This month, on July 21, sees the 817th anniversary of the Massacre at Béziers as part of the Catholic Church’s attempt to eradicate the Cathars – known as the Albigensian heresy. Cistercian abbot Arnaud Amalric besieged the town of Béziers, which was populated by both Catholics and Cathars.
Amalric’s troops confronted the townspeople – Catholics and Cathars together – with many of the Catholics shielding their Cathar neighbours. When asked how to sift the wheat from the chaff, Amalric famously replied: “Kill them all. God will sort them out.”
I was reminded of the famous legend while wading through social media commentary on the recent schismatic actions of the Society of St Pius X. Fulminations from indignant Catholics, spluttering from fellow traditionalists, tut-tutting from mainstream Catholics – all of them lamenting the schism, but not a few descending into vitriolic, bitter and angry name-calling and allocations of blame.
When the confirmation of excommunication came from the Vatican, there was rather too much schadenfreude. Clips of Richard Burton’s famous excommunication speech from the film Becket went viral. It was as if the anti-SSPX Catholics were rubbing their hands together with glee: good riddance.
Meanwhile, those sympathetic to the traditionalist sect protested the excommunication, asking why traditionalists were excommunicated while liberal German bishops, homosexual activists, outspoken feminists, Pachamama worshippers and various other heterodox Catholics were left unpunished. Their attitude seemed to be Amalric’s: “Kill them all. God will sort them out!”
This revealed a widespread misunderstanding about excommunication and the exercise of discipline in the Church generally. It seemed that some people viewed excommunication as a form of ecclesiastical punishment – the Vatican authorities wielding a big stick to whack anybody who stepped out of line.
Concerned with justice, the Church exercises Her discipline according to the Code of Canon Law and follows certain principles. First, the discipline is always purgative, not punitive. It is medicinal. It seeks to heal and restore, not punish unreasonably. Therefore the first step is pastoral. Bishops and superiors advise, warn and encourage the wayward to return. These steps are taken in private for the sake of discretion, to avoid scandal and to respect proper privacy.
Should the pastoral approach not avail, certain suspensions (for clergy), censures and interdicts may be applied. In the case of mortal sin, the guilty have recourse to the confessional.
Mortal sin, by its nature, cuts the Catholic off from God’s love and full communion with Christ’s body, the Church. Heresy, apostasy and schism are mortal sins, and they also, by their nature, exclude the person from full communion.
While mortal sin separates the soul from Christ, whether the sin was mortal or not is often difficult to discern. While some mortal sins are obvious and public, many are not. For the sin to be mortal, it must consist of grave matter done with full knowledge and full consent – and that is where the grey areas occur.
A Catholic may have contrary, distasteful or even horribly wrong opinions, but that does not make them mortal sins. A Catholic may passionately disagree with certain Church teachings and even question them publicly, but that does not necessarily constitute mortal sin.
There are three categories of mortal sin, however, which by their nature are indisputable: heresy, schism and apostasy. Heresy is the obstinate (persistent) post-baptismal denial of, or doubt about, a specific truth that must be believed with divine and Catholic faith. So, for example, a feminist activist may challenge what she perceives to be “misogyny” amongst Catholics, and may do so by writing a controversial book, but if she does not persistently and obstinately deny the Church’s teaching on ordination and papal authority she is not guilty of heresy.
Apostasy is the wholesale abandonment of the Christian faith. Simply drifting away through sloth or indifference does not qualify as apostasy. The sin warrants excommunication because it is a conscious, wilful and total repudiation of Christianity for atheism or a non-Christian religion. If the said feminist denies the Faith and formally joins Wicca and practises earth magic, she becomes guilty of apostasy.
Schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff – the Pope – or rejection of communion with the members of the Church subject to Him. Like apostasy, schism is a conscious, wilful action. Should our feminist attempt ordination as a priest or deacon, she is guilty of schism.
So “Excommunicate all of them. God will sort them out” does not compute. The Church has clear boundaries and definitions for Her discipline. Excommunication is an affirmation by the Church of an action already taken, which by its very nature excludes the soul from communion with Christ’s body.
For obvious, public mortal sin, the Church declares the person or group cut off. For lesser or more ambiguous offences She counsels, dialogues, debates, cautions and encourages, and even for the excommunicated, like the father of the prodigal son, She always waits at the gate praying, watching and waiting for their return.
Fr Longenecker’s latest book, Bloodshed and Blessing: From Ancient Altars to the Holy Mass, is published in August.
