Thinking the Unthinkable Prospect of a Pope Promulgating Doctrinal Errors

The following article is written by Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, who is well-known to be humble, faithful, rational, reasonable, patient and spiritually-sound priest:

  Until very recently, the prospect of a pope promulgating significant doctrinal error was unthinkable. But many of us are now fretting about ambiguous papal pronouncements said to be “authentic magisterium” that directly oppose Scripture and Tradition.

 It's not an article written by a nobody blogger. When the things you say and don't say contradict Church teaching as pope and you lose the confidence of average local faithful parish priests, you've done irreparable harm to the communion of Christ's Church.

 But, I do want to emphasize something father says:

Of course, deliberate ambiguities in papal teaching, incompetence, and infidelity that tamper with the “authentic magisterium” would be disastrous: sowing confusion and even suggesting the unthinkable, that the gates of Hell have prevailed in the Church. 

But this cannot be the case as a matter of logic. The truth of Christ remains. His Gospel is handed down in Scripture, Tradition – and the cumulative magisterial teaching of popes, bishops, councils, and synods throughout history

I realize this pastoral attempt to calm scandalized people and he later acknowledges and explains how difficult a situation is to try to overrule heresy from a pope, but I want to make sure we keep the emphasis on the right scandal.

 I don't know of any solid catechized Catholic who is concerned about the Church. The Church, as Truth and Christ Himself, is incapable of destruction.

Enemies can kill Him, but He/Truth/the Church rise from the grave. Our concerns are about the people tricked by the treachery and consequently robbed of salvation right before our eyes.

 The friend in a second marriage whom we spent years gently teaching about the importance of annulment and consecration/validation with a Sacramental marriage whom the pope has convinced is not necessary.

 The incalculable number of gays who believe the pope thinks gay sex and marriage is ok.

 The number of relatives, neighbors, friends who think the pope has taught pagan/false religions are a path to salvation, living together is ok, contraception is ok and other heresies this papacy has promulgated.

 The number of families convinced by the pope that their parents and family members who object to living together, gay marriage - etc - are people who hate them.

 I could go on and on about the painful consequences to PEOPLE we love and care about, but I'm preaching to the choir here.

 Suffice it to say, our rift with the pope is over hundreds of thousands of immortal souls of people we deeply love. With respect to those very real and painful situations, the fact that the pope cannot do irreparable damage to Christ and Truth brings us no consolation.

Corrections may also come from the faithful who are, after all, endowed with the sensus fidei (sense of the faith). But the elimination of doctrinal distortions and errors (and restoration of doctrinal clarity) is difficult. As widespread clerical dissent from Humanae Vitae demonstrates, doctrinal repair and restoration can lead to generations of painful conflict.

Pope Francis is able to lead people into temptation, sin and hell - and that is precisely what he is doing.