Synodikon
(Decree) of
Anathema
-The Excommunication of Jerome Lloyd
and Douglas Lewins-
Unto his beloved Old Roman Catholic
Sons dwelling in Europe
Georges Grigorios Papathanasiou, OSB
Cam.
Archbishop-Metropolitan of Greece of the
True Old Roman Catholic Church.
Beloved
Sons, Greeting and Apostolic Benediction.
In
the pale of a grave and enduring scandal, it is with the most
profound grief of soul that We have learned that soidisant
Archbishops of the United Kingdom, namely Jerome Lloyd (a.k.a. Jeremy
Cave) and Douglas Lewins, seeking
their own glory rather than that of Jesus Christ, and being carried
away by the fire of ambition and novelties, have denied three
fundamental dogmas of the Catholic Faith: The
Immaculate Conception (dogmatically defined by His Holiness Pope Pius
IX in his papal bull Ineffabilis
Deus - December 8th
1854), Papal Infallibility ex
cathedra in morals and dogma
(doctrine that was dogmatically defined during the First Vatican
Council (1869-1870) under the Pontificate of His Holiness Pope Pius
IX), and the Assumption of The Theotokos into Heavenly Glory
(doctrine dogmatically defined by His Holiness Pope Pius XII on
November 1, 1950 in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus
Deus by exercising Papal
Infallibility).
The denial of the Infallibility of the Pope is indeed very serious
sin. About this dogma we must observe the sacred canons of the First
Ecumenical Council Vatican.
When
the Roman Pontiff speaks EX
CATHEDRA he
possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter,
that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to
enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore,
such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by
the consent of the Church, irreformable (Vatican I, 1869b, chap. 4,
s. 9).
So then, should anyone, which God
forbid, have the temerity to reject this definition of ours: let him
be anathema [condemned] (Vatican I, 1869b, chap. 4, s. 9,).
In addition, the above mentioned
Archbishops deny that the Sacrament of Marriage, is one of the Seven
Catholic Sacraments (Holy Mysteries) entered into by One man and One
Woman, to the exclusion of all others.
-QUAESTIONES CANONICAE-
When
it comes to Catholics who are formally guilty of heresy, apostasy or
schism, the Church applies the penalty of excommunication. The 1983
Code of Canon Law repeats in forma
et in modo
the sanctions of the earlier 1917 Code.
According to canon 1364 of the Code
of Canon Law of 1983, the heretic as well
as the apostate from the Faith and the schismatic incur automatic
excommunication, a.k.a. latae sententiae
excommunication or ipso facto
excommunication.
Indeed, canon 1364 reads: “An
apostate from the faith, a heretic, or a schismatic incurs a latae
sententiae excommunication …”
Canon 751 defines these three
crimes: “Heresy is the obstinate denial
or obstinate doubt after Baptism of a truth which must be believed by
divine and Catholic faith. Apostasy is the total repudiation of the
Christian faith. Schism is the withdrawal of submission to the
Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church
subject to him.”
In
any case, according to the ancient tradition of the Catholic Church,
it is the duty of every Bishop, Archbishop, Primate or Metropolitan
hunt down and excommunicate all heretics that, in a diabolical way,
seek to destroy the holy Church of Christ.
-DECLARATION-
Turning Our thoughts and Our solicitude first of all to
you, Beloved Sons, of whose constant and devoted good will we have
ever received such illustrious testimony, We vigorously exhort you to
guard zealously against their frauds and snares.
Furthermore, lest We should appear to betray Our
office, being faithful to the examples of the True Old Roman Catholic
Bishops (namely Abps Arnold Harris Mathew, Rudolph de Landas Berghes,
Carmel Henry Carfora, Richard Arthur Marchenna ,Gerard George
Shelley, Federick Linale, Robert Butler, Ronald-George Septoe etc.),
We hereby excommunicate the above-named Jerome
Lloyd (a.k.a. Jeremy Cave) and Douglas Lewins
and we hereby anathematize, and solemnly command and declare them to
be separated from the communion of the Old Roman Catholic Church and
to be held for schismatics, and to be avoided by all Old Roman
Catholics as Vitandi.
To the deposed Archbishops
Jerome Lloyd (a.k.a. Jeremy Cave) and Douglas Lewins,
and to all those who follow them, who teach that those who fall into
heresy are still part of the Church of Christ, and that their
mysteries are grace-filled, and who teach that the Church of Christ
has not the Three Fundamental Dogmas of The
Immaculate Conception, Papal Infallibility ex cathedra in morals and
dogma and the Assumption of The Theokos into Heavenly Glory--and
thus maintain that the holy body of Christ not only can be divided
and but also be infected with the disease of falsehood, who oppose
the holy Apostle Paul who says that the holy Church is a “glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such things [Eph. V,
XXVII],” and who commune heretics and have therefore succumbed to
the heresy of modernist Old catholicism,
ANATHEMA
!
We exhort you also, Beloved Sons, to join your fervent
prayers to Ours, beseeching God that He deign mercifully to lead back
to the sheepfold of Christ and the port of salvation these unhappily
errant men.
Given at Thessaloniki, at Our Episcopal Cathedral,
under Our Metropolitan Ring, the third day of November, 2013,
Dominica IV quae superfuit Post Epiphaniam I.
Novembris
Georges Grigorios Papathanasiou, OSB
Cam.
Archbishop-Metropolitan of Greece of the
True Old Roman Catholic Church
and all Orthodox Catholic Bishops in
communion with Our Metropolitan See
