THE INFALLIBLE CHIP

The doctrine of Papal Infallibility was pronounced, in a solemn declaration, by the First Vatican Council, one hundred and forty one years ago today on the 18^th July 1870. I confess I have never been au fait with Papal Infallibility, but then I have never been clear on the various doctrines of the Catholic Church.

According to Wikipedia Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith as being contained in divine revelation, or at least being intimately connected to divine revelation. It is also taught that the Holy Spirit works in the body of the Church, as sensus fidelium, to ensure that dogmatic teachings proclaimed to be infallible will be received by all Catholics. This dogma, however, does not state either that the Pope cannot sin in his own personal life or that he is necessarily free of error, even when speaking in his official capacity, outside the specific contexts in which the dogma applies.

Pope Pius IX
Convoked Vatican I

This doctrine was defined dogmatically in the First Vatican Council of 1870. According to Catholic theology, there are several concepts important to the understanding of infallible, divine revelation: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Magisterium. The infallible teachings of the Pope are part of the Sacred Magisterium, which also consists of ecumenical councils and the "ordinary and universal magisterium". In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is one of the channels of the infallibility of the Church. The infallible teachings of the Pope must be based on, or at least not contradict, Sacred Tradition or Sacred Scripture. Papal infallibility does not signify that the Pope is impeccable, i.e.., that he is specially exempt from liability to sin.

The Holy Spirit descending on 

Pope Gregory I 

by Carlo Srarceni, circa 1610, Rome.

The doctrine of infallibility relies on the other Catholic dogma of petrine supremacy of the Pope, and his authority to be the ruling agent in deciding what will be accepted as formal beliefs in the Church. The clearest example (though not the only one) of the use of this power ex cathedra since the solemn declaration of Papal Infallibility by Vatican I on July 18, 1870, took place in 1950 when Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as being an article of faith for Roman Catholics. This authority is considered by Catholics to be apostolic and of divine origin. Prior to the solemn definition of 1870, Pope Boniface VIII in the Bull Unam Sanctam of 1302, Pope Eugene IV in the Bull Cantate Domino of 1441, and Pope Pius IX in the Papal constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 1854 have all spoken "ex cathedra."

Pius XII

Boniface VIII

Eugene IV

So what I think it boils down to is:  when the Pope pronounces on religious matters requiring blind faith whilst sitting in his chair, he is infallible; otherwise, he can be as fallible as anybody.

If Vatican I is cause for confusion, what about Vatican II:

On a more secular note, on the 18th July 1968, The Intel Corporation was founded in Santa Clara, California.

Intel was founded, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence). Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Though Intel was originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, its "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names. The Companies net income for 2010 is reported as US$ 11.464 billion which converts to £7,105,390,000 British pounds sterling. A nice little earner for those who had faith in the micro chip.

Noyce

Grove

Moore

This is one of their cathedrals.