Priests and scholars appeal to Pope over ‘heretical positions’, by Tess Livingstone.

Pope Francis has been issued with a formal “filial correction” from 62 priests and lay scholars from 20 countries, including Australia, condemning “seven heretical positions about marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments’’ which the authors insist he has “directly or indirectly upheld”.

The 25-page letter, released in London today in six languages — English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese — states that the pope has, by his controversial Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) released last year, and “by other, related, words, deeds and omissions’’ caused “these heretical opinions to spread in the Catholic Church’’. …

The last pope to receive such admonition was John XXII who was taken to task by a Franciscan priest, a Dominican priest and scholars at the University of Paris over an arcane debate about what happens to souls immediately after death. John XXII appointed a commission to study the issue and he recanted his former position before his death in 1334.

Many other popes throughout history have also created controversies and drawn criticism, but not formal corrections.

Is the Pope Catholic? Maybe not this one.

hat-tip Stephen Neil