They're Not Heretics... Even Augustine Says So!

 

For my Ecclesiology class, I am reading a great book entitled "The Church and the Human Quest for Truth," by Fr. Charles Morerod, O.P.

In Chapter 7 of the book, the question of how Catholics are to view their relation with non-Catholic Christians comes up.  Morerod brings up a great point for reflection:

"...faith as such implies receiving revelation and not simply following our own opinions on religious questions.  Most contemporary Protestant and Orthodox believers (and I stress "believers) would agree with that principle.  They can also have the clear will to receive divine revelation in their church, and not only on the basis of a private relationship with God.  If so, they could be in a situation of ignorance, perhaps invincible for them, and they cannot be accused of heresy." (pg 131)

In another passage, Morerod quotes St. Thomas Aquinas to clarify the necessity of concious choice against Church teaching for heresy:

"One does not go away from the faith of the Church, except the one who knows that that from which he is moving away belongs to the faith of the Church." (Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, Book IV, dist. 13, q. 2, a. 1, ad 6) (pg 130)

Morerod references  Charles Cardinal Journet, a 20th Century Swiss theologian, to give a summation of the sin of heresy and how it does or doesn't relate to non-Catholic Christians:

"Heresy is the personal sin of the man who rebels against the faith by deliberately rejecting any one of the revealed truths: a personal sin can never be inherited.  It is the consequences of a heresy, the legacy of a heresy, which are inherited, and which we must call a breaking away... 'He who defends his opinion,' says St. Augustine, 'however false and perverse, without stubborn ill-will... if he conscientiously seeks the truth, and is ready to submit to it when he knows it, should by no means be counted as a heretic.'"(The internal quotation of St. Augustine can be found in St. Thomas' Summa Theologiae [ST IIa IIae, q. 11, a. 2, ad 3].)

So you see, not everyone you disagree with may be a heretic... just "in error." (pg 124)

Ah, semantics... :-)