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What is the Papacy?

  
Question: Is the pope really infallible?

Answer: "Infallible" does not mean that everything he says is true and accurate. Rather, it means that he may only teach the truth, and as leader of the Church, he must lead in truth. His teachings must be valid.

As pastor of the whole Church, and as Christ's representative to the whole world, the pope is supremely responsible for the truth.

From the Catechism para. 2032:

"The Church, the pillar and bulwark of the truth, has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth" (1 Tim 3:15).
 

Since Christ commanded it, how does he ensure it???

From the Catechism para. 889:

In order to preserve the Church in the purity of the faith handed on by the apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the guidance of the Church's living Magisterium [the teaching office of the Catholic Church] "unfailingly adheres to this faith."

From the Catechism para. 890:

It is this Magisterium's task to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God abides in the truth that liberates. To fulfill this service, Christ endowed the Church's shepherds with the charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals.

When does the pope use this supernatural gift of infallibility?

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