Q8 - Does Pope Francis Lose the Papacy by Teaching Heresy?

First, I would say that the question of the death penalty has not yet been proclaimed as a dogma of faith in an infallible manner. And therefore, formally, even if Pope Francis denies the truth about the legitimacy of the death penalty, he did not commit heresy. So, technically, they are good questions. The other more principled question is whether the Pope may be losing his office automatically by teaching heresy.

Why? We are, again, a hierarchical structure. We are not a community, a democratic community, which can depose its leader, as do the Protestant communities or political parties or the Orthodox community of Orthodox bishops, who do not have a visible head but only a college, the synodality. Then, when there is only the principle of synodality, as the Orthodox do, they can depose the patriarch. They can depose their heads. and therefore, it is already an error. Synodality is only a principle.

The synodality is also very typical of the Catholic Church, but not the only or most important. The most important is the primacy of Peter. Of course, together with the synodality of the bishops, It's clear. But this would go to the heresy of Conciliarism, which was, in the 15th century, condemned by the Church, which says that there is a body in the church, let us say, the council, or a group of bishops or cardinals who can pronounce a definitive judgment upon the head of the Church. This is contrary to and illogical of our Catholic structure and of the primacy, which is divinely given. In this case, we grow into the synodal structure of conciliarism and synodality, or episcopalism.

It is very dangerous. Therefore, it is impossible to depose a Pope. Why? I repeat, because of the divine structure of the church. And secondly, because the Pope did not receive his office from the Cardinals. No. They only elected him. He received his office immediately, directly from God. Therefore, only God can remove him, or even he (can remove himself) when he renounces or is dying. I mean, this case can remove him. Sometimes, earlier, we can remove a Pope to spare the Church from other evils. But it's the decision of God and His providence.

Then, behind all these terrorists, even St. Robert Bellarmine, Cajetan, and so on, They are only theories. It is not a teaching of the church. The church never taught this.

Never.

Even saintly doctors of the church can make errors. and they committed errors. Even the greatest doctor of the church, St. Thomas Aquinas, committed errors in doctrine because he refused the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. He denied the sacramental character of Episcopal ordination, for example. He was convinced that the material of the ordination was the transmission of the chalice to the priest. These are objective errors.

So, St. Thomas Aquinas committed these errors, but he remains a holy man and a trustworthy doctor. It is because Thomas Aquinas does not have the gift of infallibility. It's only the Church that has this gift, and the pope in very strict circumstances. And the same: St. Robert Bellarmine committed an error when he promoted this hypothesis. or Cajetan, or, let us say, St. Francis of Sales, and others. This is not a demonstration of the constant and changing tradition of the church. Therefore, it's not, for me, an authority.

In this case, I have much respect for St. Robert Bellarmine, of course, but not at this point.

Then, what is behind all this? Well, we also have to state that a Pope is not able to commit heresy when he is teaching ex-cathedra. I mean, when he's teaching in a final, definitive way. It's impossible because it's a dogma of faith of the First Vatican Council, which says that "in these cases, the Divine Providence, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, is protecting the Pope and keeping him from committing an error." So, he cannot commit heresy when he's teaching.

In other words, when the Pope is teaching, not definitely, not ex-cathedra, he can commit errors, inclusively, a heresy. And he's not automatically losing his office because he is not teaching definitively, and so on. And behind all these theories of automatically losing the office of the Pope, then judging the Pope, deposing him, and so on for me, what is behind all these is a lack of trust that God is guiding this church.

It is an implicit attempt that we now take the church into our own hands and resolve the problem. It is too human. What is also behind all these is an implicit refusal of the Cross of Golgotha moment of the Church, which we have to endure, accept, and believe that God will end this time of confusion with a Pope who is promoting errors. So, they have to have a deeper supernatural vision.