On a heretical pope: reply to Dr John Lamont

The top of the newly-restored baldachino in St Peter's, Rome, on the occasion
of the traditionalist pilgrimage 'Ad Petri Sedem': to the See of Peter.

My latest on 1Peter5. It begins:

I am in debt to Dr John Lamont for his thorough discussion of the question of papal heresy. It is a problem that does not have a definitive explanation in magisterial texts, but as many important theologians and canonists of past centuries agree, it is one that has to be faced. Contrary to a naïve ultramontanism, it is not impossible for a pope to espouse heretical opinions, and indeed it has happened more than once in the past. The question is, what happens then?

This possibility is in itself not a challenge to the doctrine of papal infallibility. Papal infallibility has been very carefully defined at the First Vatican Council, and naturally it was defined very narrowly. The Pope’s public teaching on matters of faith and morals is guaranteed free from error (not, be it noted, inspired, like Scripture, only preserved from error) when he teaches the whole Church in the most solemn manner. Such teaching is not at issue here. A heretic is a heretic even if he never teaches anything solemnly. I might be a heretic even if I never express my heresy to another human being – although, in that case, no-one would know. The most likely case of papal heresy would be a pope harboring heretical opinions which are expressed in a private capacity, or at least in a less solemn mode of teaching, such as (on the usual historical reading) Pope John XXII teaching from the pulpit against the Particular Judgement in the 14th century.

Dr Lamont’s particular target is the much-followed view of Cajetan and John of St Thomas, that can be summarized rather simply as follows. They accept that a heretic cannot hold office in the Church, since the rejection of the Faith implies self-expulsion from the Church. (This is a theological notion of membership of the Church.) However, except in the most extreme emergencies, members of the Church should be able to rely on apparent office-holders wielding genuine authority, since this has implications for the salvation of souls. So bishops and others in the Church can continue to exercise their offices until such time as they are legally convicted of heresy: that is, denounced by their superiors, perhaps in the context of a canonical trial.

Read the whole thing there.

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More on the 'Traditionalist Ordinariate'

The Dominican Rite in a Dominican community:
how would this relate to an 'ordinariate'?

Readers may remember the debate between me and Fr Louis-Marie de Blignières FSVF about the concept of a 'personal ordinariate' type structure for Traditionalists, which took place in the pages of the journal of Fr de Blignieres' journal Sedes Sapientiae. I expanded on my doubts about the wisdom of this approach on OnePeterFive.

A response in turn has been made to this by Fr de Bligniere's confrere, Fr. Antoine-Marie de Araujo, in Rorate Caeli. He suggests that my criticism is based on a misunderstanding of the proposal:

First, the proposed traditional ordinariate is not intended to replace, or even encompass, the traditional institutes (FSSP, ICKSP, etc.), parishes, or communities that celebrate the ancient rite today. There is no question of establishing a structure into which all traditional Catholics should fall.

However, I am perfectly aware that the proposal is for what he calls a 'a flexible and permeable instrument, well-adapted to the diverse situation of Catholics attached to the old Latin traditions.'

As I wrote on OnePeterFive:

A dream pilgrimage: in the Catholic Herald

Walking on the banks of the Great Ouse on the way to Walsingham.

I was asked by the Catholic Herald to answer a series of questions about what would be a 'dream' pilgrimage for me. It begins:

For the “On Pilgrimage With” section of the September 2024 edition of the Catholic Herald magazine, we spoke to Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society and president of Una Voce International, about his dream pilgrimage:

Where would you go?

I’ve walked from Ely to Walsingham with the Latin Mass Society since 2009, and more recently extended the route back to Cambridge, with a smaller group of pilgrims. I’ve also done the traditional Paris to Chartres pilgrimage a few times. The ultimate walking pilgrimage, though, has to be from the Pyrenees on the French border to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Whom would you take?

As many people as possible!

Read the whole thing there.

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Hold On To Your Kids: a book review

Blessing at the end of Mass by Fr Andrew Southwell, at the 
St Catherine's Trust Summer School

This appeared in Voice of the Family at moment of peak summer busyness for me, so I am posting it here.

It begins:

I don’t like referring to children as “kids”, but this is the title of a book some readers may find interesting or useful: Hold on to your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter more than Peers, by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté. It was first published in 2004 but has been republished this year, with an extra chapter, by Penguin, nothing if not a mainstream publisher.

The idea expressed by the subtitle is not a new one. In 1997, the folktale enthusiast Robert Bly wrote a book called The Sibling Society: An Impassioned Call for the Rediscovery of Adulthood, which had a particular focus on how men find it difficult to come to maturity without good father figures. This might seem like a statement of the obvious, but Bly felt that he had to work very hard to get it across to his audience, and he wasn’t wrong.

Read the whole thing there.

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Home Education: in the Catholic Herald

The quiz at the SCT Summer School

My latest in the Catholic Herald.

The only people involved in a child’s education who have an overview of the whole process, from babyhood to adulthood, and who truly know the child, and his or her needs and ambitions, are parents.

They are their children’s primary educators, in a sense that encompasses the moral relationship between parent and child, and the practical and biological relationship.

To a teacher, your child is one among many pupils, as they try to get the class through the syllabus with as many children as possible keeping up, and not too many getting bored. They know little about what else their pupils are learning, or have learnt up to now.

It is simply impossible for teachers to pay that much attention to any one child. No teacher, however conscientious, can take the ultimate responsibility for a child’s education. That burden can never be lifted from parents. It follows that parents must know what is going on in their children’s school, and intervene when necessary.

Read it all there.

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LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2024: photos

Last Saturday was the Latin Mass Society Oxford Pilgrimage, in honour of the city's Catholic martyrs. As usual we had a High Mass in the Dominican Rite, followed by a procession and Benediction. 

The celebrant was Fr Lawrence Lew; you can read his sermon here.

LMS Oxford Martyrs Pilgrimage, 19th October

Please support the annual Latin Mass Society Pilgrimage, which will be taking place on 

Saturday 19th October, the feast of St Frideswide.

11am High Mass in the Dominican Rite, in Blackfriars (St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LY) 

With Dominican chant and sacred polyphony from the Schola Abelis and the Southwell Consort.

William Byrd Mass for Five Voices

Thomas Tallis In Manus Tuas

William Cornysh Ave Maria

2:15pm Procession from Carfax to the site of the martyrdom of Blessed George Napier in Oxford Castle, and back to Blackfriars

3pm Benediction at Blackfriars.