Well, Pax, I'm not sure what kind of Church you believe in. Perhaps you could call it the Church of Stubborn. But I don't believe in a Church whose Pope and Bishops could gather in Ecuмenical Council and teach to the Church a radically flawed ecclesiology and soteriology that we must reject in order to preserve our faith, and I don't believe in a Church where the Pope could promulgate a Rite of Mass that's harmful to our faith. I don't believe in a Church where we must in conscience reject 50 years of their Magisterium and reject their Universal Discipline in order to save our souls. It's really that simple. Do I believe that every single little statement or sentence in every Ecuмenical Council must be regarded as infallible. No, of course not. But the whole thing is radically flawed and harmful to faith. That is not compatible with the indefectibility of the Magisterium and of the Church.
I get what you're saying; but I want to keep going down the road of distinguishment. Your above comments are too general. We have to look at the details.
For example, your statement:
and I don't believe in a Church where the Pope could promulgate a Rite of Mass that's harmful to our faith. On the surface, any good catholic would say: "Heck yeah, that's impossible; it could never happen." But, post V2 it did happen. How can that be? We have to distinguish between our general understanding of things and the actual, specific law of the Church. "The devil's in the details".
The modernists issued a valid, legal missal (Paul VI's) which was promulgated (made law). This missal did not violate Quo Primum (QP) because QP never outlawed a pope CREATING a new missal, it only outlawed USING any other missal than its own. So, technically, Paul VI's missal was legal. But...Paul VI could not FORCE anyone to use this missal (since QP was still in force). This is why Paul VI's constitution did not specify that his missal
1) applied to the whole latin church, or anyone really. He just said "here is my missal and start using it on the first sunday of Advent".
2) was authorized by his apostolic authority (he authorized the missal according to the authority of V2, which is circular logic),
3) had to be used, under any kind of penalty. (there is no penalty in his constitution for those who ignore his missal, which is unlike any other missal constitution since QP).
So, in this example, we can see that TECHNICALLY the pope did promulgate a missal that was harmful to the faith. BUT, the catch is that it was not obligatory. A gray area of the law.
What the modernists have done is to split the 'letter' from the 'spirit' of the law. This can be done legally, which is what the pharaisees did in Christ's day, but as St Paul said 'the letter of the law kills' if it does not have the spirit. The novus ordo religion 'by the letter' can be argued to not have changed OFFICIALLY church law/teachings, even though, without the true spirit of the law, the novelties imposed lead to a destruction of the faith. So, V2, while not TECHNICALLY against the 'letter' (because it's a fallible council) goes against the spirit because those who 'interpret' the council have a mind to destroy the faith.
The only way to look at this is through legal technicalities because the modernists are sons of the pharaisees, who were masters of the legal system, just as satan is the master of lies.