It cannot be denied. No pope can change Church teaching. The Church's teachings are immutable for they emanate from God, who is Himself immutable. Throughout the centuries the Church has always upheld the legitimacy and usefulness of capital punishment. No one pope can turn around and contradict all his predecessors, Church Fathers, Doctors of the Church etc without pronouncing heresy.
Many blogging colleagues have written excellent analyses of this latest antic of Pope Francis'. Rather than "reinvent the wheel", I'll now link to them for your reference and reading.
- One Peter Five - with a discussion on why the pope's statement is formal heresy
- Ann Barnhardt - with a smattering of teaching throughout the years
- AKA Catholic - detailing how Pope John Paul II's errors facilitated today's heresy
- Remnant - exposing the arrogance behind Francis' stunt.
- My own prior writings - including why abolishment of the death penalty is itself sinful
This heresy needs to be put in some context. I don't think I'm the only one to find it very interesting that the pope plopped this stinker just as we are all focused on the sodomite rapists among the episcopate. In a saner time, they would be eligible for the death penalty, but I digress.
We also notice that this is happening as there is much discussion on:
- admission of divorced and "remarried", that is, adulterers, to Holy Communion
- admission of non-Catholics to Holy Communion
- allowing dissident women to pretend that they are "deaconesses"
- attempts to normalize sodomy in the Church (e.g., amoralis lamentia)
The things stated above would all be heretical. Might the push to demonize capital punishment be a "trial balloon", so to speak, to get faithful Catholics to swallow the false notion that immutable Church teaching can be "tweaked" here and there? Some faithful Catholics might buy the canard that capital punishment might well be declared wrong in opposition to centuries of Tradition. But right there, the camel has stuck his nose under the tent, for if Tradition can be disregarded with respect to capital punishment, why not with respect to contraception or homosexuality or divorce/remarriage or even abortion?
Formal heresy has been uttered. Is Peter's seat vacant?
Formal heresy has been uttered. Is Peter's seat vacant?
No, not vacant. But it’s occupant is not who most people think.
ReplyDeleteThis true, and I agree with you.
DeleteSede Finita.
ReplyDelete“It is not to be excluded that I will enter history as the one who split the Catholic Church.”
ReplyDeleteWe need to be told the entire Truth on what is happening in the OHC&A Church since this dual/semi papacy began. We need to be told why PBXVI still resides in the Vatican wearing all the pontifical regalia while this Destroyer/Dictator is undermining the True Faith. We need to hear from ++ Burke & Brandmuller ASAP.
Yes, it's vacant, and has been for some time. Popes cannot be heretics. Benedict was truly no better as he too held to the same post-Vatican II errors that Francis does. But have no fear; the vacancy of the seat does not mean God's promises have failed. It means they remain, for if a heretic were to be a true Pope, then Catholicism would be rendered false.
ReplyDeletePopes can be both material and formal heretics, but they cannot solemnly teach heresy.
DeleteOk modernists, bring it on. As for me and mine, we resist Francis' heretical errors, and hold fast to the Faith of the Scriptures and our Sacred Tradition. This is war!
ReplyDeletePraying God will bring this horrible Pontificate to a "merciful" end, and sooner rather than later.
Now into the seventh decade of the Novus Ordo Counterfeit Catholic Church, we are watching it implode under its own moral turpitude. This new dynasty under its sixth caretaker claiming the Chair of Peter is awash in moral depravity from the clergy up through its ranks to the very one who claims to be the pope. One wonders how long God will allow this depraved and debased circus of sin to keep leading it's flock to hell.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not vacant, any more than it was when Honorius embraced a degenerate Christology. But it is a terrible fix the Church is in now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Oakes, above.
ReplyDeleteNot vacant, but not who most people think it is.
The body of evidence is obvious, growing, overwhelming by every measure.
This is what happens when we cross that first line and accept the "Emeritus Pope".
Indeed it is VACANT! If this latest 'declaration' and indeed physical changing of the Catechism into something NEVER DECLARED BY ANY POPE THROUGHOUT HISTORY, isn't formal HERESY, then I don't know what is! Wouldn't you call this teaching heresy 'from the Chair'?? That's exactly what I would call it....don't know what else to call it!!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"If a Pope would formally profess heresy he would cease, by that act, to be the Pope. It’s automatic. And so, that could happen." Card. Burke
[https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/12/19/cardinal-burke-no-i-am-not-saying-that-pope-francis-is-in-heresy/]
Yes, vacant... the first requirement is for a Pope to be a Catholic. The Vatican II popes were all heretics, imposing heresies already condemned by the Church during the Protestant revolution. Peel the scales from your eyes and see the truth. All that needs to be done is to go to a Lutheran or anglican service and then a Traditional Latin Mass of Saint Pius V and tell me that there's no difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fc7_OhT3fA
ReplyDeleteHave a read of this:
ReplyDeletehttps://novusordowatch.org/2018/08/francis-death-penalty-inadmissible/
Vacant...or occupied secretly by Benedict...or the Sedes are right. Something's wrong...and this man cannot possibly be the Pope.
ReplyDeleteFrancis is not, and never was Pope. The only Pope is Benedict XVI.
ReplyDelete"Is Peter's See vacant?" All I can say is, it might as well be for all the good it's doing at the moment via the putative occupant thereof.
ReplyDelete