Once a Catholic Always a Catholic?

[AlNg]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

[awkward customer]

Please provide Catholic teaching to support this "Once a Catholic Always a Catholic" view.

When I saw your OP, my first thought was - that's a play.   And sure enough -

Once a Catholic is a play by Mary O'Malley.

Once a Catholic is a comedy first performed at The Royal Court Theatre in London in 1977, directed by Mike Ockrent. It concerns a retrospective view of the values of 1950s Catholic convent schools and the female adolescent response to those values.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_a_Catholic

Maybe there is no specific Catholic teaching stating this.  Perhaps the people who say it are unconsciously using the term from the play, where it is used in the context of young women who desire liberation being unable to shake off the Catholic indoctrination of their schooldays.

[awkward customer]

.

[Baylee]

Please provide Catholic teaching to support this "Once a Catholic Always a Catholic" view.

When I saw your OP, my first thought was - that's a play.   And sure enough -

Once a Catholic is a play by Mary O'Malley.

Once a Catholic is a comedy first performed at The Royal Court Theatre in London in 1977, directed by Mike Ockrent. It concerns a retrospective view of the values of 1950s Catholic convent schools and the female adolescent response to those values.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_a_Catholic

Maybe there is no specific Catholic teaching stating this.  Perhaps the people who say it are unconsciously using the term from the play, where it is used in the context of young women who desire liberation being unable to shake off the Catholic indoctrination of their schooldays.

Noone actually used the phrase I used, so if anyone is doing that, it's me!

So far, no one has been able to supply teaching other than that of Pius XII's that seems to clearly show that one can lose membership in the Church. That in and of itself is Church teaching.  I just haven't seen any support that states the opposite. If it's an obvious teaching that Catholics permanently remain Catholic, then there certainly should be teaching they can point to, right?

[Baylee]

How are we defining "Catholic?" It seems the best definition to use is that a Catholic is a person who is a member of the Catholic Church. Pius XII tells us that a member is baptized and united to the Church's profession of faith (failing to be both, or being excluded by lawful authority, one is not a member and therefore not a Catholic). Whether a person may be guiltless in their lack of membership is another question. The point is simply that there are actual conditions that must be met to be Catholic, and a person can cease to meet those conditions, thereby leaving the Church.

Yes, it is.  And it is not the question I'm asking in the OP.

[Baylee]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

You already asked this question. As I said in my response to it in the other post, I just think those that return to the Church are given an easier route than someone converting to the Church.  It doesn't mean they remained Catholic prior to the reversion.

And yes, please don't go off topic and discuss the priest's conversion. 

[ElizabethH]

I see that some believe this, and this might be a big reason why they also believe a heretic pope remains a pope. 

Is this Catholic teaching? Pius XII clearly states that schism, apostasy and heresy severs one from the Church.  How can they still be Catholic then?

Please provide Catholic teaching to support this "Once a Catholic Always a Catholic" view.

I don't know where the phrase came from but it's clear one can leave the Church.  It may just mean that once you have been a Catholic, you will always be influenced in some way by the cultural, moral, liturgical,or theological aspects of it even after leaving the Church.  On a spiritual level, it may mean even if one leaves the Church, the graces of the Sacraments once received, will always call to your heart and conscience, increasing the possibility that you will one day return. 

[AlNg]

Pius XII clearly states that schism, apostasy and heresy severs one from the Church.

For examples, are Biden and Pelosi severed from the Catholic church?
Their position on abortion, like almost all Democrats,  is not in accord with Catholicism.
If you commit the sin of heresy privately, are you also severed from the Catholic Church in the same way as committing the sin publicly. For example, suppose you privately believe that the Catholic Church has defected, contrary to the official teaching that the Catholic Church is indefectible. You privately conclude such because of easy annulments for flimsy reasons, veneration of idols at Pachamama, religious liberty, bowing and kissing the koran, etc.

[ChairmanJoeAintMyPrez]

For examples, are Biden and Pelosi severed from the Catholic church?
Their position on abortion, like almost all Democrats,  is not in accord with Catholicism.

We live in a strange time when people seem to believe that they can reject significant and non-negotiable Church teachings while still claiming membership.

"The Church teaches XYZ, but the Church is wrong," is either heresy or error, depending on the teaching.

"The Church teaches XYZ, but I don't recognize her authority to bind my conscience, and I am going to do otherwise," is schism.

[LausTibiChriste]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

Let's hear it.

Also I've got to add that I love the East and am seriously considering switching rites, but the Orthos can be so gay sometimes.

[Baylee]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

Let's hear it.

Also I've got to add that I love the East and am seriously considering switching rites, but the Orthos can be so gay sometimes.

Why is it pertinent to this thread?

[Baylee]

Pius XII clearly states that schism, apostasy and heresy severs one from the Church.

For examples, are Biden and Pelosi severed from the Catholic church?
Their position on abortion, like almost all Democrats,  is not in accord with Catholicism.
If you commit the sin of heresy privately, are you also severed from the Catholic Church in the same way as committing the sin publicly. For example, suppose you privately believe that the Catholic Church has defected, contrary to the official teaching that the Catholic Church is indefectible. You privately conclude such because of easy annulments for flimsy reasons, veneration of idols at Pachamama, religious liberty, bowing and kissing the koran, etc.

Actually, one is still a member with occult (private) heresy.

[LausTibiChriste]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

Let's hear it.

Also I've got to add that I love the East and am seriously considering switching rites, but the Orthos can be so gay sometimes.

Why is it pertinent to this thread?

Because that's how discussions work. And perhaps something from this story could shed light on certain topics being talked about. Or not. Won't know unless we hear the story.

[Baylee]

And clearly there are degrees of culpability.

Yes.
There was a video of a Catholic priest who renounced Catholicism and embraced Orthodoxy. This took place in public in a Russian Orthodox Church. If you do that publicly and emphatically, then are you still Catholic? It seems not, but OTOH, can you repent and go to Catholic confession asking forgiveness? i don't think that Protestants or Muslims could go to Catholic Confession and be absolved.

There is a background to this conversion. Would it be off topic to discuss that?

Let's hear it.

Also I've got to add that I love the East and am seriously considering switching rites, but the Orthos can be so gay sometimes.

Why is it pertinent to this thread?

Because that's how discussions work. And perhaps something from this story could shed light on certain topics being talked about. Or not. Won't know unless we hear the story.

I don't think it will.  He is no longer a Catholic.  How that happened is irrelevant. The OP is about providing Church teaching that teaches one always remains a Catholic regardless.

[LausTibiChriste]

The thread is literally about (in one form or another) the status of those who are no longer Catholic...