Proofs that Paul VI, and his Successors,
John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis I, Leo XIV… are Heretics
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Section 1: Definition of Heresy and its Consequences
- Section 2: Vatican II Contains Flagrant Heresies
- Section 3: Paul VI and his Successors Promulgated and Maintained these Heresies
- Section 4: Refutation of Counter-Arguments
- Conclusion
Introduction
We have seen that according to the immutable doctrine of the Catholic Church, founded on the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Doctors and the ecumenical councils before 1963, heresy is a grave error against the faith which, being public, entails the automatic loss of every ecclesiastical office and, being pertinacious (stubborn, obstinate), membership in the Church.
We shall demonstrate here, by the establishment of facts and by logical reasoning, that Paul VI and his successors have manifested public heresies, placing them outside the Church.
The proofs rest on defined dogmas and authentic texts, without personal opinions. The counter-arguments will be refuted.
Section 1: Definition of Heresy and its Consequences (short summary, see the chapter on this subject)
1.1. Major Premise: Heresy is the obstinate rejection, after baptism, of a truth of divine and Catholic faith proposed as such by the Church.
Minor Premise: Public perseverance in these doctrines manifests externally the pertinacity required by common theology. A pope who promulgates documents in such ways loses his office.
Manifest heretics lose ipso facto all jurisdiction, as Saint Robert Bellarmine explains: “The manifest heretic is in no way a member of the Church” (De Romano Pontifice, book II, chapter 30, at the end).
The bull “Cum ex apostolatus officio” of Paul IV (15 February 1559) declares “that if ever it should happen that a bishop, even acting as archbishop, patriarch, primate or cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, or legate, or even the Roman Pontiff, before his promotion or elevation to the cardinalate or to the pontificate, has deviated from the Catholic faith or fallen into heresy, his promotion or elevation, even if it was made with the unanimous and peaceful consent of all the cardinals, is null, invalid and without effect.” This applies without formal declaration: according to Bellarmine, Ballerini, Wernz-Vidal, Coronata and common doctrine, no constitutive declaration is required to produce the loss of office.
– Canon 188, paragraph 4, of the 1917 Code states that public heretics are deprived ipso facto of their office.
– Canon No. 2314 of the Code of Canon Law (1917):
Ҥ1. All apostates from the Christian faith, all heretics or schismatics and each of them:
1° Incur by the fact itself an excommunication;
2° If after admonition they do not come to repentance, they are to be deprived of every benefice, dignity, pension, office or other charge which they may have in the Church, and they are to be declared infamous; after two admonitions, those who are clerics must be deposed.”
Indeed canon 2314 provides for the canonical penalties of heresy, while canon 188 §4 treats separately the tacit vacancy of certain offices.
1.2. Conclusion: Any pope manifesting a public heresy ceases to be pope, because he is no longer a member of the Church.
The demonstration that follows does not rest on an accumulation of private opinions, but on a simple theological principle: when a man publicly teaches a doctrine contrary to a defined dogma, then promulgates it as a norm for the whole Church and perseveres in this profession despite the constant teaching of the previous magisterium, the external elements of notorious heresy are united. The examples cited below therefore do not aim to constitute each one an isolated demonstration, but to establish together a convergent bundle of proofs.
Section 2: Vatican II Contains Flagrant Heresies (short summary, see the chapter on this subject)
2.1. Major Premise: A teaching that contradicts a dogma defined by an ecumenical council or the infallible magisterium is heretical.
The First Vatican Council (Dei Filius, chapter 3) teaches that dogmas are irreformable: “Si quis dixerit, fieri posse, ut dogmatibus ab Ecclesia propositis aliquando secundum progressum scientiae sensus tribuendus sit alius ab eo, quem intellexit et intelligit Ecclesia: anathema sit.”
(Translation: “If anyone says that it can happen that to dogmas proposed by the Church a different sense must sometimes be attributed from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema.”) (Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, number 3043.)
2.2. Minor Premise: The texts of Vatican II contain direct contradictions with the Deposit of the Faith. For example:
– “Gaudium et Spes”, number 12:
“Believers and unbelievers are generally in agreement on this point: everything on earth must be ordered to man as to its centre and summit.”
The text affirms that man is the centre and summit of all earthly realities without explicitly recalling that all creation is ordered above all to God as its ultimate end, which constitutes a reversal of perspective already denounced by the previous magisterium.
This contradicts the “Syllabus Errorum” of Pius IX (1864, proposition 3): “Humana ratio, nullo prorsus Dei habito respectu, unicus est veri et falsi, boni et mali arbiter; sibi ipsi est lex et naturalibus suis viribus ad hominum ac populorum bonum curandum sufficit.”
(Translation: “Human reason, without any regard to God, is the sole arbiter of true and false, of good and evil; it is a law unto itself, and by its natural forces suffices to procure the good of men and peoples.”)
(Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, number 2903.) This promotes a heretical anthropocentrism.
– “Dignitatis Humanae”, number 2:
“This Vatican Council declares that the human person has a right to religious freedom. This freedom means that all men must be immune from coercion on the part of individuals, social groups or any human power, so that no one is forced to act against his own convictions, whether in private or in public, alone or in association with others, within due limits.”
This contradicts “Quanta Cura” of Pius IX (1864):
“And from this totally false idea of the social order, they do not hesitate to promote this erroneous opinion, particularly fatal to the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, qualified by our predecessor Gregory XVI as madness, namely that the freedom of conscience and of worship is the proper right of each man, and must be proclaimed by law in every rightly established society… All and each of the doctrines mentioned individually in this letter, by Our apostolic authority, We reject, proscribe and condemn them; and We wish and order that they be considered as absolutely rejected by all the sons of the Church.” (Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, number 2915.)
The text is indeed in contradiction with the whole Tradition such as: Gregory XVI “Mirari Vos”, Pius IX “Quanta Cura” and the “Syllabus proposition XV”, Leo XIII “Libertas” and Pius XII “Ci Riesce”.
– “Nostra Aetate”, number 2:
“The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of acting and living, those rules and doctrines which, though they differ in many respects from what she herself holds and proposes, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men.”
This contradicts the dogma Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, defined at the Council of Florence (1442): “Firmiter credit, profitetur et praedicat, nullos extra catholicam Ecclesiam existentes… aeternae vitae fieri possint participes.” (Translation: “No one existing outside the Catholic Church… can become a participant in eternal life.”) (Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, number 1351.)
Pius XI “Mortalium Animos” §§6–10 is probably the text most directly opposed.
2.3. Conclusion: Vatican II is heretical, because it overturns defined dogmas.
Section 3: Paul VI and his Successors Promulgated and Maintained these Heresies
3.1. Major Premise: He who promulgates a heretical council or adheres to it is a heretic, manifesting public pertinacity (Code of Canon Law of 1917, canon 1325, paragraph 2).
3.2. Minor Premise:
– the popes from 1964 onwards have all publicly and undoubtedly accepted the heretical council of Vatican II, they have applied it, executed it and promulgated it.
– Paul VI after his first heresy “Gaudium et Spes” (21 November 1964) promulgated all the texts of Vatican II on 8 December 1965, declaring them obligatory.
He affirmed of “Gaudium et Spes”:
“It has been considered more and more after the Council as the true testament of it” (Cardinal Ratzinger, The Principles of Catholic Theology, page 423).
– John Paul I, by choosing his name in homage to John XXIII and Paul VI, the popes of Vatican II, manifested his complete adherence to this heretical conciliabule, thus confirming his public pertinacity in error. Indeed he publicly declared that he wanted to pursue integrally the work of Vatican II and of its two predecessors.
– John Paul II applied the apostate text of “Nostra Aetate” at Assisi (1986), declaring:
“This great concentration of believers… is in itself an invitation to the world to become aware that the spirit of Assisi is truly the application of the teaching of Vatican II” (discourse of 27 October 1986).
– Benedict XVI participated in Assisi in 1986 and commemorated it in 2007, fully accepting Vatican II as “a revision of the ‘Syllabus Errorum’ of Pius IX”, as he declared in his book, re-edited after his election to the “papacy”: Joseph Ratzinger, “Principles of Catholic Theology”, Fayard, Paris, 1982, pp. 423–427.
– Francis I continued these ecumenical acts: “The pluralism and the diversity of religions… are a wise divine will…” Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, signed by Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019.
Contradicting “Mortalium Animos” of Pius XI (1928): “They gravely err who […] maintain that men can attain eternal salvation by practising any religion.” (Denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, number 3683.)
– Leo XIV, promoted in 2025, adheres to the modernist heresies issuing from Vatican II, notably the official acceptance of Vatican II; affirmation of continuity with Francis; the maintenance of ecumenical dialogue; the maintenance of Dignitatis Humanae; the maintenance of Nostra Aetate.
In his address to the Eastern Catholics on 14 May 2025, Leo XIV called for a “unity” with the schismatics while insisting on the preservation of the Eastern “traditions” without requiring their submission to the full and entire Roman primacy, as defined at the Council of Florence (1439).
3.3. Conclusion: Paul VI and his successors are heretics, losing ipso facto their office (Code of Canon Law of 1917, canon 188, paragraph 4).
Section 4: Refutation of Counter-Arguments
4.1. “Vatican II is pastoral, not dogmatic”
Refutation: The magisterium teaches that every teaching, even pastoral, cannot contradict dogmas (Vatican I, Dei Filius, canon 4). This chapter teaches indeed with certainty that the Magisterium, assisted by the Holy Ghost, is the depositary of the faith and must preserve it faithfully without any possible contradiction with dogmas, because God cannot contradict Himself, and divine truth is one and immutable. Any pretended “deeper understanding” that would depart from this established sense is a heresy, as the Council condemned the nascent modernism. The pretended later “progresses” that would dare to contradict that are only schismatical innovations, to be rejected as such, in accordance with the inviolable Catholic faith.
Pius XII affirms: “What does not correspond to truth and moral law has objectively no right to existence, nor to propaganda, nor to action.” (Allocution to Italian jurists “Ci Riesce”, 6 December 1953.)
4.2. “The successors have interpreted Vatican II in an orthodox way”
Refutation: Their acts, such as the meeting at Assisi in 1986, confirm the heresy, violating “Mortalium Animos §2” of Pius XI:
“This false opinion which considers all religions more or less good and praiseworthy… Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also by distorting the idea of the true religion, they reject it.”
Conclusion of the Chapter
According to the common doctrine exposed previously, the public and persistent profession of these doctrines entails the ipso facto loss of every ecclesiastical office; therefore, they cannot be considered as true popes.
Paul VI and his successors, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis and Leo XIV, in promulgating and applying the heretical conciliabule Vatican II, are heretics and antipopes.
Catholics must reject them to preserve the immutable faith and save their soul.
Let us pray for their conversion.