Did Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) say that Francis is a heretic ? On June 3, 2003 the then Cardinal Ratzinge r (and future Pope Benedict) , head of the Congregation for the Faith, said that the endorsement of " homosex civil unions" was against Catholic teaching, that is heterodoxy : "Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimatization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil... The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions ." (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Considerations Regarding Proposals to give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons," June 3, 2003) Gloria.tv reported: " Francis made on October 21 his latest declaration in sup...
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Even the title of the piece is problematic. It asks--seemingly rhetorically--whether there is any Scriptural basis for annulments, which is to ask whether there is any Scriptural basis for the Church that has always recognized the reality of sacramental invalidity as a possibility, regarding not only Matrimony but other sacraments as well. Is everybody who says they are ordained actually ordained? Then why bother, throughout Church history, determining which groups participate in apostolic succession and which do not? Is everybody who claims to be baptized actually baptized? Then why go through the examinations called for when a person wishes to enter the Catholic Church?
In fact, as we should know and prayerfully recall, having just observed the feast of Saint Raymond of Penafort, Catholicism has an established Code of Canon Law based on natural as well as divine positive propositions. To ask whether the 1983 version aligns sufficiently would be different from casting aspersions on canon law in general, as Father Nix has done. It is a shame to see him take the easy way out--parroting the conservative line, just like the liberals parrot theirs--especially when taking the easy way out is precisely what he sets out to denounce in the first place.