[johnb2004]

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Arch-heretic
Question from Anon. on 11-09-2000:
Dear Fr. Levis:
I was surprised to read your response to Marcy, who inquired about the orthodoxy of the Arch-Herisiarch Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. You correctly advised her of the still-in-force "monita" regarding his works, but denied that he was a heretic. Certainly there has been no other "Churchman" this century (with the possible exception of Karl Rahner) whose perfidious doctrines have done more damage to the doctrinal integrity of the Mystical Body of Christ.

If you recognize modernism as a heresy, you must admit that de Chardin was one of the "proto-typical" modernist extraordinaires. It is difficult to understand your denial that he was a heretic. His doctrines are the very essense of modernist heresy: a continual evolution (not development) of dogma; an implicit denial of monogenesis; cosmic evolution; denial of external reality; redefinition of terms with ambiguous replacement words; etc, etc.

One of the very reasons us "20-something" Catholics are forced to endure the incompetence of two lost generations of malformed priests and bishops is because the writings of de Chardin had become so influential in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Even today, the liberal establishment praises this heretic as prophet of a modernist Church yet-to-come. That his convoluted, ambiguous, modernist doctrines are incompatible with defined Catholic dogma is beyond doubt. Your reluctance to state this as such is puzzling.

Answer by Fr. Robert J. Levis on 11-09-2000:
Anon, Only the Church has the right to call one a heretic, surely I don't. I have never read or heard that this priest was formally listed as a heretic, a formal protagonist against Catholic dogma. Yes, by all means, the priest was heterodox. Rome has warned us 9 times of that, but officially a heretic, no, I have no right to call him that, nor does anyone else other than the Church herself.God bless you. Fr. BobLevis