Pope Francis was today accused "guilty of the crime of heresy", and New Zealand's Cardinal John Dew listed (between the notorious Cardinals Gottfried Danneels and Kevin Farrell) as a "heretical prelate" by 19 prominent theologians and philosophers, and academics and scholars in other fields, in an open letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church.
The signatories are appealing for all the bishops of the world "publicly to admonish the heresies that (Pope Francis) has professed".
They say the bishops have a duty to admonish the Pope to abjure his heresies and repudiate and reverse actions such as the nomination of cardinals like Dew who have supported any of his heresies.
Not all bishops, not even a majority of bishops, are required to give sufficient weight to such an admonition, only "a substantial and representative part of the faithful bishops of the Church".
Here's our chance, people, to abominate publicly the abominable talk and actions we've been forced to endure, in the Church universally and in the limp-wristed, 'anything goes' policies of the Church of Nice in New Zild. To support these brave witnesses to the Gospel and to Christ, sign a petition here:
https://www.change.org/p/the-college-of-bishops-of-the-catholic-church-appeal-to-the-bishops-to-investigate-pope-francis-for-heresy-bcce228e-da31-42d5-96cb-d10d398cc6bc
Funnily enough, I'd only just typed the word 'heresy' - as in "God wills a diversity of religions", which is one of Pope Francis' more egregious pronouncements - when this story, singling out this particular heresy for special mention, popped up on my screen this morning.
I have a personal reason to be reminded of it: I was thinking that 'my' Monsignor, the one who gave me the Stations of the Cross as a penance, would be highly gratified.
Shame he doesn't read my blog (I think that's a fair assumption) because I'd like him to know, now that I finally got around to performing his penance (he kindly gave me a month to do it and I only just scraped in before the deadline), how my thighs ache as a result.
I'd downloaded St Alphonsus Liguori's beautiful 'Stations' and although I omitted the optional Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Bes, I did all the prescribed genuflecting and kneeling - and 24 hours later, I wondered why I could barely stagger up the stairs.
Does this mean, I asked myself, that Our Lord thought telling my confessor that in quoting Pope Francis on "a diversity of religions" my parish priest had preached heresy deserved not only the Stations but also the painful consequences?
I wonder: what sort of penance might those prominent theologians, philosophers, academics and scholars who today have publicly accused the Pope of heresy and abjured all the bishops of the Church to do likewise, incur from their confessors?
I'd advise them to find a confessional with a grille and behind it, not 'my' Monsignor.
Oh, and could we please let our bishops know that their priests and lay people are not lap dogs, to be patted on the head and told it's all right, just ignore the wolf that's ravaging the fold of Christ and it will go away?
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