Damage-Control for a Material Heretic
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 [...]