Antipope Francis Says The Death Penalty Is Contrary To The Gospel And That The Interpretation Of Doctrine Changes

Brother Michael Dimond

Francis’ October 11, 2017 address:

“It must be clearly stated that the death penalty is an inhumane measure that, regardless of how it is carried out, abases human dignity. It is per se contrary to the Gospel… Sadly, even in the Papal States recourse was had to this extreme and inhumane remedy that ignored the primacy of mercy over justice. Let us take responsibility for the past and recognize that the imposition of the death penalty was dictated by a mentality more legalistic than Christian… Yet the harmonious development of doctrine demands that we cease to defend arguments that now appear clearly contrary to the new understanding of Christian truth… It is necessary, therefore, to reaffirm that no matter how serious the crime that has been committed, the death penalty is inadmissible… Doctrine cannot be preserved without allowing it to develop, nor can it be tied to an interpretation that is rigid and immutable without demeaning the working of the Holy Spirit.”[1]

This is an incredibly heretical address from the apostate antipope.  First, Francis says the death penalty is “an inhumane measure”, “contrary to the Gospel” and “inadmissible”.  But the Catholic Church has always taught that the death penalty is appropriate for certain very serious crimes.  Francis’ assertion that the death penalty is contrary to Christianity and the Gospel proves that he is a notorious heretic.

Errors of Martin Luther, #33: “It is against the will of the Spirit to burn heretics.” – Condemned by Pope Leo X, Exsurge Domine, July 15, 1520

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Pt. II-II, Q. 11, A. 3: Heretics “deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.”

Second, Francis openly says that he adheres to a “new understanding of Christian truth”, and that doctrine cannot be tied “to an interpretation that is rigid and immutable”.  That is blatantly heretical.  Notice how directly his heresy contradicts Vatican I’s dogmatic teaching. 

Pope Pius X, Pascendi Dominic Gregis (# 26), Sept. 8, 1907, On the doctrine of the Modernists: “To the laws of evolution everything is subject – dogma, Church, worship, the Books we revere as sacred, even faith itself, and the penalty of disobedience is death.  The enunciation of this principle will not astonish anybody who bears in mind what the Modernists have had to say about each of these subjects.”

Pope Pius X, Lamentabile, The Errors of the Modernists, July 3, 1907, #22: “The dogmas which the Church professes as revealed are not truths fallen from heaven, but they are a kind of interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind by a laborious effort prepared for itself.”- Condemned

Pope Pius IX, First Vatican Council, Session 3, Canon 3 on Faith and Reason, 1870, ex cathedra: “If anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the church which is different from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema.”

Pope Pius IX, First Vatican Council, Sess. 3, Chap. 2 on Revelation, 1870, ex cathedra: “Hence, also, that understanding of its sacred dogmas must be perpetually retained, which Holy Mother Church has once declared; and there must never be a recession from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding.”

Vatican I declared that the understanding of dogmas must be preserved as the Church has “once declared”, and that one must never recede from that meaning under the specious name of a deeper understanding.  Francis’ statement is a bold proclamation that he rejects the nature of dogma and preaches a new gospel.  If you can’t see that he’s a notorious heretic in the face of such facts, you are blind.  Francis also says that it demeans the work of the Holy Spirit to consider the interpretation of doctrine to be rigid and fixed.  That is to say that all of Catholic dogma demeans the Holy Spirit. 

For more of Antipope Francis’ horrible heresies from October 2017, click here: Antipope Francis’ Notable Heresies and Apostasy from October 2017

Francis’ Recent Heresies

Notes:

[1] L’ Osservatore Romano, October 13, 2017, pp. 7,11.