Because the matters in question mainly occurred in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the 1917 Code of Canon Law will be used as it was the law in force at the time. We are considering the heresies of Vatican II and that flowed from the Spirit of Vatican II. The interpretation of the the Code of Canon Law is laid out in the Code itself and will be followed.
We will presume the following. 1. Vatican II contains heresy. 2. The Papal claimants have uttered words and performed actions, which are objectively heretical. This includes Paul VI, John Paul II the Great Deceiver, Benedict XVI and Francis. One such area is found here in regard to Islam, Allah and God.
We are considering the difference between material heresy and formal heresy and how the Church addresses this. These terms are theological terms, which are not found in the Code of Canon Law, but rather in Moral Theology texts. However, Canonists also consider these principles as do Dogmatic Theology texts.
In Dogmatic Theology: Christ’s Church by the Dogmatic Theologian Van Norrt, we find the definition: “By the term public heretics at this point we mean all who externally deny a truth (for example Mary’s Divine Maternity), or several truths of divine and Catholic faith, regardless of whether the one denying does so ignorantly and innocently (a merely material heretic), or wilfully and guiltily (a formal heretic).”
In the case we are considering the heresies are certainly public as the one example on Islam linked above is certainly quite public. And what could be more public than an assembly claiming to be a Council of the Catholic Church, the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, as the decree calling the Council by John XXIII states.
Canon 1827: “He who has a presumption of law in his favor is freed from the burden of proof, which is thus shifted to his opponent; if the latter cannot prove that the presumption failed in the case, the judge must render sentence in favor of the one on whose side the presumption stands.” And so what does the law presume in the cases of apostates, heretics and schismatics. We must judge as the Church judges.