the Solemn Magisterium (papal infallibility); and, 2) by the Ordinary Magisterium (the unanimous consensus of the teachings of the Church Fathers regarding doctrines of faith).
* This lecture also presents the process in which allowable opinions are made dogmas. For the record, I [RJMI] believe in the Immaculate Conception and believe the defence of it is irrefutable. And this lecture deals with the Operation-of-Error Curse that God has placed nominal Catholics under for not condemning obvious things, like the desecration of Catholic places with idols, false gods, devils, and immorality. For example, God has allowed apostate antipopes, such as Eugene IV, to make infallibly worded definitions that are heretical. If he were a true pope, God would never have allowed it. To learn why God has allowed this, listen to the lecture.