Pope Francis: Most Theological Errors? (Ed Feser)

Pope Francis: Most Theological Errors? (Ed Feser) August 26, 2022

Edward Feser is a Catholic Thomist philosopher. He takes  a very dim view of pope Francis. Readers may decide if he thinks he is the worst pope ever, in terms of his stated theology and doctrines.

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The Church has no official and explicitly stated policy about how to deal with a pope who teaches error or otherwise abuses his office. That is not because such error and abuse are not possible. On the contrary, not only has the Church always allowed for the possibility that a pope can teach error when not speaking ex cathedra and that he can make policy decisions that do grave harm to the faithful, but both of these things have in fact happened on a handful of occasions – for example, the doctrinal errors of Pope Honorius I and Pope John XXII, the ambiguous doctrinal formula temporarily accepted by Pope Liberius, the Cadaver Synod of Pope Stephen VI and its aftermath, and the mistakes of Pope Urban VI that contributed to the Great Western Schism.
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After a long analysis he takes on Pope Francis at the end:
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I hardly need point out that these considerations have contemporary relevance. Pope Francis has made statements that at least appear to conflict with traditional Catholic teaching on Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and non-Catholics, contraception, capital punishment, the criteria for the validity of a marriage, and other topics. . . . [all of these things are untrue]
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For so many prominent faithful Catholics publicly to criticize a pope seems unprecedented, though perhaps the criticism Pope John XXII faced from the theologians of his day was somewhat similar. However, for a pope to make so many problematic statements while persistently ignoring repeated respectful requests for clarification is certainly unprecedented. Hence the criticism is not surprising. [italicized in the original]
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That may not be technically saying that Francis is the worst pope, but it is awful close and appears to me at the very least harmonious with such an opinion. If it’s claimed that he has gone against that many doctrines and dogmas (“so many problematic statements”) and has faced unprecedented criticism, then it’s not unreasonable to conclude that Feser may think he is indeed the worst pope. He’s surely comparing him (and not favorably) to the three notorious / infamous cases of Honorius, Vigilius, and Liberius.
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And Feser doesn’t mention that a great proportion of all his named critics of the pope are reactionaries, and often even anti-Vatican II (as I have documented several times). He even included in his list of such critics, Abp. Vigano, who is a conspiratorial raving lunatic who has denied the indefectibility of the pope and the Church. The pope deliberately ignored his nonsense. Now we know why. Time took care of that one . . .
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Moreover, in his article, “Pope Francis and capital punishment” (8-3-18), Feser opined:
However, on several issues – marriage and divorce, worthiness to receive Holy Communion, contraception, capital punishment, and more – Pope Francis has repeatedly made statements that appear to contradict traditional Catholic teaching, and has persistently refused to respond to respectful requests for clarification made by members of the hierarchy and prominent theologians. Moreover, he has done so not only in offhand comments during interviews and the like, but in official magisterial documents, such as Amoris Laetitia, and now the Catechism. This is, to put it mildly, a highly unusual situation. These are not normal times in the Church.
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Here is perhaps his strongest criticism (“Pope Victor redux?”: 7-18-21) and the one most consistent with the opinion that Pope Francis is the worst pope ever (though Feser is careful to never flat-out state this):
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Usually, errant popes exhibit serious failings of only one or two sorts. But Pope Francis seems intent on achieving a kind of synthesis of all possible papal errors. Like Honorius I and John XXII, he has made doctrinally problematic statements (and more of them than either of those popes ever did). Like Vigilius, his election and governance have involved machinations on the part of a heterodox party. The Pachamama episode brings to mind Marcellinus and John XII. Then there are the bad episcopal appointments, the accommodation to China’s communist government, and the clergy sexual abuse scandal, which echo the mismanagement, political folly, corruption and decadence of previous eras in papal history. And now we have this repeat of Victor’s high-handedness. Having in this way insulted a living predecessor, might Francis next ape Pope Stephen VI by exhuming a dead one and putting the corpse on trial?
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Probably not. But absolutely nothing would surprise me anymore in this lunatic period in history that we’re living through.
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And again on 7-23-21 (“Pope Francis’s scarlet letter”), Feser virtually accused the Holy Father of sanctioning open adultery:
Consider two groups of Catholics: First, divorced Catholics who disobey the Church’s teaching by forming a “new union” in which they are sexually active, thereby committing adultery. . . . In Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis radically altered the Church’s liturgical practice in order to accommodate the former group.
It is not news that Pope Francis has, over the years, made a number of theologically problematic statements (about Holy Communion for those living in adulterous relationships, capital punishment, and other matters) and done a number of problematic things (such as reversing Benedict’s motu proprio on the Latin Mass).  I’ve addressed these controversies many times before and am not going to rehash it all here. . . .
Francis may have said and done more theologically dubious things than the best-known popes of the past who have done so (such as Honorius and John XXII), but they are dubious statements and actions of the same basic kind.  The problem is extremely serious, but again, it’s within the boundaries of what the Church and her faithful theologians have always acknowledged could happen, consistent
with the clearly defined conditions for papal teaching being infallible.
Moreover, Feser wrote: “Benevacantists are extremely dismayed at the state of the Church and the world, and rightly so, because both are in ghastly shape. (“Benedict contra Benevacantism”: 8-5-22).

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What I have documented is perfectly compatible with the proposition: “Pope Francis is the worst pope ever.” Feser (like a good lawyer or politician) obviously doesn’t want to say it straight out, but he says everything in the world that would suggest or insinuate or describe the attributes of that conclusion.
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If he’s not the worst, he is certainly up there — in Feser’s estimation — with Honorius and Vigilius and Liberius (top 5?), and Feser even said he was worse than they were.
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Photo credit: from Ed Feser’s blog: “Socialism vs. the family” (2-12-19).

Summary: I document Catholic philosopher Ed Feser’s extremely critical remarks about Pope Francis, leading one to believe that he may think he was the worst pope ever.


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