Today, in a Dr. Taylor Marshall YouTube podcast, LifeSiteNews' chief editor John-Henry Westen admitted that "discussions are going on among the hierarchy" that Francis is a "heretic or illegally elected":



"[Marshall said] Beneplenists, Benedict is pope, has taken off and we saw Bishop Gracida endorsing this [Catholic Monitor correction: Bishop Rene Gracida has apparently proposed this as one option of three courses of action including the illegal conclave option and the Bellarmine option for an manifest heretic.] And also... Archbishop Lenga has kind of joined on board and there are a lot of voices in Italy of course Antonio Socci... "



"... How does John-Henry Westen compute all this?... "



"... [Westen answered] "[T]he easiest solution would be to have Pope Francis declared some kind of heretic or illegally elected or whatever. And I know discussions are going on among the hierarchy. But, for lay people we are unable to make those calls. And for right now we are called to pray for the pope and I pray literally for his [Francis's] conversion."

(Dr. Taylor Marshall YouTube Channel, "Did Pope Francis Betray Catholic China? Is Corona the Judgement?," 51:35-54:04)



Question for Westen:



If lay people are not allowed an opinion, how can he, a layman, affirm Francis is the pope?



At LifeSiteNews, only lay people who question Francis's validity are not allowed to have opinions. Everybody else is.



Moreover, if the "hierarchy" is discussing whether Francis is a antipope due to an "illegal" election then he is a "doubtful pope."



Theologian Fr. Sylvester Berry wrote:



"Hence the saying of [Doctor of the Church St. Robert] Bellarmine: a doubtful pope is no pope. 'Therefore,' continued to Cardinal, 'if a papal election is really doubtful for any reason, the elected should resign... the universal Church... can and ought to decide, when occasion demands, who is the legitimate pope."

(The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise, Page 229, Note 8: Bellarmine, "De Concilio, ii, 19)



Finally, if Westen is praying for Francis's "conversion" then that mean he apparently is of the opinion that Francis has lost the faith and may be a heretic.



If this is true then the Bellarmine option summarize by his friend and colleague Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales comes into play:



"[T]he Pope... when he is explicitly a heretic he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church must either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived of his Apostolic See."

(The Catholic Controversy by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)



Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as for the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.





