Am I considered a heretic?

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Longingforpeace

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Hello, I hope my question finds you with truth and love in your heart. I am Catholic but I don’t believe the church is infallible and perfect for lots of reasons. I am definitely not against the church and I don’t try to persuade anyone to believe what I do. Am I still technically a heretic? Please forgive me if this question offends anyone. I feel like lots of people take offense to these things. It’s just that my heart and mind become agitated when I try to accept some of the teachings. I’ve considered that it is my own sinful nature rejecting things that may be hard to swallow but I am unsure. I’m very moral, very kind, very disciplined and I love the church despite my disagreements with it.
Thank you in advance and may the love and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you
 
It would be helpful if you could enumerate what specific teachings of the Church you are having problems with. There are many here at CAF who can help you with your questions.

Pax
 
No one believes the Church is perfect, humans are not perfect. Humans run the Church here on earth. We are the Church, we are not perfect.
 
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Longingforpeace said:
Hello, I hope my question finds you with truth and love in your heart. I am Catholic but I don’t believe the church is infallible and perfect for lots of reasons. I am definitely not against the church and I don’t try to persuade anyone to believe what I do. Am I still technically a heretic? Please forgive me if this question offends anyone. I feel like lots of people take offense to these things. It’s just that my heart and mind become agitated when I try to accept some of the teachings. I’ve considered that it is my own sinful nature rejecting things that may be hard to swallow but I am unsure. I’m very moral, very kind, very disciplined and I love the church despite my disagreements with it.
Thank you in advance and may the love and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you
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There is no claim that the Church is infallible. What is taught is the on matters of faith and morals the Holy Spirit will ensure that no dogma of faith is taught which is not true.

What is required is assent of faith to matters of faith and ordinary assent to ordinary teachings (which are not infallible). On does not have to understand it.
 
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Thank you… lots of reasons is an overstatement. I shouldn’t have said that. There are a few but they are important. One of them is sex between a married couple for pleasure or bonding or fun being wrong without the intention of procreation. I’m going by what I’ve read. It’s always hard to open up about things like this to my priest, so I haven’t had any dialogue with an expert. There are other things that trouble me, but I’m not able to get them all out right now. I’ll come back to this when I have a little more time. Again thank you for your time. I just need to know what kind of " rebellion " constitutes a genuine heresy?
 
Well, first off, if someone has taken something, you don’t automatically brand the person a thief.
Even if you were to hold a belief that is a heresy, that wouldn’t mean you’d automatically be branded a heretic.

I’m not even sure that what you’re describing is a heresy, because you haven’t specifically said you reject a teaching that is dogmatically held as something all the faithful are bound to accept. Certainly, the Church does not teach that the faithful or the heirarchy are incapable of moral failures or mistakes. If that’s what you mean by “I don’t believe the Church is infallible and perfect,” well, the Church accepts that She is not fully preserved from every possible kind of error, but only from certain errors (as earlier posters have noted).
 
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Hi, Longing,
I don’t know the technical answer to your question, but I think it’s great that you’re addressing your doubts. To me, this is a sign that you take your faith seriously and care about what it means. I hope that a wise and kind person here (or elsewhere) is able to help you more fully embrace what the Church offers. Best to you!
 
Longingforpeace said:
Thank you… lots of reasons is an overstatement. I shouldn’t have said that. There are a few but they are important. One of them is sex between a married couple for pleasure or bonding or fun being wrong without the intention of procreation. I’m going by what I’ve read. It’s always hard to open up about things like this to my priest, so I haven’t had any dialogue with an expert. There are other things that trouble me, but I’m not able to get them all out right now. I’ll come back to this when I have a little more time. Again thank you for your time. I just need to know what kind of " rebellion " constitutes a genuine heresy?
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You’re going to find that there are a lot of priests out there who are very patient (not to mention discrete) teachers.

Do find someone who has the background to answer your questions correctly. That doesn’t have to be a priest, but if someone teaches you things that don’t pass the sniff test, realize not just that not even priests are preserved from all error as catechists and also that it is very difficult to teach any topic without a student ever coming away with a misconception about what is being taught. Keep asking questions.
 
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Thank you… I was needing to hear something like this. I have things bouncing around in my head that feel very ok to me but seem contrary to what a lot of vocal Catholics say is right. I try to discern where their hearts are coming from and sometimes I feel like they are angry and just want to bully people. I very much appreciate your kindness. Thanks again
 
If you are intentionally refusing to be corrected after being told something was heresy by a competent Authority, then you’d be a heretic. Since I can’t read your mind and I can’t read your soul…
 
Longingforpeace said:
One of them is sex between a married couple for pleasure or bonding or fun being wrong without the intention of procreation.
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Um, sex, or marital relations between a married man and woman do not have to be for the expressed intention of procreation.

I am in a position, that I cannot get pregnant. But my husband and I can still enjoy the marital embrace (or, as you have put it, sex.)
 
The Catholic Church IS infallible (that’s *de Fide divina et Catholicam, i.e. it must be believed with divine and Catholic Faith) whereas Churchmen may or may not be infallible. Don’t confuse the Church with Churchmen.

Suggestions: 1) Pray to the Holy Spirit. Here’s 2 good ones from a previous thread:
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Prayers Before and After Reading the Scriptures Sacred Scripture
With my new decision to read Scriptures related to next Sunday’s readings every day, I remembered there are prayers to say before and after reading the Scriptures. So I whipped out the (old - 1980) New Saint Joseph People’s Prayer Book, flipped to the index, and found… nothing. I mean there was a prayer to St. Jerome for Scripture Scholars, there were many pages of prayers from the Bible, but I couldn’t find the prayers to say before and after reading the Scriptures. Then it came to me - I wh…
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  1. Get a good Catholic catechism.
 
Well the Church is infallible. Forgive me if I am mistaken, but it doesn’t really make sense to say that the Church’s teaching is infallible, but not the Church. The teachings are the Church, the pillar and foundation of truth. To say that the Church is not infallible is heresy, to say that the Pope is not infallible ( under the conditions that he is not speaking infallibly on faith and morals), or that a Bishop is not infallible, is not heresy. So if you are denying the Church’s infallibility, then yes that would be heresy
 
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Rather than worrying about “accepting” why not worry about living the holiness that God calls you to live.
 
Let me assure you, You’re not alone, L! Non-belief vs. discernment - Perhaps That is the heart of your question, at least in my view it is.
I’ve never felt more alone in my church than I have these past five years! What the RC church passes off as “truth” these days is astonishing to me. Gay priests and bishops caught in scandal after scandal, liberal clergy who stand idle on nearly every moral issue, emasculated bishops, priests and pastors who stand for nothing substantive and can’t give a coherent sermon from the Gospel! It’s really hard to know what to do without being labeled a heretic!
No, you are not a heretic! A heretic is a person who willfully turns truth into non-truth!
 
Longingforpeace said:
Am I still technically a heretic? Please forgive me if this question offends anyone. I feel like lots of people take offense to these things. It’s just that my heart and mind become agitated when I try to accept some of the teachings.
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This is really something you should discuss with a real world spiritual adviser, such as your priest. There have been some good responses here, but please don’t expect to get real guidance from anonymous sources on line. I can tell you that people call each other heretics on this forum on pretty much a daily basis (happens to me all the time). But in my many, many conversations with real life priests and theologians, none of them have used that term (even when they think my beliefs are wrong.)

If you want to discuss your issues (and probably get called a heretic or worse), you can certainly engage in spirited debate here. If you want to talk to someone that can actually help with those things, talk to someone in the real world.
 
Did you consider the reasons why The Church Teaches how GOD
designed Holy Matrimony?
GOD Loves each of us with Eternal Powerful Deep Concern at every moment of time.
~
I sense you are a very caring man, deeply concerned for us to do GOD’s Loving Will.
You used the term intention of procreation. It’s actually not to willfully attempt
to put stumbling blocks to prevent GOD’s Holy Purposes for families, and the family’s
role in society. To attempt to complete the impossibility of a child has many fruits
outlined in Humanae Vitae (which Paul vi wished he called The Charity of Marriage;
or something like that.) The escalation of serial monogamy, striving between those
seeking Godly courtship such as coveting leading to mean arguments even violence;
promiscuity; the emotional need for companionship resulting in consensual sex seen
as permissible outside the loving bonds of Holy Matrimony - a kind of long hug dance for the sake of pleasure; infidelity, divorce. ALSO, not welcoming children that GOD’s Providence Creates anyway; thus the current mass murder of helpless children.
~
However, the Biblical interpretations in loving deep caring language regarding GOD’s Purposes for Holy Matrimony are so wonderfully beautiful in that Encyclical.
One very devout important thing to consider; is how GOD formed a Covenant with
each of us; the always available Divine Favor to listen to GOD’s voice within our hearts
to discern our thoughts, words, and actions - to actually keep the Covenant. To truly,
deeply know and love GOD by GOD’s Sole Begotten not made SON, JESUS The Beloved Anointed One. GOD’s relationship with humanity is always fruitful and
multiplying since Divine Favor abounds in good times and bad to turn toward GOD
and fulfill GOD’s Covenant Loving Purposes in every part of our lives.
Each of us; and humanity as a whole; when we are doing GOD’s Will by our will by
listening to GOD by Divine Favor - welcomes Peace and Harmony. When we do the
opposite, many times masked by human flawed rationalization denial in seeming lack
of inner conflict which masks GOD’s Loving Voice in heart & mind - brings disharmony.
This disharmony in the ‘aura’ of humanity, if you will; causes all kinds of things in discord from the ‘aura’ such as disease, which causes heart breaking unearned suffering. (cont…)
 
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body.”
'For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." - Ephesians 5:25-33
~
We must remember JESUS gives Peace, not as the world in flawed understanding
gives peace - often by rationalized denial of GOD seeming lack of inner & outer conflict
in society - but as GOD gives Peace - Eternally LOVINGLY Higher. It’s extremely sad
how youth and impressionable are seduced to the world’s ideas. GOD’s Ways are cleverly mocked at colleges; mocking those standing up for GOD’s Ways, also. This propaganda is throughout a society so entrenched in a radical secular humanist moral and other ‘societal trends are the only relevant source of facts,’ relativism culture of death - whereby the death toll exceeds TEN MILLION helpless children, sick, and elderly worldwide every 3 months. The equivalent of the population of Los Angeles
county. The main stream venues of society lure that this is fine, or complacency
toward these crimes against humanity atrocity. Don’t we know for Eternal All Powerful
Love of humanity, for GOD’s True Peace to grow in this life; helping influence souls,
to diligently ask, seek, and knock for GOD’s help for The Kingdom of GOD to grow in heart and minds - the bias against GOD’s Ways is detestable in GOD’s sight?
O JESUS, help us to turn toward You, with all our hearts, and all our souls, and
all our resources in time talent and treasure - to convey your will in our lives; so others
learn Your Loving Ways, Amen.
The Epistle of Jude and other places in The Holy Bible, show that those
going against GOD’s Ways or compromising bringing about GOD’s Ways with Holy Spirit resolute courage in true compassion → by compromise with the those who promote worldliness as ‘water-less clouds’ foster discord and conflict in the world.
You won’t get this from the mainstream. The Spiritual Battle in the invisible directly
effect the visible happenings around us, and on the earth.
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~
" The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." - Numbers 6:24-46
 
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Famulus said:
Well the Church is infallible. Forgive me if I am mistaken, but it doesn’t really make sense to say that the Church’s teaching is infallible, but not the Church. The teachings are the Church, the pillar and foundation of truth. To say that the Church is not infallible is heresy, to say that the Pope is not infallible ( under the conditions that he is not speaking infallibly on faith and morals), or that a Bishop is not infallible, is not heresy. So if you are denying the Church’s infallibility, then yes that would be heresy
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Church has different definitions, so it makes sense to be specific.
 
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