Why would you say that John Vennari is a heretic?

By Bro. Peter Dimond, O.S.B.

There is a very specific and very simple answer to this question. Every honest person will agree with this, since it is an undeniable fact. John Vennari holds that one can reject the Catholic Faith and still be a Catholic. Here’s the proof:

John Vennari, Catholic Family News, “Father Ratzinger’s Denial of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus,” July 2005, Editor’s Postscript, p. 11: “This is not the first time Father Ratzinger denied the dogma ‘Outside the Church there is no salvation’. In his 1966 book Theological Highlights of Vatican II, which was a commentary on the Second Vatican Council, Father Ratzinger rejoices that the true teaching of the Council document Lumen Gentium, according to the minds of the progressivists who drafted the document, (Ratzinger was one of them) was that conversion is now an option for the non-Catholic, not an obligation. He writes: ‘…A basic unity – of churches that remain churches, yet become one Church – must replace the idea of conversion, even though conversion retains its meaningfulness for those in conscience motivate to seek it.’ Cardinal Ratzinger admitted on numerous occasions that he had not changed since the time of the Council when he wrote these heterodox statements. In 1984, Ratzinger said that since the Council he ‘has not changed.’”

John Vennari fully admits that Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) has rejected the dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation for years and still rejects it. Yet, he holds that Ratzinger is a Catholic. It is a fact, therefore, that John Vennari holds that one can reject the Catholic Faith and still be a Catholic. John Vennari is a complete heretic and is not a Catholic. The same applies to “Tradition in Action,” who wrote the article entitled “Father Ratzinger’s Denial of Extra Ecclesia Nulla Salus” yet still holds that he is a Catholic. By continually admitting that people whom they still regard as Catholics reject Catholic dogma, they are simply mocking and denying the necessity of accepting Catholic dogma to be part of the Church.

The truth is that Ratzinger does reject Catholic dogma and is therefore not a Catholic.

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 9), June 29, 1896:
"No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic."

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