Question: Are Protestants Heretics?

It would seem that Protestants are heretics, because they deny Catholic doctrine and the true nature of the Catholic Church, called in Scripture the "Pillar and Bulwark of the Truth." Therefore they are heretics.

Furthermore, Protestants corrupt some of the Church's Sacraments, such as Holy Communion, which some of them attempt to distribute in the form of grape juice, while others of their ranks use the prescribed wine but deny that Christ is truly Present, and Protestants deny that other Sacraments, such as Confession, exist or are necessary. So they are heretics.

Laying on even harder, Protestants sow confusion and discord, often even denying the true Church of God the name of Christian, attempting to convert the easily persuaded and uneducated among the faithful from belief and participation in the Life of the Catholic Church. Ergo, Protestants are Heretics.

But on the contrary, while Catholics believe Protestants to be in a state of material heresy against the Truth of Catholic Faith, it is not technically correct to call them heretics per se, because they lack the mens rea. That is, they are not intentionally rejecting the Truth out of a sense of obstinacy. Men's minds are clouded by a variety of factors from perceiving the full Truth, including their passions, false information provided by authority figures, and an error-prone intellect. Furthermore, the term heresy etymologically means "a thing chosen", because heretics usually choose one Christian dogma among the many that they have been taught, blow it way out of proportion, and refuse to listen to those who taught them the Faith when they tell them, that isn't what I taught you. But Protestants, alas, do not get the chance to choose in this way. The denomination to which you belong, for most people, is a function of what denomination you were born into, and most people are not philosophically equipped to analyze the historical record, scripture and the doctrines of the Catholic Church in a rigorous manner. Finally, St. Thomas Aquinas defines heresy as "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas." But Protestants do not corrupt Catholic dogmas. Nay, that was the work of the originator of whatever sect they call their own, which used to be called by the term heresiarch. So while Luther was certainly a heretic, Lutherans are not by Aquinas' account, for they do not corrupt nor do they choose advisedly, but suffer under pre-existing corruption of the True Teaching of the Faith lacking the prideful rejection of the authority of those who taught them that is the hallmark of the heretic.

Therefore Prostestants, at least per se, are not Heretics.