Are they Heretics?

[Monicathree]

I ask this with a true questioning heart. I am not trying to be harsh at all…so with that disclaimer…because I honestly want to understand this…

Are Protestants actually Heretics? I was wondering if they are not considered so because of the full knowledge issue. Because if I am not mistaken and obstinate denial or preaching against the faith, according to the Catechism, is considered heresy.
I have many Protestant friends and work very closely with them in the Pro Life movement…so again I know that we can learn a lot from them and that they truly love our Lord…but are they in Heresy??

Thank you…this is my legalistic mind wondering about this

 

[Gamera]

Material heresy and formal heresy are two different things. All Protestants by definition are material heretics. That doesn’t make them formal heretics.

 

[Suester]

For crying out loud! Why would you think to label them? They are as beloved to God as YOU are. Just focus on seeing Christ and being Christ and stop trying to find the passage in the catechism that will prove Catholics are right and the rest of the world are heretics.

Are you loving them as Jesus has commanded you to love them?

When I read questions like this, it sounds like a call to affirm one’s need to be righteous behind the shield of the catechism, which by the way was not written by Jesus.

If you know these people to be good people, followers of the teachings of Christ and who love you despite being a Catholic, then just be grateful for having had the opportunity to know them and resist the need to qualify being friends with them.

 

[dmar198]

I ask this with a true questioning heart. I am not trying to be harsh at all…so with that disclaimer…because I honestly want to understand this…

Are Protestants actually Heretics? I was wondering if they are not considered so because of the full knowledge issue. Because if I am not mistaken and obstinate denial or preaching against the faith, according to the Catechism, is considered heresy.
I have many Protestant friends and work very closely with them in the Pro Life movement…so again I know that we can learn a lot from them and that they truly love our Lord…but are they in Heresy??

Thank you…this is my legalistic mind wondering about this

Many of the teachings they preach are heretical, but they themselves are not (generally) heretics. Most Protestants are simply Christians who’ve been born into a Protestant family and never think to seriously look at the alternative.

 

[Christy_Beth]

When I read this, the first name that came to mind was, Jack Chick. His stuff is down right vile. Does he count as a heretic?

 

[Kevin42]

Material heresy and formal heresy are two different things. All Protestants by definition are material heretics. That doesn’t make them formal heretics.

Gamera got it right on. I highly doubt that the majority of Protestants are formal heretics. Here is some more information on the subject though, just to clear up the difference between material and formal heresy.

The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be ignorance of the true creed, erroneous judgment, imperfect apprehension and comprehension of dogmas: in none of these does the will play an appreciable part, wherefore one of the necessary conditions of sinfulness–free choice–is wanting and such heresy is merely objective, or material. On the other hand the will may freely incline the intellect to adhere to tenets declared false by the Divine teaching authority of the Church. The impelling motives are many: intellectual pride or exaggerated reliance on one’s own insight; the illusions of religious zeal; the allurements of political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material interests and personal status; and perhaps others more dishonourable. Heresy thus willed is imputable to the subject and carries with it a varying degree of guilt; it is called formal, because to the material error it adds the informative element of “freely willed”.

-“Heresy.” The Catholic Encyclopedia.

 

[Monicathree]

thank you for your replies…I did not understand formal and material heresy…
I am a relatively new convert 2002 and always feel comfortable to come here to ask questions that come to me…I appreciate those of you who answered without criticising my question…I think you all understand what I was trying to learn.

 

[Monicathree]

When I read questions like this, it sounds like a call to affirm one’s need to be righteous behind the shield of the catechism, which by the way was not written by Jesus.

If you know these people to be good people, followers of the teachings of Christ and who love you despite being a Catholic, then just be grateful for having had the opportunity to know them and resist the need to qualify being friends with them.

]
You tell me I should not label them…Why do you label me a person who needs to be righteous behing the shield of the Catechism…
are you loving me as somebody who is just trying to learn the different aspects of the faith??

Jesus didn’t write the gospels, nor any other book of the Holy Bible…what was your point about Him not writing the Catechism??

 

[Kevin42]

thank you for your replies…I did not understand formal and material heresy…
I am a relatively new convert 2002 and always feel comfortable to come here to ask questions that come to me…I appreciate those of you who answered without criticising my question…I think you all understand what I was trying to learn.

Hopefully I will clear up the difference between formal and material heresy properly for you.

First, keep in mind that heretics profess faith in Jesus, but somehow reject certain truths or practice incorrect teaching.

Material heresy is basically when someone-either out of ignorance, inability to understand, error to properly judge, or simply out of mistake-practices or teaches corrupt or false dogma. In this case, people are not truly in heresy by their own free-will, and therefore they lack some or all culpability for their sin.

Formal heresy however, is when someone-out of pride, worldly interests, or by reliance on self (as opposed to reliance on God)-practices or teaches corrupt or false dogma. In this case, people have fallen into heresy by their own free will to some degree and therefore are culpable sin.

It is late, so hopefully I explained that properly and it helps you a bit.