The traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church listed nine ways to being an accessory to another’s sin:
1. By counsel
2. By command
3. By consent
4. By provocation
5. By praise or flattery
6. By concealment
7. By partaking
8. By silence
9. By defense of the ill done.
In traditional Catholic morality, we usually apply the above to matters of sexuality, gossip or finances. And we should. But have we ever thought of what it means to cover for another’s heresy under pretext of “giving the benefit of the doubt” to a “Catholic” teaching error?
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that heresy is “any deviation from the rectitude of the Catholic faith,” and it is one of the absolute worst sins a Catholic can commit. Granted, the above is the definition of material heresy, not formal heresy. But too many traditionalist priests and online Catholic influencers alive today believe they can ignore any material heretic in the putative-hierarchy as long as he’s never sustained a formal canonical trial.
This is extremely dangerous to their souls. Again, if heresy is “any deviation from the rectitude of the Catholic faith,” then that would evidently include the heresy of religious indifferentism (the teaching that a man can be saved in all religions.) Thankfully, few of my readers here would promote the ubiquitous heresy of so-called “ecumenism.” Neither would many of the traditional influencers online.
However, in the latter category, there are men doing damage-control for yet another notorious and public heretic (with the presumption they may do yet another 180° in their teachings in a year.) But they should vigilantly apply the above ways of being an accessory to sin to St. Thomas’ own definition of heresy. That is, combine the above two aspects of the Catholic faith and we have this: You are guilty of material heresy even by doing damage-control for a material-heretic who you know to be promoting error—even absent a formal canonical-trial.
Why? Because being a simple accomplice to heresy in 2025 could look like this:
1. By counseling an online-pupil to listen to a heretic who can sing in Latin.
2. By commanding another to “give another chance” to a heretic in ornate vestments.
3. By consent to the teaching of a heretic (formal—or even material.)
4. By provocation to ignore an error because he is also speaking “some truth.”
5. By praise or flattery of the good he does, while ignoring the damage.
6. By concealment of the errors in favor of highlighting the heretic’s good liturgical taste.
7. By partaking in his heresy, again—formal or even material.
8. By silence when you have the duty (or even the ability) to denounce various errors.
9. By defense of the ill already done because you want to give the material heretic yet “another chance.”
Now, add a third Magisterial fact into the mix: St. Thomas teaches that holding to even one heresy destroys the entire gift of supernatural faith in one’s soul. This means that defending a heretic (even for reasons like “obedience,” or “giving the benefit of the doubt”) is tantamount to poking the eyes of your soul out. Why? Again, because defending a heretic (even if a material one that you want to assume the best in) makes you an accomplice to that sin of material heresy. This is especially true if you be a public Catholic. (And by “public,” I mean not only an online lay-Catholic, but even a parish priest or local bishop.)
Even silence in the face of a public heretic makes a public Catholic (even one who would otherwise stick-up for the truth if he had less self-interests at stake) an accomplice to the heretic’s sin. This is true if he refrain from speaking up, not to mention how many at Trad Inc. are attempting a full “defense of the ill done.” (Again, see number nine above.)
Furthermore, concealment of a man’s past heresies for which he has obviously not repented makes you an accomplice to that sin, too, if you purposely ignore it. Trad. Inc. seems to have forgotten the line they made famous a decade ago: Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it.—Pope Felix III, fifth century. And no, you can’t be “schismatic” for failure to unify with a heretic. That would go against every dogmatic definition of the Catholic Church over 2,000 years, including the Bible, including Mt 16.
Defending even a heretic who also says a few orthodox things at times also makes a shipwreck of your conscience (cf 1 Tim 1:19) even if done under pretext of “charity” or “obedience,” or by “giving the benefit of the doubt” or even by splitting hairs between material-heretic and formal-heretic. At your lightning-fast particular judgment, you will have no time for defending yourself under such “nuances,” (the favorite word of dime-store online-theologians today.)
Put it all together and we have this: Silence in the face of heresy when you have a public forum may destroy the entire aspect of supernatural faith in your soul. It’s probably not too late to get the knife out of the eye of your soul, but I highly suggest you listen to the last podcast by Fr. Isaac Mary Relyea (Soldiers of the Immaculate) and the last podcast by Ann Barnhardt as soon as possible. (Also, listen to Steve Bannon from about min 3:00 to 5:00 there. With his high-level intel, he called the recent heist with surgical precision as early as April 2025, meaning Christ’s promise in Mt 16 is still protected around—not under—the rigging.)
I’m sorry to sound alarmist, but the current willful-blindness in the conservative Catholic world clearly portends our pre-apocalyptic times: For false-christs and false-prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.—Mt 24:25. (Surgent enim pseudochristi et pseudoprophetae, et dabunt signa magna et prodigia, ita ut in errorem inducantur—si fieri potest—etiam electi.)
Could one of these “great signs” of the final antichrist be that he unites all Christians—East and West—under a gentle universalist-banner? Yes, it probably will be just such a “wonder…” even according to Soloviev converting around the year 1900. So, be extremely vigilant (but not paranoid) my friends.