In my previous article (Part 1), I explained the danger of Pope Francis promoting “religious indifferentism,” which is at odds with Catholic teaching because it falsely insists that all religions are equally valid paths to God or that one religion is as good as another. Traditional Catholic doctrine and Christianity in general condemn religious indifferentism, and yet it appears the Pope embraced it with two recent talks to young adults of various religions (one in Singapore and one via video to Albania). So, when a pope fails to instruct that the Catholic Church alone holds the fullness of divine revelation and truth and instead expounds on the deviating notion that all religions provide the same path to God and that God loves diverse religions, is he a heretic? And if a pontiff preaches heresy, how do Catholics respond to this dreadful revelation?
During his 11-year papacy, Francis has been accused by cardinals, bishops, priests, and tens of thousands of lay Catholics as rejecting various Catholic teachings, most notably moral laws regarding marriage and sexual activity, and wrongly supporting heretical clerics and organizations whose positions obviously run counter to Church doctrine. Now we have these two latest incidents on September 13 and September 17, where Pope Francis denied the realities that Jesus is the only Way to God the Father and that the founders of these other religions are false prophets or liars and yet promoted the falsehood that “the diversity of our religious identities is a gift from God.”
By instructing the young Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in Singapore that we all share the same God and will all arrive at Him by taking our different paths, and by later telling those from Mediterranean countries that God Himself wants diversity in religions, the Pope is refuting Jesus’s own words that the only way to God is through His Son. Many would say the Pope is spreading heresy.
Heresy is when a Catholic knowingly and persistently denies something which he knows that the Church teaches to be revealed by God. So a true heretic not only embraces a heretical belief but persists in it even after Church authorities point out that person’s erroneous denial of the truth. When a Catholic teaches heresy and obstinately refuses correction, Church law says there should be consequences of excommunication.
In the 7th Century, the Catholic Church’s Lateran Council proclaimed:
“If anyone does not properly and truly confess in word and in mind according to the Holy Fathers all, even to the last portion, that has been handed down and preached in the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of God, and handed down and preached likewise by the Holy Fathers and the five venerable Ecumenical Councils, let him be anathema (aka: a heretic; excommunicated).”
In a pope’s case, heresy would mean removing him from office, but in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic papacy, no pope has ever been excommunicated. In fact, there is no explicit Church law on the subject of “firing a pope,” so we really can’t agree on a definite answer to what is to be done with a heretical pope. Saint Robert Bellarmine gave his thoughts to the subject more than 400 years ago:
“A Pope who is a manifest heretic ceases in himself to be Pope and head, just as he ceases in himself to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church: whereby, he can be judged and punished by the Church…Just as it is lawful to resist the pope that attacks the body, it is also lawful to resist the one who attacks souls or who disturbs civil order, or, above all, who attempts to destroy the Church. I say that it is lawful to resist him by not doing what he orders and preventing his will from being executed.”
But Saint Bellarmine’s words are simply his opinion; it doesn’t carry the weight of law. Speaking of Church law, it’s important to understand that concept of the pope being “infallible” only pertains to when he speaks “ex cathedra,” which means officially from his seat in the Vatican. Only in this type of instance when a pope asserts his official authority when making a statement is a pope speaking without error. Francis has never made or presumed to make even one ex cathedra statement during his 11-year papacy. (Actually, we haven’t had an ex cathedra statement come from the Vatican since 1950 when Pope Pius XII declared as dogma the bodily assumption of Mary in Heaven.)
Thus, when speaking in Singapore, the Pope was certainly not speaking ex cathedra when he commented that all religions are on the same path to God. His words then were never to be considered infallible, and yet, his words appeared to be heretical and Francis definitely caused scandal. The Catholic Church defines “scandal” as a mortal sin, and it’s even more grave if the scandalous behavior comes from a high authority.
So perhaps we set aside the dramatic, powerful word, “heresy,” and ask this modified question:
“What are we to do when the pope causes scandal by what appears to be his attempt to remake or even damage the Church with deliberate, objectionable words and actions?”
Since we are merely the laity, we actually can’t do anything material about Pope Francis. We can pray that the hierarchy does something, such as bishops speaking publicly about their disappointment in Francis’s remarks and requesting a correction and/or the cardinals putting pressure on the Pope to renounce and apologize for his objectionable statements. But since a pope has no hierarchical superior on earth, no humans (including cardinals and bishops) have the authority to fire him. Popes are subject to God alone. Some scholars in Church history have even hypothesized that a pope who committed what would typically be considered an excommunicable act such as heresy could only be prevented to continue serving by literally being struck dead by God. On one hand you could say this hypothesis is sarcastic, but you could also argue it is serious. Essentially, any decision on the extreme case of what to do with a heretical pope is entirely up to God.
As lay Catholics, when our well-developed conscience tells us that our pope is causing scandal by promoting heretical-like beliefs, we should still respect the office of the pope, but we are allowed to disapprove of his non-ex cathedra words. All the while, we should be praying for his “conversion” to authentic Catholicism.
Dominican Father Juan Cardinal de Torquemada, wrote in the 15th Century:
“Were the pope to command anything against Holy Scripture, or the articles of faith, or the truth of the Sacraments, or the commands of the natural or divine law, he ought not to be obeyed, but in such commands, to be passed over.”
Years later, Dominican Father Tommaso Cardinal de Vio Gaetani Cajetan penned the statement:
“It is imperative to resist a pope who is openly destroying the Church.”
And a fellow pope himself, Pope Pius IX, in the 19th Century seemed to be giving a forewarning to us Catholics two centuries later when he wrote:
“If a future pope teaches anything contrary to the Catholic Faith, do not follow him.”
There is a distorted idea of the papacy which some poorly formed Catholics assume is true and many non-Catholics argue we have – that the pope is a kind of mystical, prophetic, perfect guru and that Catholics must agree with everything he says and does. No, the pope is not perfect; he’s a sinner like you and me, as was observed from the get-go with our first pope, Peter. Likewise, the papacy is basically an office (albeit an extraordinary one), and the pope’s personal opinions on politics or even his explanations on theology could at times be erroneous.
With all this said, my opinion (note that, like Francis, I am a sinner with opinions that could be erroneous) is we should take the advice of Dominican Father Sylvester Prieras, who in 1518 wrote the following in arguing against the Protestant Reformation’s call to abandon Catholicism and start a new Church because of disagreement with the pope:
“What should be done in cases where the pope destroys the Church by his evil actions?…He would certainly be in sin, and it would be unlawful to allow him to act in such a fashion, and likewise to obey him in matters which are evil; on the contrary, there is a duty to oppose him while administering a courteous rebuke…there would likewise be an obligation to…resist him. The reason being that he does not possess power in order to destroy, and thus it follows that if he is so doing it is lawful to oppose him.”
Popes will come and go, and there will be popes we love and popes we barely tolerate (sort of like bosses at work). The most recent pontiffs in our lifetime have been everything from Polish to German to Argentinian, and from skinny and short to overweight and tall. Take solace in realizing that a pope who makes bad statements, even scandalous ones, will eventually be replaced by one who speaks more honestly and virtuously.
Regardless of who is sitting in the Chair of Peter, we need to remember that Jesus is the true head of the Church. Just as there will never be a change in the eternalness and immutability of Our Lord, there will never be a change in our Church being one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. Jesus promised that the forces of evil will not prevail over His Church. Hence, a “bad” pope cannot destroy the Church.
Listen to St. Paul’s proclamation to the Jewish-Christians:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings” (Hebrews 13:8-9).
We Catholics are to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects a recognition of the superiority of Christ. While both praying for and criticizing any current or future pope who speaks awkwardly, acts disgracefully, or even preaches heresy, we fix our eyes on Jesus and we stay cemented in the Church He founded, knowing that there is no salvation outside it.
We have no duty to agree with Pope Francis’s recent comments regarding the good coming from a diversity of religions nor his past comments regarding other scandalous leanings, since his words were not made ex cathedra and often appear to be in conflict with the Deposit of Faith. Authentic Catholics believe in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church) more than we agree with any one pope’s remarks.
What Catholicism does declare as our duty is to inspire in every person the love of truth and good. “The social duty of Christians… requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsists in the Catholic and apostolic Church” (Catechism #2105). If Francis doesn’t want to teach non-believers or ignorant people this, we mere lay Catholics can.
A PRINCIPAL'S PRINCIPLES FOR PARENTING 
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