The following is a possible answer this thread would recieve from a sedevacantist. I post this with the hope that i’m not banned, i’m enjoying the good discussion and am learning a lot.
Essentially, the Church’s theologians and canonists (whom we’re obliged to obey when there is consensus) teach that a Pontiff is deposed of his office through manifest heresy, and a papal claimant is prevented for acquisition of office through manifest heresy.
Heresy is simply the pertinacious post-baptismal denial or doubt of an article of faith, by an individual claiming to be a Christian.
A heresy is manifest if its existence is exposed in a public manner which can happen in a number of ways including through a document which by its very nature is vulnerable to the inspection of many individuals etc. (General audiences, Encyclicals all count for manifest.)
An example of such a heresy committed by Benedict XVI is the document entitled, “ON SOME ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH UNDERSTOOD AS COMMUNION” published in 1992. This document is signed and therefore officially supported in full by Benedict XVI. It was written while he was the head of the Congregation for the doctrine of faith. As noted earlier, manifest heresy would prevent the acquisition of Papal office.
The alleged manifest heresy is contained in p. 7-10; esp. p. 17.
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html
It is the teaching that non-Catholic communities (churches/sects) are in partial communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
This is pertinacious because Benedict (then ratzinger) is aware of its contrary nature to pre-vatican II teaching. It’s manifest because this document by nature is susceptible to public exposure, and was intended as such. This is heresy because it is directly contrary to the following teachings of the Magisterium:
1.) Iam vos Omnes.
2.) Satis Cognitum.
#1 says, “None [of these religious societies differing among themselves and separated from the Catholic Church], not even taken as a whole, constitutes in any way and are not that one, Catholic Church founded and made by Our Lord and which He wished to create. Further, one cannot say in any way that these societies are either members or parts of that same Church, because they are visibly separated from Catholic Unity.” (Apostolic Letter Iam vos omnes, September 13, 1868, Pius IX.)
#2 says,
"Every Revealed Truth, without Exception, Must be Accepted
- The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office, has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine: they abandoned only a tertian portion of it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. “There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition” (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa contra Arianos).
"The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodoret, drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. “No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic” (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88). (Satis Cognitum, p. 9, June 29, 1896, Leo XIII)
God bless
