“With profound grief, but moved by fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ, by love for the Church and for the papacy, and by filial devotion toward yourself, we are compelled to address a correction to Your Holiness on account of the propagation of heresies [emphasis mine] effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness.”
And it later states: “We wish now to show how several passages of Amoris laetitia, in conjunction with acts, words, and omissions of Your Holiness, serve to propagate seven heretical propositions [emphasis mine].”
What are the “seven heresies” of which Pope Francis is being charged?
The text gives the “seven heresies,” presented in the Latin language, as follows (the Latin seems to be used to increase the formality of these charges of heresy, since Latin even today remains the official language of the Church). Here are the Latin passages:
Correctio
His verbis, actis, et omissionibus, et in iis sententiis libri Amoris laetitia quas supra diximus, Sanctitas Vestra sustentavit recte aut oblique, et in Ecclesia (quali quantaque intelligentia nescimus nec iudicare audemus) propositiones has sequentes, cum munere publico tum actu privato, propagavit, falsas profecto et haereticas:
- (1) “Homo iustificatus iis caret viribus quibus, Dei gratia adiutus, mandata obiectiva legis divinae impleat; quasi quidvis ex Dei mandatis sit iustificatis impossibile; seu quasi Dei gratia, cum in homine iustificationem efficit, non semper et sua natura conversionem efficiat ab omni peccato gravi; seu quasi non sit sufficiens ut hominem ab omni peccato gravi convertat.”
- (2) Christifidelis qui, divortium civile a sponsa legitima consecutus, matrimonium civile (sponsa vivente) cum alia contraxit; quique cum ea more uxorio vivit; quique cum plena intelligentia naturae actus sui et voluntatis propriae pleno ad actum consensu eligit in hoc rerum statu manere: non necessarie mortaliter peccare dicendus est, et gratiam sanctificantem accipere et in caritate crescere potest.”
- (3) “Christifidelis qui alicuius mandati divini plenam scientiam possidet et deliberata voluntate in re gravi id violare eligit, non semper per talem actum graviter peccat.”
- (4) “Homo potest, dum divinae prohibitioni obtemperat, contra Deum ea ipsa obtemperatione peccare.”
- (5) “Conscientia recte ac vere iudicare potest actus venereos aliquando probos et honestos esse aut licite rogari posse aut etiam a Deo mandari, inter eos qui matrimonium civile contraxerunt quamquam sponsus cum alia in matrimonio sacramentali iam coniunctus est.”
- (6) “Principia moralia et veritas moralis quae in divina revelatione et in lege naturali continentur non comprehendunt prohibitiones qualibus genera quaedam actionis absolute vetantur utpote quae propter obiectum suum semper graviter illicita sint.”
- (7) “Haec est voluntas Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ut Ecclesia disciplinam suam perantiquam abiciat negandi Eucharistiam et Absolutionem iis qui, divortium civile consecuti et matrimonium civile ingressi, contritionem et propositum firmum sese emendandi ab ea in qua vivunt vitae conditione noluerunt patefacere.”
And here is the English translation of these passages, given by the text’s authors, describing the “seven heresies” of Pope Francis:
“By these words, deeds, and omissions, and by the above-mentioned passages of the document Amoris laetitia, Your Holiness has upheld, directly or indirectly, and, with what degree of awareness we do not seek to judge, both by public office and by private act propagated in the Church the following false and heretical propositions:
1). ‘A justified person has not the strength with God’s grace to carry out the objective demands of the divine law, as though any of the commandments of God are impossible for the justified; or as meaning that God’s grace, when it produces justification in an individual, does not invariably and of its nature produce conversion from all serious sin, or is not sufficient for conversion from all serious sin.’
2). ‘Christians who have obtained a civil divorce from the spouse to whom they are validly married and have contracted a civil marriage with some other person during the lifetime of their spouse, who live more uxorio [Note: in the manner of a married couple, that is, engaging in intimate relations] with their civil partner, and who choose to remain in this state with full knowledge of the nature of their act and full consent of the will to that act, are not necessarily in a state of mortal sin, and can receive sanctifying grace and grow in charity.’
3). ‘A Christian believer can have full knowledge of a divine law and voluntarily choose to break it in a serious matter, but not be in a state of mortal sin as a result of this action.’
4). ‘A person is able, while he obeys a divine prohibition, to sin against God by that very act of obedience.’
5). ‘Conscience can truly and rightly judge that sexual acts between persons who have contracted a civil marriage with each other, although one or both of them is sacramentally married to another person, can sometimes be morally right or requested or even commanded by God.’
6). ‘Moral principles and moral truths contained in divine revelation and in the natural law do not include negative prohibitions that absolutely forbid particular kinds of action, inasmuch as these are always gravely unlawful on account of their object.’
7). ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ wills that the Church abandon her perennial discipline of refusing the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried and of refusing absolution to the divorced and remarried who do not express contrition for their state of life and a firm purpose of amendment with regard to it.’
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What do the signers of this document want Pope Francis to do?
They want him to reject these seven “heretical” positions that he is accused of holding and teaching.
They write: “At this critical hour, therefore, we turn to the cathedra veritatis, the Roman Church, which has by divine law pre-eminence over all the churches, and of which we are and intend always to remain loyal children, and we respectfully insist that Your Holiness publicly reject these propositions [emphasis added] thus accomplishing the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ given to St Peter and through him to all his successors until the end of the world: “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.”
And they conclude: “We respectfully ask for Your Holiness’s apostolic blessing, with the assurance of our filial devotion in our Lord and of our prayer for the welfare of the Church.”
==============================
Here is the list of the 62 present signers of the document, from 20 countries
1. Dr. Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg
European editor, Empirical Journal of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior
2. Prof. Jean Barbey
Historian and Jurist, former Professor at the University of Maine
3. Fr Claude Barthe
Diocesan Priest
4. Philip M. Beattie
BA (Leeds), MBA(Glasgow), MSc (Warwick), Dip.Stats (Dublin) Associate Lecturer, University of Malta (Malta)
5. Fr Jehan de Belleville
Religious
6. Dr. Philip Blosser
Professor of Philosophy, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Archdiocese of Detroit
7. Fr Robert Brucciani
District superior of the SSPX in Great Britain
8. Prof. Mario Caponnetto
University Professor, Mar de la Plata (Argentina)
9. Mr Robert F. Cassidy STL
10. Fr Isio Cecchini
Parish Priest in Tuscany
11. Salvatore J. Ciresi, M.A.
Director of the St. Jerome Biblical Guild, Lecturer at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College
12. Fr. Linus F Clovis,
Ph.D., JCL, M.Sc., STB, Dip. Ed, Director of the Secretariat for Family and Life in the Archdiocese of Castries
13. Fr Paul Cocard
Religious
14. Fr Thomas Crean OP STD
15. Prof. Matteo D’Amico
Professor of History and Philosophy, Senior High School of Ancona
16. Dr. Chiara Dolce PhD
Research doctor in Moral Philosophy at the University of Cagliari
17. Deacon Nick Donnelly MA
18. Petr Dvorak
Head of Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague; Professor of philosophy at Saints Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
19. H.E. Mgr Bernard Fellay
Superior General of the SSPX
20. Christopher Ferrara Esq.
Founding President of the American Catholic Lawyers’ Association
21. Prof. Michele Gaslini
Professor of Public Law at the University of Udine
22. Prof. Corrado Gnerre
Professor at the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose of Benevento, Pontifical Theological University of Southern Italy
23. Dr. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
Former President of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), Professor of Ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan
24. Dr. Maria Guarini STB
Pontificia Università Seraphicum, Rome; editor of the website Chiesa e postconcilio
25. Prof. Robert Hickson PhD
Retired Professor of Literature and of Strategic-Cultural Studies
26. Fr John Hunwicke
Former Senior Research Fellow, Pusey House, Oxford
27. Fr Jozef Hutta
Diocesan Priest
28. Prof. Isebaert Lambert
Full Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, and at the Flemish Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
29. Dr. John Lamont STL DPhil (Oxon.)
30. Fr Serafino M. Lanzetta STD
Lecturer in Dogmatic Theology, Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland; Priest in charge of St Mary’s, Gosport, in the diocese of Portsmouth
31. Prof. Massimo de Leonardis
Professor and Director of the Department of Political Sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
32. Msgr. Prof. Antonio Livi
Academic of the Holy See
Dean emeritus of the Pontifical Lateran University
Vice-rector of the church of Sant’Andrea del Vignola, Rome
33. Dr. Carlo Manetti
Professor in Private Universities in Italy
34. Prof. Pietro De Marco
Former Professor at the University of Florence
35. Prof. Roberto de Mattei
Former Professor of the History of Christianity, European University of Rome, former Vice President of the National Research Council (CNR)
36. Fr Cor Mennen
Lecturer in Canon Law at the Major Seminary of the Diocese of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands). Canon of the cathedral chapter of the diocese of ‘s-Hertogenbosch
37. Prof. Stéphane Mercier
Lecturer in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain
38. Don Alfredo Morselli STL
Parish priest of the archdiocese of Bologna
39. Martin Mosebach
Writer and essayist
40. Dr. Claude E. Newbury M.B., B.Ch., D.T.M&H., D.O.H., M.F.G.P., D.C.H., D.P.H., D.A., M. Med; Former Director of Human Life International in Africa south of the Sahara; former Member of the Human Services Commission of the Catholic Bishops of South Africa
41. Prof. Lukas Novak
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Charles University, Prague
42. Fr Guy Pagès
Diocesan Priest
43. Prof. Paolo Pasqualucci
Professor of Philosophy (retired), University of Perugia
44. Prof. Claudio Pierantoni
Professor of Medieval Philosophy in the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Chile; Former Professor of Church History and Patrology at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
45. Father Anthony Pillari, J.C.L., M.C.L
46. Prof. Enrico Maria Radaelli
Philosopher, editor of the works of Romano Amerio
47. Dr. John Rao
Associate Professor of History, St. John’s University, NYC; Chairman, Roman Forum
48. Dr. Carlo Regazzoni
Licentiate in Philosophy at University of Freiburg
49. Dr. Giuseppe Reguzzoni
External Researcher at the Catholic University of Milan and former editorial assistant of Communio, International Catholic Review (Italian edition)
50. Prof. Arkadiusz Robaczewski
Former Professor at the Catholic University of Lublin
51. Fr Settimio M. Sancioni STD
Licence in Biblical Science
52. Prof. Andrea Sandri
Research Associate, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
53. Dr. Joseph Shaw
Tutor in Moral philosophy, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford
54. Fr Paolo M. Siano HED (Historiae Ecclesiasticae Doctor)
55. Dr. Cristina Siccardi
Historian of the Church
56. Dr Anna Silvas
Adjunct research fellow, University of New England, NSW, Australia
57. Prof. Dr Thomas Stark
Phil.-Theol. Hochschule Benedikt XVI, Heiligenkreuz
58. Rev. Glen Tattersall
Parish Priest, Parish of Bl. John Henry Newman, archdiocese of Melbourne; Rector, St Aloysius’ Church
59. Prof. Giovanni Turco
Associate Professor of Philosophy of Public Law at the University of Udine, Member Corrispondent of the Pontificia Accademia San Tommaso d’Aquino
60. Prof. Piero Vassallo
Former editor of Cardinal Siri’s theological review Renovatio
61. Prof. Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira
Former Professor at the Pontifical University of São Paulo, Brazil
62. Mons. José Luiz Villac
Former Rector of the Seminary of Jacarezinho
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On the Unity of the Church (link)
By St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr
St. Cyprian was bishop of Carthage in North Africa from about A.D. 249 until his martrydom on September 14, 258
(Excerpts)
The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, “I say unto you, that you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates fell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, “Feed my sheep.”
And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, “As the Father has sent me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins you retain, they shall be retained,” (John 20:21), yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one.
Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity.
Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, “My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.” (Song of Songs 6:9)
Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, “There is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God?” (Ephesians 4:4)
5. And this unity we ought firmly to hold and assert, especially those of us that are bishops who