The Astounding Heresies in Benedict XVI’s 1990 Book Co-Workers of the Truth

 

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

 

*This is from my continuing study of Benedict XVI’s books.  For those who don’t know, Benedict XVI is Joseph Ratzinger.

 

Co-Workers of the Truth by “Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, 1990 (Ignatius Press, 1992)

 

Since there are so many heresies from Benedict XVI, I have limited myself to including only those heresies that are truly noteworthy.

 

HERESIES IN CO-WORKERS OF THE TRUTH:

- BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THERE ARE MANY WAYS THAT LEAD TO HEAVEN BESIDES THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

-BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THE UNITY (OR ONE-NESS) OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOES NOT EXIST AND WILL NOT EXIST UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD

-BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THE “CHURCH” EXISTS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

-BENEDICT XVI TEACHES AGAIN THAT THE WORDS OF CONSECRATION ARE NOT NECESSARY FOR VALIDITY

-OTHER QUOTES OF INTEREST IN BENEDICT XVI’S CO-WORKERS OF THE TRUTH

 

BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THERE ARE MANY WAYS THAT LEAD TO HEAVEN BESIDES THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

 

“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth, 1990, p. 217: “The question that really concerns us, the question that really oppresses us, is why it is necessary for us in particular to practice the Christian Faith in its totality; why, when there are so many other ways that lead to heaven and salvation, it should be required of us to bear day after day the whole burden of ecclesial dogmas and of the ecclesial ethos.  And so we come again to the question: What exactly is Christian reality?  What is the specific element in Christianity that not merely justifies it, but makes it compulsorily necessary for us?  When we raise the question about the foundation and meaning of our Christian existence, there slips in a certain false hankering for the apparently more comfortable life of other people who are also going to heaven.  We are too much like the laborers of the first hour in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt. 20:1-16).  Once they discovered that they could have earned their day’s pay of one denarius in a much easier way, they could not understand why they had had to labor the whole day.  But what a strange attitude it is to find the duties of our Christian life unrewarding just because the denarius of salvation can be gained without them!  It would seem that we – like the workers of the first hour – want to be paid not only with our own salvation, but more particularly with others’ lack of salvation.  That is at once very human and profoundly un-Christian.”

 

Benedict XVI asks that all-important question: Why is it necessary to practice the Christian Faith “when there are so many other ways that lead to heaven and salvation”!  In the context of answering the question, Benedict XVI doesn’t state what a Catholic would say, namely, “it’s necessary because the other ways don’t lead to salvation; only the Christian [i.e., Catholic] Faith does.”  No, Benedict XVI asks and answers the question by fully admitting that the other paths besides the Christian Faith lead to salvation.  In fact, he even criticizes people for asking such a question, which he compares to the worker in the vineyard who works all day for a denarius and is upset that others who worked only for short time at the end of the day received the same pay!  In other words, you Christians who observe all the dogmas of the Catholic Faith should not complain that what you are doing is completely unnecessary because others have salvation just as well.  Yes, it is completely unnecessary; yes, there are other ways to salvation, but don’t complain anyway! 

 

Thus, Benedict XVI has bluntly rejected a revealed truth of the Catholic Faith, given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ and dogmatically defined by the Catholic Church many times: that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation and that the Catholic Faith is necessary for salvation. 

 

Pope Leo XII, Ubi Primum (# 14), May 5, 1824:

“It is impossible for the most true God, who is Truth itself, the best, the wisest Provider, and the Rewarder of good men, to approve all sects who profess false teachings which are often inconsistent with one another and contradictory, and to confer eternal rewards on their members… by divine faith we hold one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that no other name under heaven is given to men except the name of Jesus Christ in which we must be saved.  This is why we profess that there is no salvation outside the Church.”

 

BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THE UNITY (OR ONE-NESS) OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOES NOT EXIST AND WILL NOT EXIST UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD

 

“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth, 1990, p. 29: “To borrow Congar’s cogent phrase, it would be both foolish and perverse to identify the efficacy of the Holy Spirit with the work of the ecclesial apparatus.  This means that even in Catholic belief the unity of the Church is still in the process of formation; that it will be totally achieved only in the eschaton, just as grace will not be perfected until its effects are visible – although the community of God has already begun to be visible.”

 

First, Benedict XVI says that it is “foolish and perverse” to identify the efficacy of the Holy Spirit with the work of “the ecclesial apparatus” (the Church).  This means that the dogma that no one can be saved or justified outside the Church is foolish and perverse since it equates the work of the Holy Spirit with membership in the Church.

 

Pope Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, Nov. 18, 1302, ex cathedra:

“With Faith urging us we are forced to believe and to hold the one, holy, Catholic Church and that, apostolic, and we firmly believe and simply confess this Church outside of which there is no salvation nor remission of sin...”

 

Second (and this is clearly one of Benedict XVI’s worst heresies), Benedict XVI says that the unity of the Church (that is, the oneness of the Church, one of the four marks of the true Church) does not exist yet and will not exist until “the eschaton” (which means the end of the world).  Let me repeat that: he says that the unity of the Church doesn’t exist and won’t exist until the end of the world!  This is a total denial of the unity of the Catholic Church – a defined dogma and one of the four marks of the Church!

 

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 4), June 29, 1896:

“The Church in respect of its unity belongs to the category of things indivisible by nature, though heretics try to divide it into many parts… Furthermore, the eminence of the Church arises from its unity, as the principle of its constitution – a unity surpassing all else, and having nothing like unto or equal to it.”

 

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (# 7), Jan. 6, 1928:

“And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches, depends.  For authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ: ‘That they all may be one… And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,’ (Jn. 10:16) with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment.  For they are of the opinion that the unity of faith and government, which is a note of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to the present time existed, and does not to-day exist.”

 

BENEDICT XVI TEACHES THAT THE “CHURCH” EXISTS OUTSIDE THE CHURCH

 

“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth, 1990, p. 29: “Conversely, it must be said that, given this understanding of Church, there neither can nor should be any disavowal of the presence of Christ and of Christian values among separated Christians.  If, on the one hand, it is possible to summarize by saying that the Church is a community of communicants under the authority of the Bishop of Rome, who holds the office of primary witness established by the Lord and that, as such, she is visible and unique, with clearly definable boundaries, nevertheless, Catholic theology must state more clearly than ever before that, along with the actual presence of the word outside her boundaries, ‘Church’ is also present there in one form or another; that, furthermore, the boundaries of the efficacy of the Holy Spirit are not congruent with those of the visible Church.”

 

The heretic Benedict XVI says that there must not be any disavowal of the presence of Christ among heretics.  This is heretical.  Worst of all, however, he states that the Church itself exists outside of the Church.  Let me repeat that: he says that the Church itself exists outside the Church’s boundaries.  This is totally heretical nonsense which denies that there is only one Church.

 

The Nicene-Constantinople Creed, 381, ex cathedra: “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”

 

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum (# 15):

“From this it must be clearly understood that Bishops are deprived of the right and power of ruling, if they deliberately secede from Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must rest.  They are therefore outside the edifice itself…”

 

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (# 11), Jan. 6, 1928:

“Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors.”

 

BENEDICT XVI TEACHES AGAIN THAT THE WORDS OF CONSECRATION ARE NOT NECESSARY FOR VALIDITY

 

“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth, 1990, p. 318: “There is an obsession with the letter that regards the liturgy of the Church as invalid and thus puts itself outside the Church.  It is forgotten here that the validity of the liturgy depends primarily, not on specific words, but on the community of the Church; under the pretext of Catholicism, the very principle of Catholicism is denied, and, to a large extent, custom is substituted for truth.”

 

This heresy of his is repeated in a number of his books.  He says that the validity of the liturgy doesn’t depend on specific words but on the community.  This is an astounding heresy, which devastates Catholic sacramental teaching.  

 

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Session 8, Nov. 22, 1439, "Exultate Deo":
"All these sacraments are made up of three elements: namely, things as the matter, words as the form, and the person of the minister who confers the sacrament with the intention of doing what the Church does. If any of these is lacking, the sacrament is not effected." (Denz. 695)

 

OTHER QUOTES OF INTEREST IN BENEDICT XVI’S CO-WORKERS OF THE TRUTH

 

“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth, 1990, p. 51: “We must always look upon other men as persons with whom we shall one day share God’s joy.  We must see them as persons with whom we are called to be members of the body of Christ, with whom we shall one day sit at the table of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the table of Jesus Christ, as persons called to be our brothers and sisters, and to be, with us, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, children of God.”

 

This language clearly indicates that all men will be saved; he says that all men will share God’s joy and sit down at the table of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (a scriptural description of heaven).

 

A HERETIC CANNOT BE A VALID POPE

                   

It is a proven fact that Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) is a non-Catholic heretic.  The Catholic Church teaches that a heretic cannot be validly elected Pope, since a heretic is not a member of the Catholic Church.  Ratzinger, who is now Benedict XVI, is a non-Catholic Antipope whose election was utterly null and void.

 

Pope Paul IV, Bull Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, Feb. 15, 1559: “6. In addition, [by this Our Constitution, which is to remain valid in perpetuity We enact, determine, decree and define:-] that if ever at any time it shall appear that any Bishop, even if he be acting as an Archbishop, Patriarch or Primate; or any Cardinal of the aforesaid Roman Church, or, as has already been mentioned, any legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, prior to his promotion or his elevation as Cardinal or Roman Pontiff, has deviated from the Catholic Faith or fallen into some heresy:

(i) the promotion or elevation, even if it shall have been uncontested and by the unanimous assent of all the Cardinals, shall be null, void and worthless;
(ii) it shall not be possible for it to acquire validity (nor for it to be said that it has thus acquired validity) through the acceptance of the office, of consecration, of subsequent authority, nor through possession of administration, nor through the putative enthronement of a Roman Pontiff, or Veneration, or obedience accorded to such by all, nor through the lapse of any period of time in the foregoing situation;
(iii) it shall not be held as partially legitimate in any way…

 (vi) those thus promoted or elevated shall be deprived automatically, and without need for any further declaration, of all dignity, position, honour, title, authority, office and power….

10. No one at all, therefore, may infringe this document of our approbation, re-introduction, sanction, statute and derogation of wills and decrees, or by rash presumption contradict it. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, let him know that he is destined to incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles, Peter and Paul.

Given in Rome at Saint Peter's in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 1559, 15th February, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.

+ I, Paul, Bishop of the Catholic Church…”

 

St. Robert Bellarmine: “A pope who is a manifest heretic automatically (per se) ceases to be pope and head, just as he ceases automatically to be a Christian and a member of the Church.  Wherefore, he can be judged and punished by the Church.  This is the teaching of all the ancient Fathers who teach that manifest heretics immediately lose all jurisdiction.” (De Romano Pontifice, II, 30)

 

The Catholic Encyclopedia, “Papal Elections,” 1914, Vol. 11, p. 456: "Of course, the election of a heretic, schismatic, or female [as Pope] would be null and void."

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