Any former sedevacantists, conclavists or SSPX supporters?

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Isearch said:
I am curious as to know your answer to this question:

•Where are the bishops with ordinary jurisdiction?

I am asking this because according to pre-Vatican II theology, the Church must always have living bishops who have ordinary jurisdiction without interregnum in order to continue possessing the mark of Apostolicity. And pope Pius XII had already declared that the ordinary jurisdiction of bishops come directly from the Roman Pontiff.

So I am curious as to how you would answer this because most sedevacantists online end up denying that there are living bishops today with ordinary jurisdiction. And this denial, frankly, is a post-Vatican II rationalization and, at worst, plausibly heretical in pre-Vatican II standards.

Yes, pre-Vatican II theologians entertained the possibility that the pope might lose his office because of heresy, but they never entertained the notion that all the bishops with ordinary jurisdiction would become heretics at the same time because this idea is detrimental to one of the four marks of the Church: apostolicity.
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In the past, I there was a period of 3 years or so between popes. I believe it was just before Pope Gregory the Great, but I could be wrong. During that time of no pope, new bishops were consecrated without papal approval and were assigned roles. When the new pope was elected, he approved the consecrations and said the church did the right thing. When no pope is present. Jurisdiction comes from Holy Mother Church.

Many sedevacantists turn to the principle of epikeia which essentially states that laws are for the benefit of the people and that a law that ceases to benefit the people becomes invalid. Therefore, according to them, a law that says a Catholic bishop needs something that is impossible for him to get (due to a lack of pope), that law becomes invalid otherwise the church will end.
 
Former sedevacantist here. All it takes is prayer and faith to come out of that heresy.
 
That all popes after a certain time are invalid and therefore the Church is without a Holy Father.
 
TheBomb.Com said:
That all popes after a certain time are invalid and therefore the Church is without a Holy Father.
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I have a response for this, but I fear it would get deleted or my account suspended. Would you be interested in continuing this discussion over PM?
 
Bataar said:
During that time of no pope, new bishops were consecrated without papal approval and were assigned roles.
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To be clear: until Vatican I, the pope’s role in selection of bishops was close to non-existent outside of Italy and the America’s.

Also, these long vacancies are what created conclaves. “con clave” is latin for “with key”, and is quite literal: the angry people of Rome gathered up the Cardinals who were happily living it up in Rome, and locked them in a building, sending in only bread, water, and wine until they elected a pope . . . (I have daydreams of doing that with a Pope and Orthodox Patriarchs . . . 😛
. . . "You can come out after you concelebrate the Eucharist . . .)
 
I second the motion! Hear Hear! And the crowd goes wild! 😆

 
I have never been involved with any of these, but my mom attended an SSPX chapel in the 90’s at the recommendation of her sister (my mom and aunt both loved the Latin Mass and there wasn’t another one in the area at the time). My mom had no idea what SSPX was and thought they were in full communion with Rome based on a pamphlet they gave to people who attended. At one point, a diocesan priest ended up telling her she could not continue attending the SSPX and then she learned of their standing with Rome. My mom has not gone back since except for one time for a family member’s funeral, for which we were given special permission to attend (just couldn’t receive Holy Communion).
 
I was raised a sedevacantist, and so was my husband. We both came back to the Church two years ago. Why? The grace of God, in short. If you want more detail, we revisited all the arguements we had been raised with and realized that we actually didn’t believe them. I am overjoyed to be raising our children in full communion with Rome. They get to experience the fullness of Catholicism in a way I never knew as a child.
 
Wonderful. Glory to God.
Which particular sedevacantist organization did you belong to, and, do you know other former sedevacantists? Thanks.
 
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I started out in Ohio with St. Gertrude the Great. After my family moved out west, we were involved with CMRI. I know a few former sedevacantists. Not many leave once they get there.
 
Aha. Thanks for sharing your story, and thank God that He delivered your family out of it. How long did the de-conversion last, and what helped you the most to see through the falsehood?
 
You mean how long did it take for us to transition back to the Church? Probably about a month and a half, from the time we first started investigating, to the time we first attended Mass at our local diocesan parish. A book called, “The Pope, the Council and the Mass” by Likoudis and Whitehead was very helpful. Most of all, it was really just looking at the pro-sedevacantist arguements as adults for the first time. Every explanation that we had taken for granted as being true seemed incredibly weak once we took a good look. I would say the questions that really demanded answers were: 1. Who has the authority now? 2. What gave anyone the right to break away from the Church? 3. How does this situation resolve itself? The conclusions we came to were: 1. If sedevacantistism was right, then there was no authority, and we were no different than Protestants. 2. Nothing could have given anyone the right to break away, and it was merely a series of very intelligently-articulated opinions that formed the basis of why sedevacantists are right to operate independently as they do. 3. The situation does not ever resolve itself. According to the sedevacantist position, the Church, the sacraments, and clergy are all invalid. It would be impossible to ever elect a “true” pope again. This would mean that the gates of hell had prevailed against the Church, essentially making the Gospels false.
 
👋 Former sedevacantist here. Back in May or June of 2019 I was researching all that sedevacantist stuff and felt so convinced it was right. (I was 16 back then.) I finally came here with my questions asking for people to disprove everything I was concerned about. (Obviously I applied my logic to their answers to make sure it all checked out.) The people delivered, and after a few weeks to a month, I was a sedevacantist no more. It felt so freeing when I finally identified myself with the Roman Catholic church again. In the time I was away, I felt so disconnected and just… human (kinda how I feel right now being away from Mass due to this whole coronavirus pandemic.) I recommend to anyone who might be looking around at different faiths and practices and stuff to just pray for wisdom, and pray the rosary especially.
 
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I’m an sspx supporter in that I am sympathetic to the order’s position. I attend sporadically when I wish to go to a TLM. I almost exclusively confess to a sspx priest as he is the best confessor I’ve ever had.
 
Most Holy Family Monastery. A sedevacantist monastery. They are considered so extreme that even a lot of sedevacantists don’t support them. They, along being sedevacantist, reject Baptism of Desire, and I think Baptism of Blood.
 
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