In a new interview with LifeSite News, Cardinal Müller, the former head of the Holy Office said that Pope Francis “has already uttered plenty of material heresies,” but that since these are not formal heresies, Pope Francis has not lost his office. He affirmed the theory of St. Robert Bellarmine, whose opinion was that the pope would lose his office immediately upon becoming a formal heretic.
We have already commented at OnePeterFive to point out that Bellarmine’s view here (according to Bellarmine’s own estimation!) is merely a probable opinion among other opinions about this matter, and the Magisterium has not definitively resolved it. Bishop Schneider holds a different view than Bellarmine (and thus Müller), claiming that “Even in the case of a heretical pope he will not lose his office automatically and there is no body within the Church to declare him deposed because of heresy.” He further adds:
Therefore, we must follow the surer way (via tutior) and abstain from defending the mere opinion of theologians (even they be Saints like St. Robert Bellarmine), which says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed by the Church therefore.
But Müller went on to not only speak about material heresy:
Müller argued that through Francis’ implicit promotion and toleration of same-sex “blessings” and Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly “remarried,” the Pope is fostering a “heresy of practice.”
We are entering new territory, ladies and gentlemen. The former doctrinal head of the Vatican is accusing the Pope of a species – nay two species – of heresy. Not only that, he accuses his successor in the same office – Tucho “Heal Me with Your Mouth” Fernández – of something similar:
Müller noted a statement by Cardinal Victor Fernández, the new head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on allowing Communion for civilly “remarried” divorcees without living in full continence, calling the declaration a “borderline” case when it comes to formal heresy.
The German cardinal told LifeSiteNews that Fernández said the faithful “must accept this declaration by the Argentinian bishops and their interpretation [of Amoris Laetitia regarding the reception of Communion by divorcees] with religious obedience of mind and will.”
“That was already heretical, but it was not the Pope who said that.”
But Müller was not done! He even conceded that the validity of Pope Francis’s election is “difficult to judge” yet at the same time, the exercise of the office has “cured” any deficiency with the election.
As I said in my previous article, popes have become bishop of Rome in all sorts of ways (even dubious ways), and this idea that the exercise of the office has “cured it,” is certainly reasonable and valid. Becoming the bishop of Rome is not a Sacrament that gets invalidated without the proper form and matter. It’s literally an appointment to a city.
Müller says that it would do more harm than good to try to question the election at this point. Fair enough.
He ended his rampage of the crisis by saying that the Church has no authority to ordain women to a Sacramental diaconate or a “blessing” of homosexual couples. If he did, it would be “invalid” because it has already been “definitely decided” that the Church has no authority to do this.
Thus Müller, former head of the Holy Office.
