§ 1. On the Sins of Heresy and Apostasy

438. NOTIONS. I. Heresy is a pertinacious error against faith, in one who has received the faith.

For heresy which is punished by canonical penalties there is required: 1. on the part of the person, profession of the Christian religion, and baptism validly received (for a catechumen cannot yet be punished by the Church); 2. on the part of the intellect, error, that is, assent, or a formed judgment; 3. on the part of the will, pertinacity, by which someone knowingly and willingly does not wish to submit his judgment to the Church teaching infallibly (which is characteristic of this sin); yet it is not required that someone adhere tooth and nail and with a delay of time to such error; 4. on the part of the matter, error against Catholic faith, that is, against some point of faith explicitly defined or proposed by the Church; 5. on the part of the act, that the error be externalized, whether by a deed or by a word indicating internal heresy (VII, 300 seqq.).

Before God, anyone is a heretic who rejects some truth which he knows to be revealed, even by voluntarily doubting (cf. 421, 4).

II. Apostasy is total departure from the Christian faith received through baptism.

Note. For the crime of apostasy the profession of some false religion is not required. Therefore, under the name of apostates come also Masons, nihilists, anarchists, more probably socialists properly so called, free-thinkers, rationalists, deists, pantheists, spiritists, and generally all those who, after baptism received, have completely withdrawn from Christian faith, although they have not passed over to Judaism or to another infidelity. Cf. L. Jaugey, de Fide, n. 161; Tanquerey, II, p. 387, note 2; Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, vol. 16, die Quellen des Ungl.; vol. 48, Atheismus u. s. Folgen.

Note. There will be discussion of apostasy from Religion or from Sacred Order in Part IV.

DIVISION. Heresy is distinguished in many ways:

1. By reason of the sin, it is formal, if someone adheres to error with pertinacity, that is, knowingly and willingly; or material, if there is error in the intellect without pertinacity in the will.

2. By reason of the act, it is internal, if it lies hidden in the mind; or merely external, if someone by mouth, for example by uttering a heretical blasphemy, or by deed, for example by prostrating himself before an idol, denies the faith which he retains in the heart; or externalized or manifested, if it is in the mind and is produced exteriorly.

3. By reason of manifestation, it is occult, if it becomes known to no one or to only a few; and public, if it is known to very many and cannot be concealed (Perrone, de Virt. fid., n. 481-490). Cf. n. 1199.

439. PRINCIPLES. I. Formal heresy, and apostasy from faith, are most grave sins. The reason is: 1. because they contemn the authority of God revealing, and therefore attack God himself; 2. because they directly impede the remission of other sins, since faith is "the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God, and to come to the fellowship of his sons." Trent, Sess. VI, c. 8, and Vatican, Sess. III, c. 3.

440. II. Material heresy, of itself, is free from fault. For it proceeds from ignorance. Yet except if it proceeds from culpable ignorance; because then it will be culpable in the same degree as the ignorance itself, although it does not yet reach formal heresy (St. Alph., de Prohib. lib., c. I, n. 1-6; VII, 301).

The signs of heresy, whether material or formal, are the following:

1. He is considered only materially a heretic, and therefore, from the faith received in baptism, belonging to the Church of God: a) Who is prepared to submit himself to the judgment of the Church when he has recognized the error, although meanwhile he may defend his own opinion tooth and nail. b) Who has known nothing concerning the Catholic faith, and has never doubted concerning his own. c) Who, while doubting, has studied to recognize the truth as much as he could. - But he who culpably procrastinates his conversion to the faith is not for this reason a heretic; nevertheless he sins against the affirmative precept of faith if he puts it off for a long time.

2. He must be considered a formal heretic: a) Who doubts, and from pertinacity or from contempt of the Church refuses to inquire further. b) Who deliberately turns the intellect away from truth sufficiently proposed, so that he may adhere to his own sect or opinion. c) Who, after the truth has been recognized, perseveres in contradicting the Church, as heresiarchs are accustomed to do from hatred of the Pope or of the Church. These are the three principal GRADES of pertinacity, of which the first is founded upon truth studiously neglected; the second upon truth sufficiently proposed but contemned; the third upon recognized truth maliciously opposed (Voit, I, 378-379).

441. Questions. QUAER. 1. Whether he is a formal heretic who DOUBTS concerning matters of faith?

Resp. 1. If he positively doubts concerning some dogma already defined or proposed by the Church, judging it to be uncertain on account of opposed reasons, beyond doubt he is a formal heretic. In this case, that saying of right strictly holds: "One doubtful in faith is an unbeliever" (c. 1, de Haeret.; cf. H. Ap., XIX, 53).

2. If he doubts negatively, namely by suspending judgment concerning some article of faith, one must distinguish thus: either a) deliberately and pertinaciously he suspends his assent, because he thinks the judgment of the Church is not a sufficient foundation for believing; and then he likewise is a formal heretic; or b) deliberately indeed, but not pertinaciously, he suspends assent; and in this case, although he sins gravely against faith, he is not nevertheless strictly a heretic, because there is not present a pertinacious choice; or c) neither deliberately nor pertinaciously, but from temptation, he remains so suspended that he neither dissents nor assents: in this case he does not sin, or at most only venially, because perhaps he resists the temptation tepidly (II, 19; VII, 302).

QUAER. 2. What is to be thought about those who adhere to opinions which are marked not only by the Sacred Congregations, but by the Church, indeed with a dogmatic censure, yet lighter than heresy?

Beforehand note. DOGMATIC censure, proceeding from the supreme and universal magisterium of the Church, condemns some thesis as heretical, or erroneous, or proximate to heresy or error, or rash. DISCIPLINARY censure, which corresponds rather to the prerogative of government than of magisterium, is not condemnatory of doctrine, as dogmatic censure is, but prohibitory of the same. This is also called ECONOMIC or PRUDENTIAL, when the enunciation of some doctrine is prohibited not on account of an intrinsic cause, but on account of causes or reasons of prudence, namely that dissensions may be removed, peace consulted, scandal guarded against (Konings, n. 268, q. 3).

Resp. Of themselves, they are not guilty of heresy, but certainly they sin mortally. We say of themselves; for those adhering to opinions of this kind as true and licit virtually deny the infallibility of the Church: and if they are conscious to themselves of this denial, they are guilty of heresy (I, 104). Cf. n. 1328.

From these things are to be judged followers of liberalism who embrace various errors concerning liberty, condemned by the Church in the Syllabus, or demand excessive tolerance for favorers of errors. Concerning these below (n. 445). Concerning liberalism cf. Aertnys, Theol. past., P. III, a. 5; Godts, Les droits en matiere d'education: la liberte, Ch. II; Berardi, Exam. Conf., n. 2455 and Casus Consc., a. 1894.