IS THE POPE A HERETIC?

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU THINK THE POPE (ANY POPE) HAS SAID OR DONE SOMETHING WRONG 

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   1. Go straight to the horse's mouth: Find out exactly what the Pope said from the original sources, which often can be found on the Vatican website: www.vatican.va, under the Papal tab or under one of the congregations.  I would also recommend www.zenit.org, that simply give the facts, without too much commentary. 

2. 2. Take what you read from commentators/news sources with a grain of salt: I know that sometimes the original sources need translation, both literally and metaphorically.  But like the political pundits who pontificate (pun intended) on Fox News or CNN or MSNBC, your commentators often will translate or comment through a particular ideological lens.  Articles in National Catholic Reporter, for example, will probably lean towards a more progressive/liberal point of view, while the National Catholic Register will lean towards a more conservative/traditionalist one.  Others like Church Militant or Lifesitenews.com will be outright antagonistic towards Pope Francis.  Rather, read the commentaries that come from authoritative sources, such as the Vatican itself, or the Bishops' conferences – you know the successors of the apostles, tasked with steering the Church. 

3. 3. Get out of your echo chamber every now and then: Please disabuse yourself of the fallacy that the conservative perspective is always orthodox and the liberal is always heterodox (or vice-versa).  Both ideological points of view are imperfect and partial imitations of and cafeteria selections from the whole gamut of what the Catholic Church believes and practices.  That is why when Pope Benedict XVI was repeatedly and vehemently attacked by more progressive voices in the Church, most Catholics took those attacks in stride, recognizing them for what they were.  We should do the same for the current conservative-originated attacks against Pope Francis.  But there is the added difficulty of overcoming the assumption that they must be given extra attention simply because they are coming from the traditionalist side, which considers itself the repository of orthodoxy. 

4. 4. Resist the temptation to be more Catholic than the Pope: Remember that your opinion, or that of your favourite theological or ecclesiastical uncle, or that of your ideological tribe, at the end of the day counts for zilch in the grand scheme of things!  The Pope's (and the Apostolic College) is what counts.  He is the one who succeeded the fellow that Jesus entrusted with the job of "Feed my sheep," "strengthen your brethren."  Even when the Pope does not teach ex cathedra, even when he teaches on disciplinary or prudential matters, your default response should be to listen in docility, in the same way that a good child does not by default assume that her parents are idiots, or a student that his teachers are nincompoops.  You owe him at least religious submission.  Thou shalt not be Protestant in your docility and communio or lack thereof. 

5. 5. Resist the urge to have answers by yesterday: Disabuse yourself of the modern penchant for having things done by yesterday.  The Church has been going for centuries and has developed its understanding of the deposit of faith throughout the centuries.  Some doctrines that we take for granted today took centuries to be clarified; the Church is still working out many kinks even today, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, like the Church of every age, the Church today is still studying and working out how to express its eternal teaching for today's man and woman.  Moreover, many disciplines and even aspects of sacramental practice have kept changing and will keep changing.  Before 2013, did you ever think that a pope could resign?  As John's first letter reminds us: "Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (3:2).  Don't expect a clarity that will only be achieved on the other side. 

6. 6. Perish the dualistic, binary, Manichaean principle of "aut . . .aut" (either . . . or): Much of today's society, especially Western society, thinks in black or white terms – some nations literally don't even have a category for mixed-race people, forcing them into one category or the other.  But while we are still on this side of heaven, many things are not black or white, but quite gray, or in the venerable Catholic tradition, "et . . . et" (both . . . and).  That is why for example, the Church can teach both justice and mercy, both respect for the homosexual person and the need for a chase lifestyle, both indissolubility/unity of marriage and pastoral outreach of people who fall short of both principles etc.   

7. 7. Perish any exceptionalism you might harbour: Unlike some of the lone-ranger "churches" in modern Protestantism, or some of the Nationalistic Churches in 16th Century Protestantism (as well as the Eastern Churches), the Catholic Church is universal not only in the theological sense of the word, but also in geographical terms.  The Scriptures and Tradition are the common sources of Catholic faith, liturgy and moral life, and are accessible by all parts of the Catholic world.  Don't be in a hurry to dismiss what you consider to be (Polish, German or) Latin American idiosyncrasies in the Pope's words and actions.  The idea that a pope who hails from that Latin America "does not know how we do things" cannot be equated with "does not know what Jesus Christ intended for the Church."  Latin America, for example, has been Catholic for more than five centuries and has had access to the Scriptures and Tradition for as long.  Moreover, the Church's Catholicity has benefitted from the genius of various cultures, starting with the Jewish, Hellenic and Latin, followed later by the Germanic, Gallic and Celtic, to name but a few.  This particular pope's non-Western cultural vantage point might give him a better perspective to mine deeper into the Scriptures and Tradition, and draw out aspects of the faith that may have been forgotten or not looked at closely enough. 

And if all these steps fail, trust that the Holy Spirit, whose task it is to guide the Church, will use the collective wisdom of the apostolic college, both now and in the future to clarify matters; that is not your job.  Whatever you do, do not bring down the pillars of the building in which we are standing, the Church.  Rather, please pray for the pope and his brother bishops as they carry out this most difficult ministry of building up the Body of Christ.