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Inner Life of a Catholic

The Profession of Faith 

Infallibility of the Pope is the special prerogative of the Holy Father by which, when teaching matters of faith and morals with the full authority he has as Vicar of Christ, he is divinely preserved from error. 

Such has always been the teaching of the Catholic Church. Papal infallibility was defined by the Vatican Council (1870), which declared:

"it to be a dogma of divine revelation that when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, i.e., when he, using his office as shepherd and teacher of all christians, in virtue of his apostolic authority, defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the whole Church he, by the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, possesses that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer was pleased to invest His Church in the definition of doctrine on faith and morals, and that, therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable in their own nature and not because of the consent of the Church." 

This infallibility refers only to teaching concerning faith and morals, and then only when the Holy Father speaks with the full authority he has as the chief shepherd of the flock of Christ. It has nothing to do with the personal moral life of the pope. A pope, no matter what his morals might be, would enjoy this prerogative; infallibility has nothing to do with impeccability, or inability to sin. The pope is still a human being, and since even the "just man falls seven times a day," it is not to be wondered at that the lives of some of the popes have not been edifying. The power of infallibility does not depend on his holiness.