On the Mortal Sin of Suidice

In the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X, we read:

In the Fifth Commandment God forbids suicide, because man is not the master of his own life no more than of the life of another. Hence the Church punishes suicide by deprivation of Christian burial.

In the Baltimore Catechism, we read:

It is a mortal sin to destroy one's own life or commit suicide, as this act is called, and persons who willfully and knowingly commit such an act die in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of Christian burial.

In the Catechism of St. Thomas Aquinas, we read:

To kill both body and soul [...] is possible in two ways: first, by the murder of one with child, whereby the child is killed both in body and soul; and, secondly, by committing suicide.

To any Catholic alive before 1965, this teaching was a clear as it was final: suicide is a mortal sin which prevents the reception of a Christian burial.

Apparently, however, all that has changed. As St. Mary's University Assistant Professor of Theology Andrew Getzt opined yesterday:

Suicide is no longer a mortal sin.

He was responding to inquiries as to why Fr. Virgil Elizondo, who recently committed suicide after being accused of sexual abuse, will nonetheless be receiving a Catholic burial.

Let's overlook the fact that, if suicide is no longer a mortal sin, then it was never a mortal sin to begin with, and every time the Church refused Christian burial, which it did with regularity, it committed a grave error. That would be be Fundamentalist nitpicking of the worst sort.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

And whatever you do, don't you dare say that the Church of the New Pentecost is not in perfect continuity with all that which came before it. Such talk foments a schismatic mentality, and schism is a mortal sin.

Winston being shown where the Continuity is stored.

On the Evolution of Dogma and the Hermeneutic of Continuity

From the period of 1910 to 1967, Catholic seminarians were required to swear a solemn oath which contained the following clause:

I entirely reject the heretical misrepresentation that dogmas evolve and change from one meaning to another different from the one which the Church held previously. - Pope St. Pius X, Oath Against Modernism, 1910.

In an interview published recently, Benedict XVI made the following observation in regards to the perennial teaching extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, "Outside of the Church there is no Salvation":

There is no doubt that on this point we are faced with a profound evolution of dogma. - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, 2016.

In other words, what was once formally condemned as heretical is now to be accepted as undoubtedly true.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

I used to think that Hermeneutic of Continuity meant reading the documents of Vatican II in light of Tradition. Perhaps it once did, at least in theory. Only recently, however, has the truth of the matter become clear to me:

Hermeneutic of Continuity - in practice - means reading Tradition in light of Vatican II.

Imagine there's no Rupture, Winston. It's easy if you try.

UPDATE: Christopher Ferrara has written a good analysis of the interview at The Remnant.