Sedevacantism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the belief in the invalidity of the papacy after the Second Vatican Council. For the interim period following the death or resignation of an incumbent bishop, see Sede vacante.

Coat of arms used by the Holy See between the death or renunciation of a pope and the election of a new incumbent

Sedevacantism is the position held by some traditional Catholics[1][2] that the present occupier of the Holy See is not a valid pope due to the mainstream church's alleged espousal of modernism and that, for lack of a valid pope, the See is vacant.

Most sedevacantists believe that the Holy See has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. Others believe that there is no certainty of the vacancy until the moment before Pope Paul VI promulgated Lumen Gentium, which sedevacantists regard as heretical. Very few others regard the Holy See to be vacant since the death of Pope John XXIII in 1963, the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978, or even the death of Pope Pius X in 1914.

The term sedevacantism is derived from the Latin phrase sede vacante, which means "with the chair being vacant".[3] The phrase is commonly used to refer specifically to a vacancy of the Holy See from the death, the resignation, fall into the insanity or the public heresy of a pope[4] to the election of his successor.

Among those who maintain that the see of Rome, occupied by what they declare to be an illegitimate pope, was really vacant, some have chosen an alternative pope of their own, and thus in their view ended the vacancy of the see, and are known sometimes as conclavists.[5]

The number of sedevacantists is largely unknown, with some claiming estimates of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.[6]

Positions[]

Origin[]

Sedevacantism owes its origins to the rejection of the theological and disciplinary changes implemented following the Second Vatican Council (1962–65).[7] Sedevacantists reject this Council, on the basis of their interpretation of its documents on ecumenism and religious liberty, among others, which they see as contradicting the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church and as denying the unique mission of Catholicism as the one true religion, outside of which there is no salvation.[8] They also say that new disciplinary norms, such as the Mass of Paul VI, promulgated on 3 April 1969, undermine or conflict with the historical Catholic faith and are deemed blasphemous, while post-Vatican II teachings, particularly those related to ecumenism, are labelled heresies.[9] They conclude, on the basis of their rejection of the revised Mass rite and of postconciliar Church teaching as false, that the popes involved are also false.[1] Among even traditionalist Catholics,[2][10] this is a quite divisive question.[1][2]

Traditionalist Catholics other than sedevacantists recognize as legitimate the line of popes leading to and including Pope Francis.[11] Sedevacantists, however, claim that the infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church could not have decreed the changes made in the name of the Second Vatican Council, and conclude that those who issued these changes could not have been acting with the authority of the Catholic Church.[12] Accordingly, they hold that Pope John XXIII and his successors left the true Catholic Church and thus lost legitimate authority in the Church. A formal heretic, they say, cannot be the Catholic pope.[13]

Catholic doctrine teaches the four marks of the true Church are that it is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Sedevacantists base their claim to be the remnant Catholic Church on what they see as the presence in them of these four "marks", absent, they say, in the Church since the Second Vatican Council. Their critics counter that sedevacantists are not one, forming numerous splinter groups, each of them in disagreement with the rest.

Justification[]

Sedevacantists defend their position using numerous arguments, including that particular provisions of canon law prevent a heretic from being elected or remaining as pope. Paul IV's 1559 bull, Cum ex apostolatus officio, stipulated that a heretic cannot be elected pope, while Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law provides that a cleric who publicly defects from the Catholic faith automatically loses any office he had held in the Church. A number of writers have engaged sedevacantists in debate on some of these points. Theologian Brian Harrison has argued that Pius XII's conclave legislation permitted excommunicated cardinals to attend, from which he argues that they could also be legitimately elected. Opponents of Harrison have argued that a phrase in Pius XII's legislation, "Cardinals who have been deposed or who have resigned, however, are barred and may not be reinstated even for the purpose of voting", though it speaks of someone deposed or resigned from the cardinalate, not of someone who may have incurred automatic excommunication but has not been officially declared excommunicated, means that, even if someone is permitted to attend, that does not automatically translate into electability.[citation needed] While Sedevacantists' arguments often hinge on their interpretation of modernism as being a heresy, this is also debated.[14]

The Catholic Encyclopedia in 1913 said: "The pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church."[15] The Catholic Encyclopedia also states: "Of course, the [papal] election of a heretic, schismatic, or female would be null and void."[16]

Likewise, theologians Wernz-Vidal wrote on his commentary on canon law, Ius canonicum:[17]

Through heresy notoriously and openly expressed, the Roman Pontiff, should he fall into such, is, by that very fact, and before any declaratory sentence of the Church, deprived of his power of jurisdiction. [...] [A] pope who falls into public heresy would by that fact cease to be a member of the Church; therefore he would also, upon that fact, cease to be the head of Church.

On Holy Orders according to the 1968 rite[]

Virtually all sedevacantists hold the Holy orders conferred with the present revised 1968 Episcopal consecration in the Roman rite of the Catholic Church to be invalid due to defect both of intention and form.[18] Because they consider the 1968 revision of the Episcopal rite of Holy Orders in the Roman rite to have invalidated the rite's sacramental power, they conclude that the great majority of the bishops listed in the Holy See's Annuario Pontificio, including Benedict XVI and Pope Francis themselves, are in reality merely priests or even laymen.[citation needed]

Positions within sedevacantism[]

On clergy, Mass, and sacraments[]

Some sedevacantists, basing on the fact that canon law prohibits episcopal consecrations without papal mandate, stay at home and reject Masses offered and sacraments administered by sedevacantist clergy, because all sedevacantist bishops (and consequently priests) today derive their Holy Orders from bishops such as Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục and Bishop Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez, who obviously did not have papal mandates to consecrate sedevacantist bishops,[19] and because Canon law also forbids bishops and priests to function without authorization by ecclesiastical authority with ordinary jurisdiction, which virtually all sedevacantists believe to be absent today.[20] These sedevacantists are generally called "home aloners."

Most sedevacantists, on the other hand, accept the consecrations and ordinations of sedevacantist bishops and priests, and the offering of Masses and the administration of sacraments by the said bishops and priests, to be licit because of epikea, where Ecclesiastical Law (e.g. prohibition of consecrations of bishops without papal mandate; prohibition of administration of sacraments without ecclesiastical authorization) ceases when to follow it would be to transgress Divine Law (e.g. the Church must have bishops and priests; Catholics must attend Mass and receive the sacraments),[20][21][22] and that this is proven by the fact that during the two-year interregnum from the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268 to the election of Pope Gregory X in 1271, twenty-one vacancies occurred in various dioceses, and during this time, because of necessity, bishops were consecrated without papal mandate to fill these vacancies.[21]

On liturgy[]

Another divisive question among sedevacantists themselves is whether it is acceptable to go to Masses of the Society of Saint Pius X or to the Divine Liturgies of Eastern Catholic Churches, where Francis' name is said in the Roman Canon or Anaphora. Some answer that it is allowable,[23][24] while others believe that to do such things are unlawful because Masses or Divine Liturgies offered with the name of Francis as pope are illicit and non-Catholic, and therefore forbidden to Catholics.[25]

Relationship to Sedeprivationism[]

A sizeable portion of sedevacantists affirm the Thesis of Cassiciacum of the Dominican theologian Bishop Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers as also being a valid position, which states that John XXIII and his successors are popes materialiter sed non formaliter, that is "materially but not formally," and that the post-Vatican II popes will become pope if they recants their heresies.[26][27][28]

Demography[]

There are estimated[by whom?] to be between several tens of thousands and more than two hundred thousand sedevacantists worldwide, mostly concentrated in the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Australia, but the actual size of the sedevacantist movement has never been accurately assessed. It remains extremely difficult to establish the size of the movement for a wide range of reasons – not all sedevacantists identify themselves as such, nor do they necessarily adhere to sedevacantist groups or societies.[29]

Early proponents[]

Early proponents of sedevacantism include:

  • Patrick Henry Omlor, an American author who, in 1965, expressed the view that Paul VI was not the pope.
  • Francis Schuckardt, an American who gained considerable fame as a charismatic speaker for the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, who served as its International Secretary, and who although still working within the "official" Church in 1967, publicly took the position in 1968 that the Holy See was vacant and that the Church that had emerged from the Second Vatican Council was no longer Catholic. He founded the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI), the oldest and largest sedevacantist organization today.
  • Bishop Daniel Q. Brown, an American former Old Catholic bishop who converted to sedevacantism and an associate of Schuckardt.
  • Yukio Nemoto, a Japanese who created the sedevacantist group Seibo No Mikuni (Kingdom of Our Lady, 聖母の御国).[30]
  • Father Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, a Mexican Jesuit priest and theologian who put forward sedevacantist ideas in his books The New Montinian Church (August 1971) and Sede Vacante (1973). His writings gave rise to the sedevacantist movement in Mexico, led by Father Sáenz, Father Moisés Carmona, and Father Adolfo Zamora., priests who formed the Unión Católica Trento (Tridentine Catholic Union).[31]
  • Father Francis E. Fenton, an American priest who was inspired by Sáenz's writings and founded the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement as an American parallel to the Mexican Unión Católica Trento.
  • Father (later Bishop) Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers, a French Dominican priest and theologian who developed the Thesis of Cassiciacum in the 1970s.
  • Several American priests of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX): Father Daniel Dolan, Father Anthony Cekada, and Father Donald Sanborn, reportedly sedevacantists in the 1970s, who were expelled, along with several other priests, by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for holding this view.[32] Nine of these priests later founded the Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV) in 1983.
  • Father Gommar DePauw, an American priest and canonist who founded the organization he named Catholic Traditionalist Movement.
  • Father Oswald Baker, an English priest who was a sedevacantist by at least 1982, and reportedly some time prior to that.
  • Father Lucian Pulvermacher, an American missionary priest who left the Roman Catholic Church in 1976 and in 1998 was elected pope of the conclavist "True Catholic Church" with the name of "Pius XIII".

Bishops and holy orders[]

Catholic theology holds that any bishop can validly ordain any baptized male to the priesthood, and any priest to the episcopacy, provided that, with the intention to do what the Church does, he uses a rite of ordination or consecration considered valid by the Catholic Church,[33][34] whether or not he has official permission of any sort to perform the ordination. Absent specified conditions, canon law forbids consecration to the episcopate without a mandate from the pope,[35] and states that both those who confer such consecration without the papal mandate and those who receive it are subject to latae sententiae excommunication (excommunication by the act itself).[36]

Sedevacantist bishops[]

Consecrated pre-Vatican II who became sedevacantists[]

This category consist of two individuals, both now deceased: the Vietnamese Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục (consecrated in 1938) the former Vicar Apostolic of Vĩnh Long, Vietnam and former Archbishop of Huế, and Bishop Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez[disputed – discuss] (consecrated in 1960), former Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, United States.

Thục-line bishops[]

The "Thục-line" bishops essentially means bishops who derive their episcopacy from Archbishop Thục or from bishops in Thục's lineage. The "Thục-line" is lengthy and complex, reportedly comprising 200 or more individuals.[37] Many bishops in the "Thục-line" are part of the non-sedevacantist but conclavist Palmarian Catholic Church; this is due to Thục having consecrated Bishop Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, future head of the Palmarian Church, and the very numerous episcopal consecrations within this organization.

In 1981, in Toulon, France, Archbishop Thục consecrated three sedevacantist bishops. On 7 May 1981, he consecrated the sedeprivationist French priest Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers as a bishop. Des Lauriers was a Dominican theologian, an expert on the dogma of the Assumption, an advisor to Pope Pius XII,[38] a former professor at the Dominican university Le Saulchoir in Belgium and later at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome,[39] a former professor at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X of the SSPX in Écône, Switzerland, and the main intellectual force behind the famous critical study of the Mass of Paul VI (Novus Ordo Mass) called the Ottaviani Intervention, presented to Paul VI in October 1969.[40][41][42] On 17 October of the same year, Thục consecrated the two sedevacantist Mexican priests and former seminary professors Moisés Carmona and Adolfo Zamora as bishops.[43] Carmona and Zamora had been sedevacantist leaders and propagators in Mexico[44] for many years,[45] and were among the priests who formed the Unión Católica Trento[43] (Tridentine Catholic Union).[31] The Vatican declared Thục ipso facto excommunicated for these consecrations and for his declaration of sedevacantism.[46]

The sedevacantist community generally accepts and respects bishops descended from the three sedevacantist bishops Thục consecrated in 1981 (des Lauriers, Carmona, and Zamora).

Living notable sedevacantist bishops who descend from Archbishop Thục through Bishop Moisés Carmona include Bishop Mark Pivarunas of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (consecrated in 1991 by Carmona), Bishop Daniel Dolan of Cincinnati (consecrated in 1993 by Pivarunas), and Bishop Martín Dávila Gandara of the Sociedad Sacerdotal Trento (consecrated in 1999 by Pivarunas and Dolan).

Living notable sedevacantist bishops who descend from Archbishop Thục through Bishop Guerard des Lauriers, O.P., include Bishop Geert Stuyver of the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (consecrated in 2002 by Bishop Robert McKenna, O.P.), Bishop Donald Sanborn of the Roman Catholic Institute (consecrated in 2002 by McKenna), and Bishop Joseph Selway of the Roman Catholic Institute (consecrated in 2018 by Sanborn, Dolan, and Stuyver).

Méndez-line bishops[]

On 19 October 1993, in Carlsbad, California, United States, Bishop Méndez-Gonzalez consecrated the sedevacantist Father Clarence Kelly of the Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV) to the episcopacy. By Méndez' wish, the consecration was kept secret until his death in 1995.[47][48][49]

There are two sedevacantist bishops who descend from Bishop Méndez through Bishop Kelly: Bishop Joseph Santay (consecrated in 2007 by Kelly[50]) and Bishop James Carroll (consecrated in 2018 by Santay and Kelly[51]).

Kelly, Santay, and Carroll are bishops of the Congregation of Saint Pius V.

Whose lineages derive from earlier movements[]

A considerable number of sedevacantist bishops are thought to derive their holy orders from Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, who in 1945 set up his own schismatic "Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church".[52][53] Carlos Duarte Costa was not a sedevacantist, and instead questioned the status of the papacy itself – he denied Papal Infallibility and rejected the pope's universal jurisdiction.[54] In further contrast to most Catholic traditionalism, Duarte Costa was left-wing.[55]

Groups[]

Sedevacantist groups include:

See also[]

Notes[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Appleby, R. Scott (1995), Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America, Indiana University Press, p. 257, ISBN 978-0253329226.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Marty, Martin E; Appleby, R. Scott (1994), Fundamentalisms Observed, University of Chicago Press, p. 88, ISBN 978-0226508788.
  3. ^ Neuhaus, Rev. Richard J (2007), Catholic Matters: Confusion, Controversy, and the Splendor of Truth, Basic, p. 133, ISBN 978-0465049356.
  4. ^ Raoul Naz, "Traité de droit canonique" Tome I, Nr 512
  5. ^ George D. Chryssides (2011). Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements. Scarecrow Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0810879676.
  6. ^ Collinge, William J. (2012). Historical dictionary of Catholicism (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. p. 399. ISBN 978-0810857551. from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
  7. ^ Madrid, Patrick; Vere, Peter (2004), More Catholic Than the Pope: An Inside Look at Extreme Traditionalism, Our Sunday Visitor, p. 169, ISBN 1931709262.
  8. ^ Jarvis, E. Sede Vacante: the Life and Legacy of Archbishop Thuc, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018, pp. 8–10.
  9. ^ Flinn, Frank K (2007), Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Facts on File, p. 566, ISBN 978-0816054558.
  10. ^ Collinge, William J (2012), Historical Dictionary of Catholicism, Scarecrow, p. 566, ISBN 978-0810879799.
  11. ^ Gibson, David (2007), The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World, Harper Collins, p. 355, ISBN 978-0061161223.
  12. ^ Marty, Martin E; Appleby, R. Scott (1991), Fundamentalisms Observed, The University of Chicago Press, p. 66, ISBN 0226508781.
  13. ^ Wójcik, Daniel (1997), The End of the World As We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America, New York University Press, p. 86, ISBN 0814792839.
  14. ^ Jarvis, E. Sede Vacante: the Life and Legacy of Archbishop Thuc, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018, pp. 152–53.
  15. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Heresy". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  16. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Papal Elections". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  17. ^ "A canonical primer on popes and heresy". In the Light of the Law. 16 December 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Unholy Orders: 50 Years Invalid Ordinations". 18 June 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  19. ^ "In Defense of "Home Alone" — Rebutting Ruby's Rant". Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b Most Rev. Mark Pivarunas, CMRI. "Episcopal Consecration During Interregnums".
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b Most Rev. Mark Pivarunas, CMRI. "The Consecration of Bishops During Interregna".
  22. ^ Rev. Anthony Cekada. "Canon Law and Common Sense".
  23. ^ Daly, John S. "Cardinal de Lugo on Communicatio in Sacris".
  24. ^ Lane, John. "Sedevacantism, the 'Una Cum' and the Church".
  25. ^ Rev. Anthony Cekada. "The Grain of Incense: Sedevacantists and Una Cum Masses".
  26. ^ Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (IMBC). "Who we are". Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  27. ^ Most Rev. Donald Sanborn. "The material Papacy". Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  28. ^ Most Rev. Donald Sanborn. "De Papatu Materiali". "Pars Prima" and "Pars Secunda". Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  29. ^ Jarvis, E. Sede Vacante: the Life and Legacy of Archbishop Thuc, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018, p. 9.
  30. ^ Zoccatelli, Pier Luigi (2000), Seibo Seibo No Mikuni, a Catholic Apocalyptic Splinter Movement from Japan.
  31. ^ Jump up to: a b Gary L. Ward, Bertil Persson, and Alain Bain, eds., Independent Bishops: An International Directory [Detroit, MI: Apogee Books, 1990].
  32. ^ Case, Thomas W (October 2002), "The Society of St. Pius X Gets Sick", Fidelity Magazine, Tripod, archived from the original on 28 June 2007.
  33. ^ Pope Leo XIII. "Apostolicae curae".
  34. ^ Ahaus, H. (1911). Holy Orders. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
  35. ^ Canon 1013, Intra text.
  36. ^ Canon 1382, Intra text.
  37. ^ Boyle, T, "Thục Consecrations", Catholicism (list and line of descent)
  38. ^ M.L. Guérard des Lauriers, Dimensions de la Foi, Paris: Cerf, 1952.
  39. ^ Rev. Fergus Kerr, Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), p. 206, n. 6.
  40. ^ Ruby, Griff (2002). "The Resurrection of the Roman Catholic Church", Chapter Eight, "The Bishops of Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục".
  41. ^ "A Fertile Soil: Catholic Tradition in France Prior to the SSPX". February 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2019 – via www.angelusonline.org.
  42. ^ Likoudis, James; Whitehead, Kenneth D. (2006). The Pope, the Council, and the Mass: Answers to Questions the "Traditionalists" Have Asked. Emmaus Road Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 9781931018340.
  43. ^ Jump up to: a b Griff Ruby, The Resurrection of the Roman Catholic Church: A Guide to the Traditional Catholic Movement, iUniverse, 2002, pp. 138–9.
  44. ^ "Tradicionalismo católico postconciliar y ultraderecha en Guadalajara" (PDF). Universidad de Guadalajara. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  45. ^ The Reign of Mary. No. 134, Spring 2009. "The Legacy of a Humble Man: Reflections on the Life of Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô dinh Thuc".
  46. ^ Notification by the Vatican (L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 18 April 1983, Page 12)
  47. ^ Photographs and documentation of the episcopal consecration of Bishop Kelly.
  48. ^ Rev. Anthony Cekada. "Bp. Mendez, SSPV and Hypocrisy". 11 September 2001. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  49. ^ Boyle, Terrence. "Outline of Episcopi Vagantes": "I. The Concise Lineages:" "B. The Mendez Consecration for the Sacerdotal Society of Saint Pius V".
  50. ^ Video of the episcopal consecration of Bp. Joseph Santay.
  51. ^ Video of the episcopal Consecration of Bp. James Carroll, CSPV.
  52. ^ Jarvis, E. God, Land & Freedom: the True Story of ICAB, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018
  53. ^ Boyle, T, "Costa Consecrations", Catholicism.
  54. ^ Jarvis, E. God, Land & Freedom: the True Story of ICAB, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018, pp. 64–69, 236–44.
  55. ^ Jarvis, E. God, Land & Freedom: the True Story of ICAB, Apocryphile Press, Berkeley CA, 2018, p. 64.
  56. ^ A more comprehensive list of objections can be found at "Letter of 'the Nine' to Abp. Marcel Lefebvre", The Roman Catholic, Traditional mass, May 1983.

External links[]

Sedevacantist resources[]

Criticisms of sedevacantism[]

Retrieved from ""