Dom Pius Mary Noonan, O.S.B.: Starting a Schism: So Easy It’s Not Funny

By Dom Pius Mary Noonan, O.S.B., Crisis Magazine, March 10, 2025

Dom Pius Mary Noonan is the Prior of a Benedictine community called Notre Dame Priory in Colebrook, Tasmania (Australia). He holds a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Saint Thomas d’Aquin (Institut Catholique of Toulouse, France), and as part of his community’s apostolate, conducts spiritual retreats in various places around Australia and in the United States. He has published a number of books on spiritual topics at Cana Press, the monks’ publishing house.

To deny that Francis is the true pope requires either divine revelation or a very special competence to discern this. Those who make this claim have neither.

Several weeks ago, LifeSiteNews kindly published my article titled “Francis Has Given Us Two Keys for Understanding His Pontificate.” My principal goal in that brief article was to caution the voices of those who have seemingly reached the definite conclusion that, due to heresy, the Apostolic See is vacant. Unfortunately, a number of individuals misunderstood my intentions and reacted negatively. Here, I would like to clarify a number of points and respond to particular criticisms.

Lay theologians

Contrary to what some seem to have deduced from my article, I am a fan of lay theologians and count some very competent ones as friends. I do not think anything I wrote in my preceding article can be construed as leading to a contrary conclusion. I did not take issue with those who genuinely have theological competence. There were no “jibes” against them, nor did I “mock” them, notwithstanding suggestions to the contrary. …

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