Editor’s Note: The protestant error of private judgement is often found to be a tempting alternative to Catholics who do not know their faith and even to clergy who do not know their canon law. Most common in the present crisis of public scandal in the Church, is that more and more Catholics, even Clergy, are resorting to the worst form of private judgement: setting yourself up as the one who determines who is and is not a member of the Catholic Church. While it is true that those living in public sin of any kind can be rightfully refused communion and even excommunicated by the local pastor of the parish, what I a referring to here is the arrogance of those who are not pastors of Churches or Bishops, who say this or that person is not a member of the Church; or worse who claim that the Saints said this, namely that as soon as one is known to you to be a manifest heretic, he or she is by that fact no longer a member of the Church not only spiritually but legally.
Those who embrace this error might not recognize the venom of this position at the beginning, but it leads them imperceptibly to schism from the entire Church and to the heresy of denying Christ’s promises to the Church and finally to despair and the most demonic pride. Most of the priests who claimed to support Pope Benedict XVI, after his death, have fallen into this error, because they want to tell you what rules are in play for the election of a pope, and if they say there is no longer any possible election, then they insist you accept their despair that there will never be another valid pope.
Father Nix should know better. But if he is going to enunciate his error in public, then he deserves to be publicly reproved. Don’t pay attention to this priest. He does not know of what he is speaking.
A Catholic, even if he say, “I am no longer a Catholic” on Monday, and who goes to confess this on Tuesday, has never left the Church. He may not have even left the Church spiritually. That is for his confessor to determine in the tribunal of the confessional. Yes, if we hear someone speak this way we should warn them of their error and great peril. But we cannot presume to go to the next step and make any statement regarding their canonical status. Yes, the Saints speaking in generalities say that one who denies any revealed truth is a heretic and lapses from the Church, but you won’t find any Saint saying that this or that person they know or knew, who was not condemned by the Church, was a heretic or left the Church in the canonical sense.
Only those who read more than snippets of the Saints know these things. And if a priest has little knowledge, beware, it can be a dangerous thing, when in a time of stress he begins to act on the little knowledge he has, rather than seeking advice from someone who has more.
And notice well, that I have not said that Father is a heretic. But I have said that it is dangerous and morally wrong to espouse such an error of presumption. This is the Catholic way. And if any Catholic say that this or that man is a heretic, we should have the charity to presume that he is only referring to a public error espoused by the person and is not saying that that person has lost all his rights in the Church.
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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
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You are dead wrong. Hope you get it all right soon.
https://www.wmreview.org/p/fr-zuhlsdorf-michael-davies-and-leo
This argument you cite is most absurdly invalid, as the one writing it does not understand the first thing about what a Sacrament is, how it is confected, and what is required for its validity. If you are following his opinion, it must be that you have never studied theology, because his arguments would only fool someone who is ignorant of the first principles of sacramental theology.
Sacraments, as regard their formulae, which are the words or signs used to signify the conferral of grace, do not require anything but that the validly ordained minister (priest or bishop) does what the Church does. So if the Roman Pontiff approve a Missale which contains a certain formula for the conferral of a Sacrament, the minister using that always validly confects it. His doing of the rite as contained in the missal is his actual real intention, and thus, the new Sacraments are all valid.
This theological principle follows from the words of Christ, “Whatsoever you bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever you loose upon earth, shall be loosed in Heaven”, which He said to Peter, and “He who hears you hears Me”, which he said to the Apostles and hence to all Bishops and Priests, and that He confers the Sacrament every time the Sacrament is confected in this way, we know from His other promise, “Lo! I am with you unto the consummation of the Age”, which He said to His Apostles and thus to the entire Sacred Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and thus, to the entire Body of the Church, that is to all the Faithful, who receive the Sacraments from the former.
If you doubt these words of Jesus, you are neither Christian nor worthy of receiving the Sacraments.
Thank you for the clarity, as always. It is a dangerous game.