Ed Peter's Responds
The existence of the devil as a personal reality, and not merely as a symbol of evil, is an article of faith (Ott, Fundamentals 126-131; CCC 395, 2851). Denial of an article of faith is an element of
the canonical crime of heresy (1983 CIC 751), an act punishable by
measures up to and including excommunication, dismissal from the
clerical state, and/or loss of ecclesiastical office (1983 CIC 1364,
194).
Rev. Arturo Sosa, sj, superior general of the Society of Jesus, denies the personal reality of the devil, describes him instead as a symbol of evil, and has expressed such views before (CNA article here, Catholic Herald article here). Protestations of Sosa’s orthodoxy by Jesuit spokesmen notwithstanding, Sosa speaks for himself, and clearly. I think his remarks warrant response, not just from bloggers and scholars, but from those placed in authority over such matters.
There are, I grant, some practical problems: the term “heresy” has been thrown around too loosely for some decades (perhaps for some centuries), the sanctions of excommunication and removal from office are themselves very weighty, and the latae sententiae (automatic) procedures by which such consequences are supposedly visited upon offenders are controversial in theory and practice, such that few in ecclesiastical leadership (including most orthodox members thereof!) wish to “pull the trigger” in such cases and, as a result, utterances such as Sosa’s provoke little, usually no, response from Church leaders with inevitable harm to the faithful.
Father Z writes:
I am getting really sick of Jesuits.
My sincere apologies and condolences to those men of the Society of Jesus who are sound and faithful, good sons of Ignatius. It is my esteem for what I know the Society has been and could be that pushes me to pick on you. But you guys have to start policing your own. Otherwise, more and more people will be praying for another Clement XIV.
Rev. Arturo Sosa, sj, superior general of the Society of Jesus, denies the personal reality of the devil, describes him instead as a symbol of evil, and has expressed such views before (CNA article here, Catholic Herald article here). Protestations of Sosa’s orthodoxy by Jesuit spokesmen notwithstanding, Sosa speaks for himself, and clearly. I think his remarks warrant response, not just from bloggers and scholars, but from those placed in authority over such matters.
There are, I grant, some practical problems: the term “heresy” has been thrown around too loosely for some decades (perhaps for some centuries), the sanctions of excommunication and removal from office are themselves very weighty, and the latae sententiae (automatic) procedures by which such consequences are supposedly visited upon offenders are controversial in theory and practice, such that few in ecclesiastical leadership (including most orthodox members thereof!) wish to “pull the trigger” in such cases and, as a result, utterances such as Sosa’s provoke little, usually no, response from Church leaders with inevitable harm to the faithful.
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| I Like The Jesuits |
Father Z writes:
I am getting really sick of Jesuits.
My sincere apologies and condolences to those men of the Society of Jesus who are sound and faithful, good sons of Ignatius. It is my esteem for what I know the Society has been and could be that pushes me to pick on you. But you guys have to start policing your own. Otherwise, more and more people will be praying for another Clement XIV.
posted by jope @ August 22, 2019
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