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Friday, June 30, 2023

A Question on Sedevacantism and a Response

Several visitor to the blog are committed sedevacantists who work very diligently and sometimes more vigorously than chartitably to convince readers they are right. I'm pretty loose about comments as long as people are respectful, but the discussions are occasionally more than I want to deal with. For that reason I'm not allowing comments on this post. If anyone wants to know about the sedevacantist position they can ask Google or Alexa. I am simply posting my question to a priest friend and his response. Make of it what you will. He pretty much confirmed my opinion on the subject. Below is my email and Father's answer.

Hi Father,

There’s been a pretty contentious debate on my blog from several sedevacantists trying to convince readers to go that route. What is your take on that in view of all these evil acts from the pope. Is the chair of Peter vacant? Can a heretic be pope or does he lose his office when he embraces heresy? I’m not sure how to answer these folks. Then there are the ones who believe that when Benedict died the chair became empty. It is all very confusing and destabilizing. How would you respond?

Father's reply:

To paraphrase St. Joan of Arc, where [the pope] is promoting heresy, may God lead him to sincere repentance, and where he is faithful to the truth, may God confirm him.

The problem is that, unlike the sacraments, the validity of the decisions of a papal conclave are not valid ex opere operato. Also note that St. John Paul II enacted very strict protocols for papal conclaves, several of which were apparently violated in the election of the current pontiff, much as carefully delineated protocols in American election laws were violated with impunity in the 2020 Presidential election.

But, sadly, until the appropriate tribunal carefully and impartially considers all the evidence of the case and adjudicates it, the faithful need officially (but not morally) to concur that his election was valid until proven otherwise in the appropriate tribunal.

Compounding the problem is the fact that Bergoglio, like Biden, is the one who will ultimately get to determine both whether such a case will be heard and who is to be appointed to adjudicate the case. And his new gospel of affirmation, as opposed to the traditional Gospel of ongoing conversion (guided by humble docility and accountability to the whole truth of God), is quite appealing to the millions who have chosen to view greater capitulation to their addictions to perversion and gratification as “freedom”.

Thus it seems that, as Our Blessed Mother warned us in Akita Japan half a century ago, Satan has indeed invaded the highest echelons of the Church. It seems that it was not without reason that Jesus told Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan!” soon after He installed him as the first pope. And fortunately, by the grace of God, Peter was willing to regularly take correction and repent.

Note also that we can make a distinction between the charism of the Apostolic See and the
agenda of the official Vatican bureaucracy. Any bureaucracy that rejects humble docility
and accountability to truth soon degenerates into a tyranny. That is why we should refer to the authentic teaching of the Church, rather than the official teaching of Church leaders. 

Sadly, as a consequence of Original Sin, leaders are prone to euphemistically promote expediency as integrity (e.g., “avoiding scandal” meant covering up clergy sexual abuse of children [contrary to the directive given in I Tim 5:20]). Thus “official teaching” implies a bureaucratic construct subject to change for the sake of expediency, and thus opens the way for orthodoxy to be incrementally suppressed by synodality. 

God save us!

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