Bishop Paprocki sees heresy in Cardinal McElroy’s views

February 28, 2023

An American bishop has taken the extraordinary step of charging another American prelate—a cardinal, in fact—with heresy.

In a provocative article posted by First Things, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, has suggested that an American cardinal is guilty of heresy and has separated himself from communion with the Catholic Church.

Although he does not mention Cardinal Robert McElroy by name, Bishop Paprocki opens his essay by quoting two passages from a recent article that the cardinal published in America magazine. “Until recently,” Bishop Paprocki remarks, “it would be hard to imagine any successor of the apostles making such heterodox statements.”

The bishop goes on to say that “it is deeply troubling to consider the possibility that prelates holding the office of diocesan bishop in the Catholic Church may be separated or not in full communion because of heresy.”

Bishop Paprocki explains that the statements he quotes from the McElroy article—saying that the Church should not bar people from the Eucharist, regardless of their behavior or beliefs—appear to conflict directly with perennial Church teaching. He then cites #750 of the Code of Canon Law, which says that “anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Someone guilty of heresy, the bishop continues—citing Canon 1364—separates himself from the Church. He reaches the sobering conclusion: “Thus a cardinal of the Catholic Church, like any other Catholic who denies settled Catholic teaching, embraces heresy, the result of which is automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.”

Although a heretical cleric can be stripped of his office, a cardinal can only removed from office by the Roman Pontiff, the bishop writes. But in the case of a heretical cardinal, Bishop Paprocki says that the Pope must take that action. “If he does not do so, the unseemly prospect arises of a cardinal, excommunicated latae sententiae due to heresy, voting in a papal conclave.”

 

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Further information:

• Imagining a Heretical Cardinal (First Things)
• Cardinal McElroy on ‘radical inclusion’ for L.G.B.T. people, women and others in the Catholic Church (America)