(TOPIC OF HERESY) Might this Help? Irrefutable Statements that Settle this Doctrinal Matter for All True Catholics.
Some quotations relevant to the questions raised by recent discussions about heresy, the Church, and the Papacy:
Comments On The Loss Of Papal Office Due To Heresy
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
“The Pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be Pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church.”
Pope Innocent III:
“The Pope should not flatter himself
about his power nor should he rashly glory in his honor and high estate,
because the less he is judged by man, the more he is judged by God.
Still the less can the Roman Pontiff glory because he can be judged by
men, or rather, can be shown to be already judged, if for example he
should wither away into heresy; because he who does not believe is
already judged, In such a case it should be said of him: ‘If salt should
lose its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled
under foot by men.’”
St. Robert Bellarmine:
“A Pope who is a manifest heretic
automatically ceases to be a Pope and head, just as he ceases
automatically to be a Christian and a member of the Church. Wherefore,
he can be judged and punished by the Church. This is the teaching of all
the ancient Fathers who teach that manifest heretics immediately lose
all jurisdiction.”
St. Alphonsus Liguori:
“If ever a Pope, as a private person,
should fall into heresy, he should at once fall from the Pontificate.
If, however, God were to permit a pope to become a notorious and
contumacious heretic, he would by such fact cease to be pope, and the
apostolic chair would be vacant.”
St. Francis de Sales:
“Now when the Pope is explicitly a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church . . . ”
St. Antoninus:
“In the case in which the Pope would
become a heretic, he would find himself, by that very fact alone and
without any other sentence, separated from the Church. A head separated
from a body cannot, as long as it remains separated, be head of the same
body from which it was cut off.”
Billot — De Ecclesia, 1927
“Given, therefore, the hypothesis of a
pope who would become notoriously heretical, one must concede without
hesitation that he would by that very fact lose the pontifical power,
insofar as, having become an unbeliever, he would by his own will be
cast outside the body of the Church.”
Wernz-Vidal — Canon Law, 1943
Through notorious and openly divulged
heresy, the Roman Pontiff, should he fall into heresy, by that very fact
(ipso facto) is deemed to be deprived of the power of jurisdiction even
before any declaratory judgment by the Church... A Pope who falls into
public heresy would cease ipso facto to be a member of the Church;
therefore, he would also cease to be head of the Church.
So, a publicly heretical pope, who by
the mandate of Christ and of the Apostle should be avoided because of
danger to the Church, must be deprived of his power, as nearly everyone
admits. But he cannot be deprived of his power by a merely declaratory
sentence.
For every judicial sentence of
privation supposes a superior jurisdiction over him against whom the
sentence is laid. But a general council, in the opinion of adversaries,
does not have a higher jurisdiction than does a heretical pope. For he,
by their supposition, before the declaratory sentence of a general
council, retains his papal jurisdiction; therefore a general council
cannot pass a declaratory sentence by which a Roman Pontiff is actually
deprived of his power; for that would be a sentence laid by an inferior
against the true Roman Pontiff.
In sum, it needs to be said clearly
that a [publicly] heretical Roman Pontiff loses his power upon the very
fact….A doubtful pope is no pope.
NOTE: Edward Peters, JD, JCD, Ref. Sig.
Ap., in his blog A canonical primer on popes and heresy, December 16,
2016, offers the following comment on Wernz.
I know of no author coming after Wernz
who disputes this analysis. See, e.g., Ayrinhac, CONSTITUTION (1930) 33;
Sipos, ENCHIRIDION (1954) 156; Regatillo, INSTITUTIONES I (1961) 299;
Palazzini, DMC III (1966) 573; and Wrenn (2001)…
A. Vermeersch — Epitome Iuris Canonici, 1949
“At least according to the more common
teaching; the Roman Pontiff as a private teacher can fall into manifest
heresy. Then, without any declaratory sentence (for the Supreme See is
judged by no one), he would automatically (ipso facto) fall from power
which he who is no longer a member of the Church is unable to possess.”
Coronata — Institutions Juris Canonici, 1950
“It cannot be proven however that the
Roman Pontiff, as a private teacher, cannot become a heretic —“If indeed
such a situation would happen, he [the Roman Pontiff] would, by divine
law, fall from office without any sentence, indeed, without even a
declaratory one. He who openly professes heresy places himself outside
the Church, and it is not likely that Christ would preserve the Primacy
of His Church in one so unworthy. Wherefore, if the Roman Pontiff were
to profess heresy, before any condemnatory sentence (which would be
impossible anyway) he would lose his authority.
Edward F. Regatillo — Institutiones Iuris Canonici, 1956
“‘The pope loses office ipso facto
because of public heresy.’ This is the more common teaching, because a
pope would not be a member of the Church, and hence far less could he be
its head.”
Wrenn, CLSA NEW COMM (2001) at 1618
states: “Canon 1404 is not a statement of personal impeccability or
inerrancy of the Holy Father. Should, indeed, the pope fall into heresy,
it is understood that he would lose his office. To fall from Peter’s
faith is to fall from his chair.”
Edward Peters— A Canonical Primer on Popes and Heresy, December 16, 2016.
As for the lack of detailed canonical
examination of the mechanics for assessing possible papal heresy,
Cocchi, COMMENTARIUM II/2 (1931) n. 155, ascribes it to the fact that
law provides for common cases and adapts for rarer… In sum, and while
additional important points could be offered on this matter, in the view
of modern canonists from Wernz to Wrenn, however remote is the
possibility of a pope actually falling into heresy and however difficult
it might be to determine whether a pope has so fallen, such a
catastrophe, Deus vetet, would result in the loss of papal office.
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