NOW THAT WE HAVE POPE LEO XIV, LET’S REVISIT A POST I WROTE ON APRIL 29TH ON ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY…

Below is what I wrote on a post on April 29th. I think it wise repost it as we reflect on the theological orientation of Pope Leo XIV. 

But first, let me remind you about my clairvoyance on Thursday, the day of our Pope’s election. I predicted the election would take place that day and I touted that it is the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii. I also touted that it was the feast day of the Apparitions of St. Michael the Archangel. I wondered if the pope would choose Michael as his papal name. I got that wrong.

But guess who didn’t get it wrong and has more clairvoyance than me! Marc who comments here and I have known since I baptized him several years ago at St. Joseph Church in Macon. He declared in a comment that he thought the new pope would take the name “LEO”! Of course that would be Leo XIV! 

I ASK MARC, WHAT MADE YOU OFFER THAT CLAIRVOYANT THOUGHT?

I might add, that while I got the pope’s name wrong, the chosen name, I also posted the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel which Pope Leo XIII penned! You can’t make this stuff up!

Pope Leo, while way ahead of me in intellect, academic abilities and graduate school learning, went to a liberal seminary in Chicago around the same time I was at a liberal seminary in Baltimore in the late 1970’s.

I am slightly older than he by about two years. Thus our experience of the pre-Vatican II Church and the immediate post-Vatican II Church is similar. 

While still embracing the orthodoxy of Vatican II he seems to have come to appreciate law and order in the Church. He is a mathematician as well as a Doctor of Canon law. He wants precision in theology and doctrine while pursuing Social Justice as articulated by Pope Leo XIII and while promoting a synodal Church proposed by Pope Francis. He is an orthodox Catholic while liberal/progressive in the eyes of the world, in terms of politics, when it comes to immigration, social justice and peace. But he is orthodox as a Catholic in embracing progressive social justice needs of people created in the image and likeness of God. 

Here is my post of April 29 on orthodoxy and heterodoxy:

While I alternate between the use of the terms conservative and liberal for Church matters, I do think it is better to best to use orthodox and heterodox to describe the polarization in the Church that has existed since Vatican II and on steroids today because of the pontificate of the late Pope Francis, RIP.

Orthodoxy and heterodoxy give religious and theological significance to these two groups. 

For example, a papal candidate who embraces the social teachings of the Church that go back to the 1800’s (Pope Leo XIII!) is orthodox but in political terms would be seen as liberal or progressive. Orthodox Catholics must be careful about criticizing any Catholic who takes seriously the Church’s social teachings (especially those taught by Pope Leo XIII!) which are in fact, in political terms, progressive or liberal. These are orthodox.

Heterodox papal candidates who want to ordain women, active gays and so-called transgendered people and start processes of blessing LGBTQ couples, triads or polygamists, which will lead to accepting these as “sacramental marriages” are progressive and liberal in the political sense but clearly heterodox if not heretical in Catholic parlance. 

A papal candidate that forgoes the tradition of papal trappings can be very orthodox but appear as a liberal or progressive when if fact they aren’t.

Thus so-called traditional Catholics should be very careful about seeing papal candidates through a political lens. One can be very pastoral and have an outreach to those most in need of salvation here and now and also in the hereafter but be very orthodox. 

The heterodox don’t care about the salvation of souls, only embracing the sinner and the sin.

 The heterodox don’t love sinners and can’t differentiate between the sin and the sinner. They might be traditional and conservative but they are still heterodox.