If a pope would become a heretic he would be self-judged no different than any other heretic.
Canon 188.4 deals specifically with offices. “By tacit resignation, accepted by the law itself, all offices become vacant ipso facto and without any declaration if a cleric… publicly defects from the Catholic Faith.”
SFD
This Canon, canon 188.4, is not in the Code of Canon Law. It was abrogated in 1983 with the introduction of the new Code.
I’ll repeat what I said elsewhere about the absolute and supreme power of the Pope.
This is what the Code of Canon Law says:
The pope possesses supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely. The pope is the Bishop of the Roman Church. He is the Shepherd of the Universal Church. (canons 330-333)
The Pontiff has supreme power in the Catholic Church. Canon 333 states that no appeal or recourse is permitted against a sentence or decree of the Roman Pontiff. By virtue of his office, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power over the universal Church, but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them.
There is no canon in the law of the Church which the Holy Father must obey. There is no Cardinal, no bishop, no Congregation, no dicastery, no synod of bishops, no ecumenical council, no power on this earth to which he must answer. His power is supreme, and his power is absolute.
He can abrogate the whole of Canon Law, or any particular canon, and rewrite it according to his own will.
The Pope possesses exclusive rights regarding an ecumenical council and other activities of the college of bishops. (c 337-338; c 341)
It is the Roman Pontiff alone who can convoke an ecumenical council, preside over it, transfer, suspend or dissolve a council (c 338). The Pope even oversees the agenda of a General Council. It is the sole right of the Pontiff to approve the decrees of a general council. Decrees of an ecumenical council do not have obligatory force unless they have been approved by the Holy Father.
Nothing can knock Peter off his throne but death. The Code of Canon law does not foresee a vacant see except in the case of death. The case of a ‘heretic’ pope is foolishness, and not foreseen or provided for in the Law of the Church.
If it had any validity, the law of the Church would provide for it in the universal law of the Catholic Church.
When the See of Peter is vacant, (‘sede vacante nihil innovetur’) with the death of the Pontiff, there can be no innovations in the governance of the Church (canon 335). During this time, the tasks and rights of the college of cardinals and of the Roman Curia are regulated by the
Apostolic Constitution Universi Domenici gregis. The Conclave is called according to this Apostolic Constitution. When the See of Peter is vacant by death, the college of cardinals regulate the daily business of the church, but they cannot take upon themselves the power of the pope (canon 359)
You see, it is all controlled by the Code of Canon Law, and the Law gives to the Pope Supreme and Absolute Power in the Church. Sedevacantists have no position, no theory, no power in the Roman Catholic Church, or justification to put forward this absurd theory.
peace