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To: Faith Presses On
The doubt or denial involved in heresy must concern a matter that has been revealed by God and solemnly defined by the Church (for example, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Mass, the pope’s infallibility, or the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary).

It is important to distinguish heresy from schism and apostasy. In schism, one separates from the Catholic Church without repudiating a defined doctrine. An example of a contemporary schism is the Society of St. Pius X—the "Lefebvrists" or followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre—who separated from the Church in the late 1980s, but who have not denied Catholic doctrines. In apostasy, one totally repudiates the Christian faith and no longer even claims to be a Christian.

Definition of terms is important in some matters. Some of the people who are Catholic who you might consider to be heretics are not heretics.

25 posted on 01/06/2015 8:53:52 AM PST by defconw (If not now, WHEN?)
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To: defconw

I’m not going to go into beliefs that are held by the Catholic Church, such as about the pope’s infallibility and certain beliefs about Mary.

Just on the basis of the most essential of Christian beliefs, there are open heretics in the Roman Catholic leadership. Heresy isn’t the chief problem of a heretic, but the result of not loving God and of rejecting His authority. It’s a matter of spirit, and that can show up in openly rejecting the most fundamental of Christian beliefs, or the more secondary ones (which are just as critical). Timothy Dolan might not openly deny Jesus’ divinity or resurrection, but when he said “good for” Michael Sam, for being the first NFL player openly living a homosexual lifestyle, that showed heresy, and to do that in one part of essential Christian belief is to do that in all.


27 posted on 01/06/2015 9:25:16 AM PST by Faith Presses On
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