How can we know and distinguish dotrines: specific and universal?

[ProVobis]

Sometimes I wish the Holy Father - whomever it is at any given time - would do a series of fireside chats similar to what President Roosevelt did. The Pope could just sit in a chair next to a fire with a blanket on his lap, look at the camera and address the people - not clergy and theologians - but teach these things to you and I and tell us why it matters in our everyday life, and how it will help us get to heaven.

Not a bad idea, although there is a big language barrier and, of course, possibilities of translation errors.

But maybe every Pope has stated dogma and we just don’t hear it. Say a Pope talks about the power of the rosary. Instead of focusing on the mysteries of the rosaries, which are indeed expressions of dogma, we end up arguing about where it’s said, how it’s done, and whether the Pope can change it.