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Heretic
One who having professed the faith of Christ corrupts its dogmas. He may be a material heretic, adhering to heresy innocently or from involuntary causes, or a formal heretic, knowingly and freely adhering to heresy.
Scott_Lafrance:
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”.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII
One who having professed the faith of Christ corrupts its dogmas. He may be a material heretic, adhering to heresy innocently or from involuntary causes, or a formal heretic, knowingly and freely adhering to heresy.
Billy Graham IS in union with the Catholic Church, but his union is imperfect both because he espouses heretical doctrines, and because he is not a formal member of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. No Catholic can deny that Billy Graham teaches heresy. But is Billy Graham a material heretic that is not culpable for keeping himself separated from the true Church, or a formal heretic that is culpable for the sin of heresy? Only God know whether Billy Graham is culpable for the sin of heresy, and it would be a sin on our part to presume to know how God judges Billy Graham.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”.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII