That guy wasn't a theologian anyway. I don't see why he would have any greater authority than, let's say, a poster on this forum.
At the end of the day, only the Pope and Bishops have teaching authority ... being part of the
Ecclesia Docens. Now, the term "authority" outside of that just refers to natural reasons for credibility ... he's well educated due to having an advanced degree from Rome, or some other education, or because of some reputation he had built up due to erudition. Many a "theologian" became flaming Modernists and even open heretics, even long before Vatican II. There's a tendency for some to put theologians on the
Ecclesia Docens side of the dividing line, but that's false, something that Msgr. Fenton denounced as an error. At most, one could argue that they're a fair representative of the
Ecclesia Dicens, but then at Vatican II, didn't 99.9% of all such "theologians" endorse V2 as essentially Catholic and also accepted the NOM as Catholic?
So in speaking of the term "authority" (used loosely), there's a difference of kind between Papal + Espicopal teaching authority and the authority of theologians, etc. That second category (different in kind) admits of certain degrees. But among the latter, and even really among bishops who, say, go rogue and teach error ... that is in fact where the R&R type of principles come along. If I"m sitting here and we have Cardinal Cushing teaching "No salvation outside the Church is nonsense." ... I'll pass, since he has no authority to impose error.