Not so, HarleyD! I'll say a little more on this (sic: heretic) tomorrow after I process my tomatoes & green beans --- yum --

Now you're trying to entice me to become a Catholic with food. I remember Adam being snookered by the same device. :O)

According to the dictionary, heretic is defined as:

2: one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine : nonconformist

If Galileo was declared a heretic by the Church for supporting Copernican for saying the earth revolves around the sun and I am not branded a heretic for saying I disagree with many of the later Church's teachings, then I must have missed something.

Basically, any erroneous teaching is a heresy; but to be a heretic you'd have to be someone who willingly embraces what they know to be contrary to revealed truth. ...This is the principle of invincible ignorance, which Catholic theology has always recognized as excusing one before God.

Ah, yes but getting back to Galileo, he embraced what he knew to be true. So by your definition the Church was wrong to brand Galileo as a heretic.

And then there is always the Council of Trent:

CANON IV. If any one shall affirm, that man’s freewill, moved and excited by God, does not, by consenting, cooperate with God, the mover and exciter, so as to prepare and dispose itself for the attainment of justification; if moreover, anyone shall say, that the human will cannot refuse complying, if it pleases, but that it is inactive, and merely passive; let such an one be accursed"!

I cannot possibly agree with this statement. I believe it is not only wrong but is against the teaching of the early church which stated at the Council of Orange:

If anyone says that not only the increase of faith but also its beginning and the very desire for faith, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly ... belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the Apostles, for blessed Paul says, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). And again, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8)....]

As you can see, these two statements from the Council of Trent and the Council of Orange are in total conflict. One can only accept one of these statement while being cursed by the other. That is the heretic dilemma much to the consternation of Galileo.

Here's how I make the tomatoes and green beans. I feel like a genius because it is delicious (!), it uses plentiful stuff from my garden like "post-mature" fat lumpy green beans that are on the tough side plus shellies, and plump overripe tomatoes which are a metaphor for my life, and I developed the recipe partly (largely?) from being lazy.

Quasi-GREEK GREEN BEANS AND TOMATOES

3/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups green beans, trimmed
3 large tomatoes, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons sugar
1 – 2 chicken bouillon cubes
Oregano, basil, thyme , parsley, crushed red pepper flakes, liberally
"in the true sense of the word"
Parmesan, Feta Cheese

The night before: trim beans and put in pressure cooker, bring just up to the first wobble, then turn off. Leave to cook off the heat overnight. Also: chop onions and put in crockpot with olive oil, garlic and spices, on low overnight. (Not fresh herbs, they are added toward the end.)

Next day: Put tomatoes and onion spice mixture together in a big pot and cook until tomatoes are cooked down and there’s a nice broth. Add bouillon cubes, fresh thyme & basil, parmesan to taste. Serve topped with feta.

You will feel a strange desire to cross yourself right-to-left, bow deeply from the waist 3 times, and become Orthodox.

In the future I will try to tweak this into being Sicilian, so you can be a proper Catholic and cross yourself t'other way. That's because the dear Orthodox do it their way, but the Catholics do it God's way. :o} . :o}

And now for the Sicilian joke:

Young Mario lived in Sicily and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day he drove up saying, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.'

Mario replied,’ Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Mario said, 'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'what ya gonna do with a dead donkey?

Mario said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said, you can't raffle off a dead donkey!'

Mario said, 'Sure I can, I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Mario and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Mario said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at $2 each and I made a profit of $898.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Mario said, 'Just the guy who won, so I gave him his $2 back.'

Mario now works for the government.