The following is taken from "True or False Pope?", pp. 182-183
The
1917 Code of Canon Law provides that those who commit the following acts are
suspect of heresy:
1. The
propagators of heresy and those who participate with non-Catholics in divinis (can. 2316);
2. Those
who contract marriage under the condition of having their offspring educated in
a non-Catholic sect and those who have their children baptized by non-Catholic
ministers or educated in a non-Catholic denomination (can. 2319);
3. Those
who desecrate sacred hosts or species (can. 2320);
4. Those
who appeal from the Pope to a general council (can. 2332);
5. Those
who remain under sentence of excommunication for more than a year (can. 2340);
6. Those
who administer or receive the Sacraments simoniacally (can. 2371).[1]
In addition to these anti-Catholic
activities specified under canon law, the highly respected commentary on the
1917 Code of Canon law by Wernz-Vidal also sets forth extra-canonical
activities that are considered grounds for suspicion of heresy. They include
taking part in the exercise of magic, charms or divination, and those who
become members of sects which, whether openly or secretly, hatch plots against
the Church.[2]
In other words, a Catholic can propagate
heretical doctrines, participate in false worship with non-Catholics, baptize,
raise and educate their children in non-Catholic sects, commit sacrilege against
the Blessed Sacrament, take part in satanic “black magic,” and formally join
anti-Catholic sects and secret societies, and only be suspected of heresy. Even though these activities are objective
mortal sins against the Faith, under the Church’s law they are only grounds for suspicion that one is a heretic.
Because the propagation of heresy is
such a serious assault on the Faith of the Church, Fr. Augustine sets forth
four categories to morally distinguish the types of “propagators of heresy”
(can. 2316):
a)
Credentes are such as
externally profess the errors of heretics, e.g., by asserting that Luther or Döllinger
were correct in their views, even though they may not know the particular
errors of these leaders.
b)
Receptores are those who
receive and shelter heretics, especially with the intention of hiding them from
the ecclesiastical authorities.
c)
Fautores are such as
favor heretics because of their heresy,
by omitting to denounce them when required or demanded by their office, or by
giving support to non-Catholic propaganda. This latter way of propagating
heresy is followed by public and private persons who write for heretics, praise
their methods and objects, recommend their work and give it material support,
always provided that the heresy itself is the object of their mental and
material favors.
d)
Defensores means those who
defend heretics for the sake of heresy,
orally, in writing, or by acts of defense proper. All such persons are
suspected of heresy if they act of their own accord and knowingly. Sponte is opposed to compulsion and
fear, and therefore implies full deliberation and a free will not hindered by
any extrinsic or intrinsic impediment, such as fear of losing an office, or
one’s reputation, or customers. Scienter
is opposed to ignorance, the object of which here is heresy, and means that
these promotors or propagators of heresy must be aware that they are helping
heresy as such.[3]
Thus, one who “externally professes the
error of heretics,” or who favors heretics “because of their heresy,” or who
“defends heretics for the sake of heresy, orally, in writing, or by acts,” are
only considered suspect of heresy. While a Catholic may be inclined to conclude
that John Paul II, for example, was a heretic for worshiping with pagans and
praising the errors of Martin Luther, the Church says these are only grounds
for suspicion of heresy. One who commits these acts is not considered a “public
heretic” (even if the scandalous acts are multiplied) and, if the person in
question is a cleric, such activities do not deprive him of his ecclesiastical
office.
[1] Augustine,
A Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law,
vol. VIII, bk. 5, (London: Herder Book Co., 1918), pp. 280.
[2] Cited by Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira in “Essay on
Heresy,” translated by John Daly. http://sedevacantist.com/essayonheresy.htm.
