text: I've also been told by an older priest that a pope "has to SAY he's teaching ex cathedra" in order for the teaching to BE ex cathedra.   This is not true:   Vatican I never said that. 
  
  Anytime a pope solemnly teaches definitively -- whether in a bull, encyclical, by promulgating the texts of an ecumenical council, or by any other method or venue-- on a point of faith or morals to the *entire Church*, such a teaching is ex cathedra.   
  
  Where many "traditionalists" do err is by extending infallibility beyond this.  
  
  It's important to emphasize:
  -Aquinas made mistakes
  -Saints made mistakes 
  -Doctors made mistakes
  -Popes made mistakes in fallible capacities
  -Sacred Congregations made mistakes 
  -The common teaching of theologians in a given era can & have been mistaken
  -Most of these mistakes were made in good faith
  -If a person obstinately denies a dogma, he's no longer Catholic 
  -Infallibility is given to Peter alone under certain conditions