Clergy & academic group accuse Pope Francis of heresy

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“The signatories call on bishops to investigate the claims they put forth, and then correct Pope Francis by calling on him “to reject these heresies.”

If he should “persistently refuse,” they call on the bishops to declare that Francis has “freely deprived himself of the papacy.”

“A heretical papacy may not be tolerated or dissimulated to avoid a worse evil,” the authors write. “It strikes at the basic good of the Church and must be corrected.”

edwardpentin.co.uk

Father Aidan Nichols Signs Open Letter Charging Pope Francis With Heresy

The Dominican is one of 19 academics and clergy calling on the world’s bishops to admonish the Pope and publicly reject heresy or face losing the papacy. The well-known an
edwardpentin.co.uk
 
Catholic Answers live just now at about 650pm est.
He called it embarrassing and irresponsible.
 
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I haven’t read the letter or article yet. I plan to do so later tonight. If this is accurate and the Pope has committed heresy, what does that mean exactly? I seem to remember the nuns teaching us in school about at least one pope that was a heretic or was a former heretic or something along those lines but I don’t remember anything else about that lesson. Where would this leave us, the faithful?
 
I don’t know if Pope Francis is guilty of heresy (he is certainly closer than any other pope within my lifetime) but he is guilty of misleading and spreading confusion about the faith. It usually follows a very predictable pattern:
  • First, the Pope will put out a statement that on its surface, seems like it is contradicting some essential Catholic belief or teaching.
  • Next, the theologians will jump in to explain how the Pope really means this, instead of what everyone in the media is reporting or what the average layperson believes he is saying.
  • Lastly, everyone waits for a clarification from the Vatican, but it never comes. No one really knows for sure what the Pope said or meant.
Look at the recent statement about how “God wills there to be a multitude of religions”. Everyone was up in arms about how Pope Francis may have been stating a heretical belief, that God doesn’t care what religion you are, that he wants there to be Muslims and doesn’t care if people reject the Catholic faith. Then his defenders say “no he really meant that God just allows other religions”, even though the text as written has to really be interpreted liberally to reach that conclusion. So OK, some people might be persuaded that the statement was not technically wrong, but the rest of the world that doesn’t closely follow Church news and the general public are still under the belief that Pope Francis believe that God wants people to follow different religions.

Things are probably only going to get worse when the CDF is reorganized soon under the new Vatican constitution and doctrine is pushed aside in favor of the “get them in the doors by any means necessary” approach that seems to be in favor today. And if someone like Cardinal Marx is elected the next Pope, well, you haven’t seen anything yet.

I don’t expect this letter will accomplish anything and it will probably be ignored just as the dubia was, but I give them credit for at least getting this out there and providing concrete examples.
 
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13pollitos . . .
If this is accurate and the Pope has committed heresy, what does that mean exactly?
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I won’t comment on this papacy, situation, our current bishops, etc.

But speaking to the general issue of bishops deposing the Pope . . . .

It cannot be done.

At least validly.

When the Church has had bad (and real) popes, you just have to ride it out with prayer.

Not much can be done definitively outside of this.
 
I want to see the theological credentials of the people who wrote this letter.

It is the height of hubris to accuse a Pope of heresy, especially dont really know what you are taking about.
 
Most of them hold doctorates in theology. One of them is the prominent Dominican author, Fr. Aiden Nicoles.

That being said, there are a few things that I note about the letter:
  1. Not a single bishop or cardinal has signed it
  2. Only a very small handful of academic theologians have signed it
  3. There are no options (that I could find) for others to sign it
So basically it is a very unofficial letter, expressing the concerns of a small handful of theologians, and not truly speaking on behalf of the rest of the Church herself.

We have seen a number of filial corrections, open letters, dubia submitted to Pope Francis with many more signatures, and some of them even containing the signatures of solid bishops and cardinals. We have seen enough letters and comments accusing the Pope of heresy and demanding he resign his office. This letter will go nowhere.

The only thing that we can do is live lives of repentance and conversion, fast, pray, and perform the works of mercy out of love for God and neighbor. Let God sort the rest of the mess out.
 
I would like to know where you got your information that they have doctorates in theology.
I have the letter in front of me, and I don’t see one theology doctorate listed. Jimmy Akin even said as much in his commentary.
 
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The faithful have the right to do what the signatories of this letter did. Those who criticise the letter should address the specific, substantive points made in the letter.
 
Interesting. If he is a heretic(I’m not saying he is please don’t kill me), I guess that proves the traditionalists right. If he resigns, I want either Cardinal Sarah or Archbishop Sample as Pope 😉
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
Most of them hold doctorates in theology. One of them is the prominent Dominican author, Fr. Aiden Nicoles.
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NO they don’t, according to Jimmy Aitken. Most have no qualifications in Theology nor in Ecclesiology.
 
I stand corrected. I must’ve scanned the list too late last night (and after a glass of wine at that). 😆 I see you are correct. The few people on the list who hold doctorates have their degrees in philosophy (I have a problem with philosophers who masquerade as theologians 🤨) or some other field.

However, there are a few people with the ecclesiastical degree of S.T.L., which, in terms of the sheer amount of schooling required, is pretty much equivalent to a Ph.D. in theology.

That being said, I’ve not read the letter, nor do I intend to. Personally I believe that these “open letters” serve no good purpose, and in many cases they cause as much confusion and division as the issues the authors site as justifying the letter itself. That’s just my personal opinion though.🤫
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
Personally I believe that these “open letters” serve no good purpose, and in many cases they cause as much confusion and division as the issues the authors site as justifying the letter itself. That’s just my personal opinion though.🤫
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I don’t think that’s just your personal opinion. I think that’s a pretty accurate description.
 
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