My Last Article on Sedevacantism
Pauly Fongemie
Last Sunday of Pentecost, 2007
Updated in 2009
The letters from sedevacantists continue to arrive in our mailbox, evangelizing for their cause, that the Chair of Peter is vacant.
This short response will be my last and it will be soon evident just why.
It is de fide, that Christ prayed that Peter's faith would not fail, since he was the first Vicar of Christ. He could not lose his faith, that is formally teach error and bind the faithful to it. By extension that prayer is for all the Pontiffs, some of whom were weak like Peter, impetuous like him, Martyrs like him, and above all repentant, like him, in humility and true sorrow, later if not sooner.
It is de fide, that where there is Peter, there is the Church. No Peter or his successor, no Church. Every body must have a head and the Mystical Body of Christ above all.
It is de fide, that the Papacy, once established by Christ, is in perpetuity until the end of time.
It is de fide, that the Vicar of Christ or head of the Catholic Church must be visible.
The Catholic Church is the ark of salvation outside of which there is no salvation other than those who through no fault of their own may not have entered visibly or officially. Therefore, it is de fide, that the Church must be visible as a distinct body. Again, where there is Peter, there is the Church.
It is de fide, that no one other than another Pope or Christ can judge the Roman Pontiff. We may judge his actions but we may not, cannot judge him as Pontiff per se.
It is de fide, that heresy, to disqualify from office, must be pertinacious, and formal, known and persistent after patient pleading. While bishops and priests, religious and laymen can be judged so after due warning, who is it that can so advise the Roman Pontiff? Paul withstood Peter to his face in the book of Acts when Peter was in error on discipline, but Peter had never taught it as de fide. Pope John XXII was in error privately about Purgatory, his advisors went to him and he recanted. Again, he never formally disseminated his idea as dogma. Which of the modern Roman Pontiffs have been so warned under established Church protocol? None.
Therefore, any such disqualification from office regarding a Pontiff is theoretical only as St. Robert Bellermine himself admitted.
Some of the statements of the modern Popes can be said to be questionable at best, even heretical at worst. A private judgment, although publicly revealed is not a de fide declaration. Who can judge the intention or the heart of said Pontiffs?
As for Pope Benedict XVI, I know that a number of you are concerned about some of his ideas and his writings about them. I don't blame you. But Christ's promise, infallible promise to His Church stands. I not only believe in Jesus Christ, I believe Him, every word of the Word of God.
The Holy Ghost will not permit the Roman Pontiff or a doctrinal council in union with him to formally teach and bind under pain of sin beliefs that contradict the Apostolic faith. No Roman Pontiff has done so to this day, even though some of the Popes, as far back as the Arian crisis and before, then afterwards [Supra.] held questionable ideas, never officially promulgated as such.
You repeatedly sound the alarm that Benedict plans to revise the papacy that would violate Tradition and doctrine.
All I know is that Papa Benedetto is a holy man with a good heart, and humble. Somewhere, down deep I know he knows the truth of Christ, all of His teachings as safeguarded by the Apostles and their successors. Like us, he, too, is a sinner, with blind spots. We are blind to our own, but our neighbors are not. Perhaps we think we see his and maybe we do. All the more reason to pray without ceasing for him. On every Rosary and at every Mass. Let us hope he is praying for us wretched sinners as well.
His blind spots are not willful or because of malice, but human frailty, in judgment.
If he were to entertain such a notion of a split papacy or thereabouts, God the Holy Ghost would intervene, by whatever means He chooses. How is not our purview. I do not need to know as I trust Jesus Christ, period! And this is all I need to know.
The question for you is, who do you believe, Christ or Father So and So from that infamous, uncharitable site? I know how I answer!
We cannot save the Church, we have but to save our own souls. Outside of the Church---apart from Peter---we cannot hope to as we are not invincibly ignorant or impossibly prevented. Where there is Peter, Benedict XVI, there is the Church.
As for me I remain steadfast and serene, leaving you in all felicity and with every good thought and my daily prayers.
HABEMUS PAPAM!
Let us pray for him and for each other . . .
UPDATE: JUNE, 2009
Recently the Holy Father referred to the Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, expressing the hope that it would one day be accomplished, meaning that the Vatican has not been completely honest with us in the recent past. Our Lady of Fatima, when impressing upon the three young seers the urgency of her message, spoke of the trials that the Pope would have to endure if the will of Heaven was not obeyed, if men did not stop offending God, etc. She did not warn us about a man pretending to be the Pope or falsely elected the Pope, something so important to our salvation she could not have failed to do so if such a case was to be, considering that she said to pray for the Pope. She also said that the Consecration would be at last accomplished but that it would be late, meaning a future Pontiff after the errors of Russia had made their mark, enslaving most of mankind in sins of every kind. We are living through this now. Well, if we have no Pope now, how will we have one when the Consecration is finally done as she requested? Is he to appear out of nowhere, how are we to believe he is not a charlatan, a truly false Pope taking advantage of the crises to come, worse than anything we have lived through thus far? There has to be some line of continuity that can be pinpointed and drawn from. That continuity is the teaching of the perpetuity of the Papacy and its visibility dogmatically decreed by Vatican Council I.
Remember Christ told His Apostles that when He comes back at the end, there would be little faith left, yet His Church, we know would endure for all earthly time. The testing of that Faith would be so great that few would withstand it. How do we know? Because in the Aramaic and Jewish tradition asking such a question in the way it was formulated contained the answer that logically followed, otherwise to ask the question is unnecessary as it would have suggested an impossibility. The loss of the Catholic Faith entails many events that proceed it, one of which is the "turning to fables" we were warned against. Sedevacantism is one such fable, that some Catholics are more eager to believe their itching ears and the words of men, rather than rely on the almighty, infallible promise of the Word of God that His Church would be indefectible. The Church has always taught that the Pope is not perfect, he sins as we do. The first Pope was such a Pontiff as we know. Popes are infallible only when they pronounce and define a dogma and the doctrine that follows from that dogma on faith and morals to be believed, that is it is imposed as an obligation of faith. Much of the writings and speeches of Popes, their bad decisions of governance, even bad example, do not fall under this stricture of protection. In more than one way we "work out our salvation in fear and trembling", then. This is why all the Saints who wrote about salvation spoke of holding to Tradition, to reject all novelty. Novelty is an unwise approach to governance or lack thereof, if you prefer, but it does not affect infallibility. It can threaten the indefectibility, but never conquer it, because we have the promise of Christ. What do you mean, you might ask?
When Paul VI issued the Novus Ordo Missae, he never abrogated the Immemorial Latin Mass, but his policy was such that the general impression was that he had, an impossibility because then novelty would have been the only option and that can never be. In fact, despite his weakness as a man, his liberal disposition, etc., the Holy Ghost protected us when He gave that Pope the words that would otherwise be inexplicable, that "somehow the smoke of Satan had entered the Church" and that the New Mass was a break with Tradition, a novelty that was in itself a contradiction. This last phrase I am paraphrasing, but he was telling us the truth to warn us about his own actions. Unfortunately many Catholics never learned of this subsequent statement. Now we do know about it. To contradict himself in such wise could only come through the direct action of the Holy Ghost upon him --- this is how sure is the promise of Jesus Christ. The Pope has no authority to abrogate the Sacraments of Tradition, but he can abuse his authority to permit a diminution of them in practice side by side with the Traditional ones that will never be annulled. Just like a father can choose to discipline one child while spoiling another because of personal frailty and even venality depending on the circumstances. The devil has the ability 'to sift' the Pontiff, to unsettle him in his resolve and duty, to test his Faith in ways you and I may not understand, but in the end he will stand in his Papacy, for good or for ill, but stand, for he is the Vicar of Christ, the head of the Mystical Body of Christ in the world. All are to be subject to him because all are bound to enter the Church once they know of its existence. How can they know where the Church is if there is no head as sign, per Vatican I? Without the Pope there is no guarantee of Bishopric succession and the lines of the priesthood. And as the Church teaches, no bishop, no priest can sit in judgment of the Pope per se. And if the clergy, who have special charisms cannot, much less can a layman ....
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