Dear Nick:

Well, if you read the post about the four levels of Church teaching, you have your answer.

Level 1 is Defined Dogma. This infallible teaching that has been taught since the beginning, defined by the Extraordinary Magisterium (e.g, ex cathedra) and can never be changed by anyone, not even a Pope.

Level 2 is Definitive Teaching. It too is infallible teaching that has been taught since the beginning, but for which there was no need to formally define. Nevertheless, it is infallible by the Ordinary Magisterium and can never change, even by a Pope.

Everything else can change. There has never been any infallible teaching that was ever retracted. I would challenge your friends who assert this to prove their allegation. They can't because such things does not exist.

All the things you mentioned, or they mentioned to you, is not infallible doctrine, or doctrine at all.

On scientific discovery: It was the Catholic Church that developed the scientific method. Without the Catholic Church science would not have developed as it did. The Church, however, is not a scientific organization, and it relies upon the scientific community for scientific information. There are issues, however, that overlap from science into theology. For examples, Pope John Paul II explained to the Vatican Academy of Science that evolution, in itself, does not contradict the Faith as long three things remain untouched by science:

1) God created the universe
2) We had a original pair of parents
3) the soul is not evolved, but created by God and given to the baby at the moment of conception.

Science actually does assert that there were an original pair of human. The other two issues are not in the purview of science to even consider. Any scientist trying to assert the there is no God Creator, or the soul evolved is doing fake science and not real science.

I would recommend the book, that deals with this issue and a whole host of other subjects, called How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. It will knock your socks off.

On the persecution of Galileo:  The Church did not persecute Galileo for his scientific theories. Copernicus about a hundred years earlier, and Kepler ten years before Galileo, were writing on heliocentric views and the Church said nothing to them. At the time of Galileo Jesuit scientists were supporting the same heliocentric views as Galileo. But, at the time the scientific community said that Galileo was a quack for this theories. What got Galileo in trouble, however, was that he was arrogant and tried to make theology. Theology is the realm of the Church. If Galileo has kept to science he would not have been in such trouble.

Read the article on this from Catholic Answers, entitled: The Galileo Controversy.

On the Spanish Inquisition: At the very beginning of the Spanish Inquisition the Pope approved it. But it was soon discovered that the King and Queen of Spain were abusing the Inquisition. The Pope removed his approval. Thus, the Spanish Inquisition was not the Catholic Church.

On the Inquisitions, most people preferred to be tried in an Inquisition Court than in a civil courts. The Inquisition courts were more fair. Contrary to popular opinion, very few people died in the Inquisition. Those who were killed were put to death by the State. The Church did not execute anyone. In the Church the penalty for heresy is excommunication, not death. There were some clerics who conspired with state officials, such as in the case of Joan of Arc, but these priests and bishops sinned and violated Church teaching.

Read The Inquisition at Catholic Answers. Also the Catholic Encyclopedia.

On the teaching about usury: The Church has not changed its teaching on usury. It has changed some of the details that needed to be changed with the times. In a similar manner, the Church has not invented new doctrine when it condemns in vitro fertilization. Rather, it just restates the teaching that has always been taught about life and applied it to a new situation.

As Christopher Kaczor concluded in his article in This Rock entitled, Did the Church Change Its Stance on Usury?: "The teaching on usury is not a simple reversal and rejection of what was taught before but rather a development of the same principles used by Thomas applied to radically new circumstances."

The Catechism states:

2269b Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.

The bottomline as these people are only parroting old and tired bigoted views and do not actually know what they are talking about. (the perfect liberals)

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary