Pope Francis has a devotion to Mary, the Untier of Knots. Francis fans have been tying themselves into knots to defend his utterances since his misbegotten pontificate began.
Popesplaining
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I love the monkey images next to each “Popesplainer.” Perfect.
Good timing! I just finished an article by Fr. Brian Harrison (whom I’ve met in person several times and even lived with in the same Roman collegio for a while). I don’t know if it’s quite fair, but we might place him somewhere in the Popesplainer hierarchy as the Regional Manager: “What he said in Singapore is heretical, but we cannot know if he is a formal heretic (apostate, etc.).”
He leaves room for the Pope’s possible ignorance of the natural sense of the words he uttered (“All religions are a path to reach God”). He also argues that we don’t know if the Pope would retract this statement, given the chance.
In sacred theology, this is called “Really Reaching.” How could he possibly be ignorant of the heresy expressed by those words? If he were willing to retract them, then why does he continue to say or do such things at periodical intervals?
To be fair, Fr. Harrison (a good priest, very learned and charitable) is using the extremely rigorous definition of “heretic” provided by the new Code of Canon Law (1983). He also mentions that anyone accused of heresy or schism is given a chance to explain himself or retract his statements before the proper tribunal. However, there is no tribunal before which the Pope can be compelled to appear. (Not on earth, anyway.)
So, I disagree with the good Father: it is not “breath-taking” or “bold” to declare the Pope a heretic and therefore deposed. It is a probable (even the more probable) opinion, given the totality of his utterances and his actions.
His saying Mass every day or invoking the Blessed Mother does not sufficiently refute the charges. After all, heretics and schismatics of the early and medieval Church did the same.
(This is really long! My apologies!)
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I’ll usually try to popesplain, but I’m sitting out this “all religions” statement. It was the worst thing a pope could say in this era. I don’t think he could have done more damage reciting the Creed inserting “not” into every line. Like, if he said there was a time before Jesus, or the sacraments don’t save us, those would have been the worst statement in certain eras, but this was the worst for ours.