A bishop and distinguished canon lawyer has suggested that views expressed by a recently-appointed US cardinal are “heretical”.
Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, quoted the words of Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego as an example of a church leader whose public pronouncement contradicted a “truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith”.
He took issue with remarks made by Cardinal McElroy – who was given his red hat last August by Pope Francis – in which he appeared to reject teaching that a person must be in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion.
Bishop Paprocki also posed the question of an unnamed cardinal stating publicly that “homosexual acts are not sinful and same-sex unions should be blessed by the Church” as a further example of heterodox thought among Catholic leaders.
“Until recently, it would be hard to imagine any successor of the apostles making such heterodox statements,” wrote Bishop Paprocki in an article for First Things called Imagine an Heretical Cardinal.
“Unfortunately, it is not uncommon today to hear Catholic leaders affirm unorthodox views that, not too long ago, would have been espoused only by heretics,” continued the bishop, the chairman-elect of the US bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance.
Although Bishop Paprocki did not name McElroy in his article, he identified him in one instance by quoting from the opening paragraph the cardinal wrote for America magazine, in which he argued for the “radical inclusion” of all the baptised at Communion.
Cardinal McElroy had made the case for “a Eucharistic theology that effectively invites all of the baptised to the table of the Lord, rather than a theology of Eucharistic coherence that multiplies barriers to the grace and gift of the Eucharist”.
According to Catholic News Agency, Cardinal McElroy later, in a podcast interview, clarified that by “the baptised” he was referring to all baptised Catholics, and said his words were in harmony with the teaching of Pope Francis that the Eucharist as “not as a prize for the perfect, but as a source of healing for us all”.
Bishop Paprocki wrote that the Catechism of the Catholic Church taught, however, that “anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance”.
He implied that Cardinal McElroy’s statements were “contrary to a ‘truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith’”.
Bishop Paprocki wrote: “The truth about Eucharistic coherence that must be believed by divine and Catholic faith was articulated by St Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians: ‘Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord … For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself’.
‘This has been the constant teaching of the Church for the past two thousand years.”
He said that it was “deeply troubling to consider the possibility that prelates holding the office of diocesan bishop in the Catholic Church may be separated or not in full communion because of heresy”.
“Yet both the cases mentioned above would in fact involve heresy, since heresy is defined as ‘the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith’,” he said.
Bishop Paprocki later issued a statement to clarify that his comments were not intended as an ad hominem attack on any particular person.
He said: “I intentionally did not mention names because I do not want this to be about the personalities involved but about the Catholic teachings that are being denied.”
He added: “Is it not contrary to the Catholic faith and therefore heresy to say that sexual sins are not a grave matter?
“Is it not contrary to the Catholic faith and therefore heresy to say that one may receive Holy Communion despite having committed grave sin without repenting? If so, what are the canonical implications of such heresies?”
He said that a person who has committed heresy has “de facto separated themselves ontologically — that is, in reality — from the communion of the Church”.
“Thus heretics, apostates and schismatics inflict the penalty of excommunication upon themselves,” he wrote. “A cardinal of the Catholic Church, like any other Catholic who denies settled Catholic teaching, embraces heresy, the result of which is automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.”
He continued: “Only the Pope can remove a cardinal from office or dismiss him from the clerical state in the case of heresy or other grave crimes. If he does not do so, the unseemly prospect arises of a cardinal, excommunicated latae sententiae due to heresy, voting in a papal conclave.”
(Bishop Thomas Paprocki (centre) (CNS photo/Paul Haring))
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