Go here to read the article. Now imagine a heretical Pope.
PopeWatch: Imagining a Heretical Cardinal
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Having promoted FAM (fertility awareness method) also known as NFP for many years, and encountered the abject hatred from the Diocesan Office – I am NOT SURPRISED.
Yeah the Bishop never hated it directly, but all the persons in the Diocesan Office surely did. Personnel is policy and policy is personnel.
What if a pope were to declare a position contrarary to Church teaching. How do JPII’s canonical changes deal with it? It appears that EITHER the Pope OR the Council can declare what we must believe so what happens when one or both are heretical? Suppose, for example, the Council declared that our Anglican brothers have it right w/r to the nature of the Eucharist or a pope declared that when life begins is uncertain and, therefore, abortion is not necessarily a sin? What would happen then?
The thrust of this article isn’t about a heretical pope, but a falsely-elected one. These are the conditions for a person to be considered excommunicated…these conditions are met whether or not the excommunication is declared…a cardinal who meets these conditions may be permitted to vote in the next conclave. The argument is structured in a way that will encourage schism.
I think blaming Bp. Paprocki or anyone else who presents such a view is more than a little bit unfair. If we didn’t have Cardinals publicly and loudly espousing obvious heresy, the problem would not exist. Don’t shoot the messenger. If a schism occurs it will not be the fault of those who remain firm in the teachings of the Church from Christ and the Apostles.
I didn’t mean to blame him. (I guess I was more criticizing Don?) I think Bishop Paprocki wrote it to highlight the need to “clean house”, but the way it’s written can call into question the results of the next conclave. This is a topic I’ve never thought about but I’d be surprised if the Church had 100% orthodox leaders, except for a few years after Judas’s death. A person could go mad thinking about which papal electors might have been separated from the Church when the votes were cast. Heck, I don’t think a person could help but go mad pursuing that train of thought.
Also, the Western Schism is an example of orthodox believers being in genuine confusion about who the pope was.
The argument is structured in a way that will encourage schism.
It is a valid argument which could just as easily encourage actions like those of St. Catherine of Siena as it could those of Martin Luthor.
This is why the entire latae sententiae excommunication thing is so troublesome. It just gives ordinaries a way out of doing their jobs. No one has to be the bad guy anymore, but since the latae sententiae excommunication is undeclared, the error of the invisibly excommunicated causes scandal among the faithful, and worse, affirms the heterodox in their tangential path from the truth.
They ain’t too bright or subtle.
A close friend is very active and hears Mass every day. One morning on leaving Mass, he gave his pastor literature on Fatima to display in the back of Church. The man shit canned it in front of him.
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Think about it this way. We won’t walk away from the Faith. The cabal running the hierarchy will have ripped away the church from us.
can call into question the results of the next conclave.
Not that uncommon in Church history, with physical violence, bribery, outside influence and other factors leading to questioning of conclave results.
In keeping with my long held belief that there’s a song for every situation:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ugrAo8wEPiI
“Now imagine a heretical Pope.” No need to use your imagination any more.
Papa Pachamama is trying to appease Gaia while he is really trying to avoid the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
The sin of presumption, that Jesus will forgive and Jesus does forgive, but the damage done needs to restore the social order, the common good.
Maybe hell is all about living in our sin.
Souls in hell are not remembered by the souls in heaven. Souls in hell have forfeited their true identity. There is nothing to remember.