Sedevacantism is the position held by a minority of
Traditionalist CatholicTraditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
s who claim that the
Papal SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
has been vacant since either the death of
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
in 1958 or
Pope John XXIIIBlessed Pope John XXIII , born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City on October 28, 1958.He called the Second Vatican Council but did not live to see it to completion,...
in 1963.
Sedevacantists believe that
Paul VIPope Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
(1963–1978),
John Paul IPope John Paul I , born Albino Luciani, , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and as Sovereign of Vatican City from 26 August 1978 until his death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes...
(1978),
John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
(1978–2005) and
Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State...
(since 2005) have been neither true
CatholicsThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
nor true
PopeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
s, by virtue of allegedly having espoused the heresy of
ModernismModernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907 encyclical...
, or of having otherwise denied or contradicted solemnly defined Catholic dogmas. Some of them classify John XXIII (1958-1963) also as a Modernist
antipopeAn antipope is a person who, in opposition to a sitting Bishop of Rome, makes a widely accepted claim to be the Pope. In the past, antipopes were typically those supported by a fairly significant faction of cardinals and kingdoms...
.
The term "sedevacantism" is derived from the Latin phrase
sede vacanteSede vacante is an expression, used in the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church, that refers to the vacancy of the episcopal see of a particular church...
, which literally means "the seat being vacant", the seat in question being that of a bishop. A specific use of the phrase is in the context of the vacancy of the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
between the death or resignation of a Pope and the election of his successor. "Sedevacantism" as a term in English appears to date from the 1980s, though the movement itself is older.
Some small groups of Traditionalist Catholics give allegiance to alternative Popes of their own. On these, see the article on
conclavismConclavism is a term used to describe the beliefs and practices of a small minority of sedevacantists who reject the generally accepted line of succession to the papacy and instead give their allegiance to alternative popes whom they have elected themselves.The term comes from the word "conclave",...
. Since they hold that the Holy See is headed by their nominee and therefore is not in fact vacant, they are not sedevacantists in the strict sense. However, the term "sedevacantist" is often applied to them because they reject the generally accepted papal succession.
Early history
One of the earliest proponents of sedevacantism was the American
Francis SchuckardtFrancis Konrad Schuckardt was an American Traditionalist Catholic independent bishop and the first known bishop of the sedevacantist movement in the United States. Sedevacantism holds that Pope Paul VI and his successors are not valid popes...
. Though he was still working within the "official" Church in 1967, he publicly took the position in 1968 that the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
was vacant and that the Church that had emerged from the
Second Vatican CouncilThe Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October, 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December, 1965...
was no longer Catholic. An associate of his,
Daniel Q. BrownDaniel Quilter Brown is an American Old Catholic bishop. He was a Roman Catholic layman who left the Catholic Church in the late 1960's because he was dissatisfied with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Brown was consecrated a bishop in 1969 by Hubert A. Rogers.In 1971 he consecrated...
, arrived at the same conclusion. In 1969, Brown illicitly received episcopal orders from an Old Catholic bishop, and in 1971 he in turn consecrated Schuckardt. Schuckardt founded a congregation called the Tridentine Latin Rite Catholic Church.
In 1970, a Japanese layman,
Joseph of Jesus and Mary Yukio Nemoto (1925–1988), created a sedevacantist group called Seibo No Mikuni.
Another founding figure of sedevacantism was Fr. Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, a
JesuitThe Society of Jesus is a Catholic religious order of clerks regular whose members are called Jesuits.Jesuits are the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church, with 18,815 members—13,305 priests, 2,295 scholastic students, 1,758 brothers and 827 novices—as of January 2008, although the...
theologian from
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. He put forward sedevacantist ideas in his books
The New Montinian Church (August 1971) and
Sede Vacante (1973). Sáenz's writings gave rise to the sedevacantist movement in
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, led by Sáenz, Fr.
Moises CarmonaMoisés Carmona y Rivera was a traditionalist Catholic bishop from Acapulco, Mexico who was a proponent of sedevacantism, which holds that the papacy is vacant....
and Fr. Adolfo Zamora, and also inspired Fr. Francis E. Fenton in the United States.
In the years following the Second Vatican Council other priests took up similar positions. They include:
- The Dominican theologian Fr. Michel Louis Guérard des Lauriers
Michel Louis Guérard des Lauriers, O.P. was a Dominican theologian and traditionalist Catholic bishop.-Biography:...
, who developed a thesis similar to sedevacantism called sedeprivationismSedeprivationism is an ideological school or party of the traditionalist Roman Catholic movement that follows the principles of the late French theologian Michel Louis Guérard des Lauriers, O.P., as Lauriers set it out in his thesis published in the Cahiers du Cassiciacum and therefore called the...
in the 1970s.
- Several students at the SSPX seminary at Econe in the early or mid-1970s — Richard Williamson, Daniel Dolan
Daniel Lytle Dolan , a sedevacantist traditionalist Catholic bishop, was born in Detroit.He began his preparation for the priesthood in 1965 at the archdiocesan minor seminary in Detroit...
, Anthony CekadaAnthony Cekada is a Traditionalist Catholic priest and author. He is considered to be excommunicated by the mainstream Catholic Church.Born in 1951, Anthony Cekada studied at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973. In 1975...
and Donald SanbornBishop Donald J. Sanborn is a sedeprivationist Traditionalist Catholic bishop who is Rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Brooksville, Florida....
— who are reported to have been sedevacantists in that period. Three of these four individuals are now bishops within the traditionalist movement.
- The English parish priest Fr. Oswald Baker
Father Oswald Baker was a controversial Catholic priest who lived in Downham Market in Norfolk. He was Parish Priest at Saint Dominic's Church between 1951 and 1975. He made headlines in the 1970s when he refused to say the new vernacular Mass and insisted on saying the traditional Latin Mass. ...
, who was a sedevacantist at least by 1982, and reportedly some time before that.
- The American missionary Fr. Lucian Pulvermacher
Lucian Pulvermacher is a traditionalist Roman Catholic priest. He is the head of the "True Catholic Church", a small conclavist group that, without authorization from the Holy See of Rome, elected him Pope Pius XIII in October, 1998...
, who left the Roman Catholic Church in 1976 and in October, 1998 was elected pope of the conclavistConclavism is a term used to describe the beliefs and practices of a small minority of sedevacantists who reject the generally accepted line of succession to the papacy and instead give their allegiance to alternative popes whom they have elected themselves.The term comes from the word "conclave",...
true Catholic Church with the name of "Pius XIII".
The Sedevacantist position
As with
traditionalist CatholicTraditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
ism in general, sedevacantism owes its origins to the rejection of the perceived theological and disciplinary changes implemented following the
Second Vatican CouncilThe Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October, 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December, 1965...
(1962–1965). Sedevacantists thus reject the Council, on the basis of its documents on
ecumenismЁcumenism or Œcumenism now mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater religious unity or cooperation....
and
religious libertyFreedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
, 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 salvationThe Latin phrase Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus means: "Outside the Church there is no salvation". The most recent Catholic Catechism interpreted this to mean that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body."...
. They also say that new disciplinary norms, such as the
Mass of Paul VIThe Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council . It is the present ordinary or normal form of the Roman Rite of the Mass...
, promulgated on 3 April 1969, undermine or conflict with the historical Catholic faith.
Other traditionalist Catholics recognise as legitimate the line of Popes leading to
Pope Benedict XVIPope Benedict XVI is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and, as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State...
. Some of them hold that one or more of the most recent Popes have held and taught unorthodox beliefs, but do not go so far as to say that they have been formal heretics or have been widely and publicly judged to be heretics. Sedevacantists, on the other hand, 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. Accordingly, they hold that
Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
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.
Claims used by sedevacantists to defend their position include the following:
- Most pre-Conciliar Catholic theologians and canon lawyers taught that it is inherently impossible for a heretic to hold the papal office.
- Particular provisions of Church law prevent a heretic from being elected or remaining as pope. Paul IV
Pope Paul IV , né Giovanni Pietro Carafa, was Pope from 23 May 1555 until his death.Giovanni Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into a prominent noble family of Naples...
's 1559 BullA Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a pope. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end to authenticate it....
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 that he holds in the Church.
Mainstream Catholics have engaged sedevacantists in debate on some of these points. Brian Harrison of
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
, for example, has argued that Pope Pius XII's conclave legislation permitted excommunicated cardinals to attend, from which he argues that they could also be legitimately elected
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0103fea1.asp.
Opponents of Harrison have argued that a phrase in Pope 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.
There are estimated to be between several tens of thousands and more than two hundred thousands of sedevacantists worldwide, mostly concentrated in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, but the actual size of the sedevacantist movement has never been accurately assessed. (See further the section on statistics in the article
Traditionalist CatholicTraditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
.)
Catholic doctrine has taught that the four marks of the true Church are that it is one, holy, catholic, and
apostolicIn Christianity, apostles were missionaries among the leaders in the Early Church and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ himself. The term was also used, especially by the Gospel of Luke, for "the Twelve," Jesus' inner circle of disciples...
, and sedevacantists base their claim to be the true remnant Roman 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 by saying that sedevacantists are in fact not one, forming numerous splinter groups, each of them in disagreement with the others.
Most sedevacantists hold the
holy ordersThe term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to a group of individuals who are set apart for a special role or ministry....
conferred with the present revised rites of the Catholic Church to be invalid due to defect both of intention and form. They conclude that the great majority of the
bishopA bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s listed in the
Holy SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
's
Annuario PontificioThe Annuario Pontificio is the annual directory of the Holy See. It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments...
, including Benedict XVI himself, are in reality merely priests or even laymen.
Bishops and holy orders
Catholic doctrine holds that any bishop can validly ordain any baptised man to the priesthood or to the episcopacy, provided that he has the correct intention and uses a doctrinally acceptable rite of ordination, whether or not he has official permission of any sort to perform the ordination, and indeed whether or not he and the ordinand are Catholics
On the other hand, while unapproved and irregular ordinations are
valid in that the recipient truly becomes a priest or bishop, they are canonically
illegal (or
illicit), and entail penalties under church law for those involved. Canon law currently forbids ordination to the episcopate without a mandate from the Pope, and both those who confer such ordination without the papal mandate and those who receive it incur automatic excommunication. Orthodox Catholic doctrine therefore considers sedevacantist ordinations of priests and bishops valid where the appropriate conditions are fulfilled, but regards them as sinful and canonically criminal acts without any standing in Church law. Sedevacantists take the position that the normal legal requirements, such as the need for a papal mandate for an episcopal consecration, cannot be applied in the context of a collapse of the Church's structures and the prolonged lack of a pope.
In a specific pronouncement in 1976, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the FaithThe Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, and sometimes simply called the Holy Office is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. Among the most active of these major Curial...
declared devoid of canonical effect the consecration ceremony conducted for the
Palmarian Catholic ChurchThe Palmarian Catholic Church is a schismatic Catholic church with its own pope, Peter II. It is often considered to be part of the conclavist movement.-Origins:...
by Archbishop Ngô Ðình Thuc on 31 December 1975, though it refrained from pronouncing on its validity. This declaration applied also to later ordinations by those who received ordination in the ceremony. Of those then ordained, seven who are known to have returned to full communion with Rome did so as laymen, but
Alfred Seiwert-FleigeThe Rev. Alfred Paul Seiwert-Fleige is a traditional catholic priest and former Palmarian Catholic/Carmelite Holy Face Order and later on Traditionalist Catholic bishop who resides in Rosenheim, Germany....
, who was ordained bishop within the Palmarian Church and who later received another (irregular) conditional episcopal ordination, currently ministers as a priest in good standing. Again, when Archbishop
Emmanuel MilingoEmmanuel Milingo was a former Roman Catholic archbishop from Zambia.In 1969, when Milingo was only 39, Pope Paul VI consecrated him as the Bishop of the Archdiocese of Lusaka....
conferred episcopal ordination on four men in Washington on 24 September 2006, the Holy See's Press Office declared that "the Church does not recognize and does not intend in the future to recognize these ordinations or any ordinations derived from them, and she holds that the canonical state of the four alleged bishops is the same as it was prior to the ordination."
The bishops who are or have been active within the sedevacantist movement can be divided into four categories.
- Bishops consecrated within the "official" Church who were subsequently persuaded to the sedevacantist position. To date, this category seems to consist of only two individuals, both now deceased: the Vietnamese Archbishop Ngô Ðình Thuc (who, before he died in 1984, may have been reconciled to Pope John Paul II) and the Chicago-born Mgr. Alfredo F. Mendez, the former Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo is a municipality in the northern midwest coast of Puerto Rico and located by the Atlantic Ocean, north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta, and Florida. Arecibo is spread over 18 wards and Arecibo Pueblo...
. The late Bishop Antônio de Castro MayerAntônio de Castro Mayer, STL was a Brazilian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Traditionalist Catholic and ally of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, he was Bishop of Campos from 1949 until his resignation in 1981....
of Campos, Brazil is also said to have embraced, or at least flirted with, sedevacantism, despite his association with the non-sedevacantist Society of St. Pius XThe Society of St. Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre....
.
- Bishops whose lineages derive from the foregoing bishops, which essentially means the "Thuc line" of bishops deriving from Archbishop Ngô Ðình Thuc. While the "Thuc line" is lengthy and complex, reportedly comprising 200 or more individuals, the sedevacantist community generally accepts and respects most of the 12 or so bishops following from the three or four final consecrations that the Archbishop performed (those of Bishops Guerard des Lauriers, Carmona, Zamora and Datessen). Bishop Mendez consecrated one priest to the episcopacy, Fr. Clarence Kelly of the Society of St. Pius V
The Society of St. Pius V is a society of validly ordained priests formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York. The SSPV maintains that much of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adheres to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, or Conciliar religion...
, who in turn has consecrated one further bishop. In addition, many bishops in the "Thuc line" are or have been associated with the conclavistConclavism is a term used to describe the beliefs and practices of a small minority of sedevacantists who reject the generally accepted line of succession to the papacy and instead give their allegiance to alternative popes whom they have elected themselves.The term comes from the word "conclave",...
Palmarian Catholic ChurchThe Palmarian Catholic Church is a schismatic Catholic church with its own pope, Peter II. It is often considered to be part of the conclavist movement.-Origins:...
.
- Bishops whose lineages derive from earlier schisms. A considerable number of sedevacantist bishops are said to derive from Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa
Carlos Duarte Costa was the founder and first patriarch of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church and its international extension, the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic National Churches. A former Roman Catholic bishop, he was excommunicated by Pope Pius XII for doctrinal and canonical...
, who in 1945 set up his own schismatic "Brazilian Catholic Apostolic ChurchThe Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church is an independent Catholic church established in 1945 by Brazilian bishop Dom Carlos Duarte Costa, a former Roman Catholic Bishop of Botucatu....
". More numerous are those who have had recourse to the Old Catholic line of succession. Bishops of this category include Francis SchuckardtFrancis Konrad Schuckardt was an American Traditionalist Catholic independent bishop and the first known bishop of the sedevacantist movement in the United States. Sedevacantism holds that Pope Paul VI and his successors are not valid popes...
and others associated with him. The orders of the original Old Catholic Church are regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as valid, though no such declaration of recognition has been issued with regard to the several Independent Catholic ChurchesIndependent Catholic churches are Catholic congregations that are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church or any other churches whose sacraments are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church . Some groups in the Independent Catholic movement claim to have valid apostolic succession for their...
that claim to trace their episcopal orders to this Church. Some shadow of doubt hovers over the validity of the orders received from these bishops, and the claimants have not received wide acceptance in the sedevacantist community, though most have at least some small congregation.
- Bishops whose orders are generally regarded as invalid through lack of proper lineage. Lucian Pulvermacher
Lucian Pulvermacher is a traditionalist Roman Catholic priest. He is the head of the "True Catholic Church", a small conclavist group that, without authorization from the Holy See of Rome, elected him Pope Pius XIII in October, 1998...
and Gordon Bateman of the small conclavist true Catholic Church fall into this category.
Criticism
Against sedevacantism, mainstream Catholics advance arguments such as:
- According to standard Catholic doctrine, the Catholic Church is a visible identifiable body that is literally catholic, in the sense of universal ("for all people"). This is seen as incompatible with the sedevacantist claim that the true nature of the Catholic Church has been hidden from the world for half a century.
- The 1870 Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus of the First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
reaffirmed that "it has always been necessary for every Church — that is to say, the faithful throughout the world — to be in agreement with (the Roman Church) because of its preeminent authority" and that consequently the bishop whom the Church in Rome acknowledges as its head "is the successor of blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, true vicar of Christ, head of the whole Church and father and teacher of all Christian people. To him, in blessed Peter, full power has been given by our lord Jesus Christ to tend, rule and govern the universal Church." This is seen as incompatible with the sedevacantist claim that the papal line of succession has been broken since 1958 (or 1963).
- Critics of sedevacantism argue that this also means that the theory advanced by the seventeenth-century theologian and Doctor of the Church Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was one of the most important cardinals of the Catholic Reformation...
that a Pope who fell into heresy would automatically forfeit his office and could be formally deposed has been overruled by Church authority (in the same way that Thomas Aquinas' non-belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary was overruled by Pius IX's declaration that the Immaculate Conception was indisputably Catholic doctrine) — while sedevacantist Catholics point out that no such supposed "overruling" has ever been documented — and that sedevacantist appeals to Bellarmine's authority in this point cannot be sustained. They add that Bellarmine envisaged that such a deposition, even if possible, could only be undertaken by a significant body of the Church including many bishops and cardinals, rather than by a few individuals.
- The Catholic doctrine of the indefectibility of the Church, which appeals to Christ's promise to the Apostle Peter in ("You are Peter (the Rock), and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it") excludes the possibility that the Catholic bishops around the world and the Pope with whom they are in communion would succumb to heresy and fall from office.
- They say that sedevacantists wrongly treat certain papal statements of the past as if they were ex cathedra declarations.
- They claim that sedevacantists fail to distinguish between matters of discipline — such as the use of Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
and of the Tridentine MassThe Tridentine Mass is a common name for the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. In this time period, it was the most widely celebrated form of the Catholic liturgy in the world.The term "Tridentine" is derived...
— which can be reformed at any time, and infallible dogmatic teachings.
- They say that sedevacantists indulge in the logical fallacy
In philosophy, a formal fallacy or a logical fallacy is a pattern of reasoning which is always wrong. This is due to a flaw in the logical structure of the argument which renders the argument invalid...
of post hoc ergo propter hocPost hoc ergo propter hoc, Latin for "after this, therefore because of this", is a logical fallacy which states, "Since that event followed this one, that event must have been caused by this one." It is often shortened to simply post hoc and is also sometimes referred to as false cause, ...
when they attribute problems that the Church has experienced in the Western world since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council to the reforms themselves rather than to the general decrease in religiosity in the West.
Sedevacantists advance counter-arguments, such as:
- They deny that they implicitly repudiate the dogma of papal infallibility as defined at the First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
, and maintain that, on the contrary, they are the fiercest defenders of this doctrine, since they teach that the Apostolic See of Peter, under the rule of a true Pope, cannot promulgate contradictory teachings.
- To rebut the accusation of denying the catholicity and indefectibility of the Church, they say that, between the death of every Pope and the election of his successor, there is a sede vacante period during which there is no visible Head of the Church, and — while mainstream Catholics hold that, according to the dogmatic constitution Pastor aeternus of the First Vatican Council, which speaks of "perpetual successors" in the pontificate, there must be, apart from such transitory periods, a perpetual presence of the Bishop of Rome, not merely of his office — that the absence of a Pope has become a long-term feature of the Church's structure.
- They recall that, during the 40-year Great Western Schism
The Great Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By its end, three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any real theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of...
, while nobody claimed that the see of Rome was vacant, there was uncertainty about which of the two (eventually three) claimants was the true pontiff, with even canonized saints taking opposing sides in the controversy. In his 1882 book, The Relations of the Church to Society — Theological Essays, the Jesuit theologian, Father Edmund James O'Reilly, wrote: "... not that an interregnum covering the whole period would have been impossible or inconsistent with the promises of Christ, for this is by no means manifest." http://www.sedevacantist.com/oreilly.html
- They say that they primarily base their claim of the empty Apostolic See
An Apostolic See is any episcopal see whose foundation is attributed to one or more of the Apostles.Out of the many such sees, five acquired special importance in Chalcedonian Christianity and became classified as the Pentarchy...
on "proven" denial of Catholic dogma by post-1958 or post-1963 popes, and only secondarily on the thence originating changes in discipline and liturgy.
- They interpret the Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation, also called the Revelation of St. John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is the last book of the New Testament. It may be shortened to Revelation but never Revelations...
as speaking of an end-times Great Apostasy on the City of Seven Hills (Rome) and say that Our Lady of La SaletteLa Salette is a small mountaintop village near Grenoble, France. It is most noted for an apparition of the Virgin Mary that was reported in 1846 by two shepherd children, Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud, followed by numerous accounts of miraculous healings....
warned on 19 September 1846 that Rome would lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.
Sedevacantist groups
- Most Holy Family Monastery
Most Holy Family Monastery is a non-profit sedevacantist organization run by Michael Dimond. The Roman Catholic Church opposes it and its positions. Roman Catholic laymen rebut their theological claims, point by point. The diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, condemns them as anti-Catholic...
, a sedevacantist community living in Fillmore, New YorkFillmore is a hamlet in Allegany County, New York, United States. It is named after President Millard Fillmore.The former Village of Fillmore dissolved its incorporation and became a community in the Town of Hume in the northwest quadrant of the county.- Geography :The community is located where...
, under the headship of Michael (official name Frederick) Dimond. Only Michael and his biological brother Peter (official name Robert) Dimond write the contents of the their website. Most Holy Family Monastery
- Society of St. Pius V
The Society of St. Pius V is a society of validly ordained priests formed in 1983 and based in Oyster Bay Cove, New York. The SSPV maintains that much of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adheres to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, or Conciliar religion...
, formed when nine priests of the Society of St. Pius XThe Society of St. Pius X is an international Traditionalist Catholic organisation, founded in 1970 by the French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre....
split from that organization over a number of issues including using the liturgical reforms implemented under Pope John XXIIIBlessed Pope John XXIII , born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , known as Blessed John XXIII since his beatification, was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City on October 28, 1958.He called the Second Vatican Council but did not live to see it to completion,...
. The SSPV maintains that much of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church no longer adheres to the Catholic faith but instead profess a new, or Conciliar religion. They regard the question of the legitimacy of the present hierarchy and the possibility that the Holy See is unoccupied to be unresolved. The SSPV does not impose sedevacantism as a morally binding teaching.
- The Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục lines of episcopal succession
- Catholic Restoration, consisting of the founding members-- dissenters from SSPV-- (Anthony Cekada
Anthony Cekada is a Traditionalist Catholic priest and author. He is considered to be excommunicated by the mainstream Catholic Church.Born in 1951, Anthony Cekada studied at St. Francis Roman Catholic Seminary College in Milwaukee, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Theology in 1973. In 1975...
, Daniel DolanDaniel Lytle Dolan , a sedevacantist traditionalist Catholic bishop, was born in Detroit.He began his preparation for the priesthood in 1965 at the archdiocesan minor seminary in Detroit...
,Donald SanbornBishop Donald J. Sanborn is a sedeprivationist Traditionalist Catholic bishop who is Rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Brooksville, Florida....
), together with newer priests who were trained in their seminary.
- Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen
The Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen is a Traditionalist Catholic and sedevacantist religious community. The primary mission of CMRI is to promote its interpretation of the message of Our Lady of Fatima...
- The Society of the Immaculata, founded by Dennis McCormack
- Apostles of Infinite Love
The Apostles of Infinite Love is a sedevacantist group mainly active in Quebec and Guadeloupe. It was founded by Michel Collin, a French priest in Lille, and self-proclaimed Pope , saying he was inspired by "unknown messages" from the Virgin Mary...
, founded by Michel Collin.
See also
- Conclavism
Conclavism is a term used to describe the beliefs and practices of a small minority of sedevacantists who reject the generally accepted line of succession to the papacy and instead give their allegiance to alternative popes whom they have elected themselves.The term comes from the word "conclave",...
- Sedevacantist antipope
- Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
- Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is a common name for the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. In this time period, it was the most widely celebrated form of the Catholic liturgy in the world.The term "Tridentine" is derived...
- Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October, 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 8 December, 1965...
- Mass of Paul VI
The Mass of Pope Paul VI is the liturgy of the Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI in 1969, after the Second Vatican Council . It is the present ordinary or normal form of the Roman Rite of the Mass...
- Sirianism
The Siri Thesis is the belief that Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, the long-serving and conservative Archbishop of Genoa, was actually elected pope in the 1958 papal conclave, but that his election was then suppressed....
Sedevacantist sites
Criticism