Can a heretic be pope?
From: "Sedevacantism Refuted? Some Common Objections" by Fr. Anthony Cekada, 2004:
Because he is the supreme legislator and therefore not subject to
canon law, a pope cannot commit a true delictum of heresy or
incur an excommunication. He is subject only to the divine law.
It is by violating the divine law through the sin (peccatum) of
heresy that a heretical pope loses his authority — “having be-
come an unbeliever [factus infidelis],” as Cardinal Billot says, “he
would by his own will be cast outside the body of the Church.”
(De Ecclesia, 5th ed. [1927] 632.)
The canonist Coronata explains: “If indeed such a situation would happen, he [the Roman Pontiff] would, by divine law, fall from office without any sentence, indeed, without even a declaratory one.” (Institutiones Iuris Canonici [1950] 1:316.)
So, all the canonical requirements governing the delictum of heresy need not be fulfilled for a heretical pope to lose his authority — his public sin against divine law (infidelity) suffices."
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