Heresy

[Hirsap]

Hello,

When one wonders whether a particular 'viewpoint' can be classified as heresy or not, is there any particular method to determine this?

Is this appropriate: obviously opposition to anything defined ex cathedra or defined in a Council is heresy; would it also be true to state that opposition to anything taught infallibly through the Ordinary Magesterium (i.e.: always and everywhere maintained and taught throughout the ages) is heresy?

Specifically, I am considering the issues of 1)ordination of women (I am sure this is heresy, no?), 2) birth control, 3) abortion.

Thanks.

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
11/16 - St. Margaret of Scotland

Hirsap,

I'll quote to you from a forthcoming book by Fr. Edward T. Oakes, S.J., titled [i]Infinity Dwindled to Infancy: An Introduction to Christology[/i]. These are what he calls three rules for authentic theological debate; when one breaks these rules, one invariably falls into heresy.
[quote]o [i][b]Do not contradict the Bible.[/b][/i] Christians continued to debate just which books belonged in the New Testament, but the recognized the general authority of Scripture and tended to reject theories that seemed to contradict it.
o [i][b]Do not interfere with the liturgy.[/b][/i] Christians will generally leave theologians alone, considering them harmless enough, but theologians who tell them to stop praying as their parents taught them risk instant unpopularity.
o [i][b]Do not threaten the means of salvation.[/b][/i] As already noted, early Christians affirmed Christ’s divinity and humanity in part because saying that Christ had only seemed to be human, or had not been truly divine, had threatened their confidence in their salvation. That concern continued to shape subsequent debates.[/quote]
There is a certain value to heresy, though; he quotes St. Augustine in a footnote...
[quote]Only because of the heretics in her midst could the Catholic Church find a more exact way to express herself in words, and the orthodox were preserved in their right-thinking because of the false thinkers among them. ... For example, had the Trinity been completely treated before the blasphemy of the Arians, or penance before the Novatians resisted it? Not even baptism was adequately treated before the excommunicated anabaptists spoke out against it. Nor had the unity of Christ been discussed in such a developed, explicit way until division began to trouble the weaker bretheren" ([i]In Psalmum LIV enarratio, Sermo ad plebem[/i], in [i]Patrologia Latina[/i], ed. P. Migne, Vol. 36, column 643).[/quote]
More to the point, the CDF made clear that though it was not spoken [i]ex cathedra[/i], [i]Ordinatio Sacerdotalis[/i] reflected infallible doctrine. As for birth control and abortion, these again have not technically been infallibly defined, but the documents that speak to them reflect infallible Tradition. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono