Can I please have some of the Catholics ( and orthodox ) explain to me if the sedevacantists in the Catholic realm have any points that should be taken seriously.
No, they have none.
From some of the limited material I have read, they seem to have some valid points regarding the vacancy of the see of Rome.
All heresy or schism has
some truth in it. That’s what you’re seeing. The devil always clothes a lie with some truth in order to make it it believable; otherwise, it will not be accepted because it is the property of the intellect to assent only to truth, whether real or apparent.
I understood it differently. It seemed to me that they affirm the infallibility of the see of Peter (that is why they have not all become Orthodox) but that they consider that the See has been vacant. I don’t think they see themselves as being in disobedience or disagreemtne with the Pope, since they don’t recognize him as a valid pope. However, if I misunderstand this, please someone let me know, because I am very new in my study on this point.
They say they believe in the infallibility of the pope and the indefectibility of the Church. But in effect, because they believe the papal seat to have been vacant for 50 years, they do not believe the promise of Christ to be with His Church to the end of time and that the gates of hell wouldn’t prevail against the rock of Peter.
They have taken it upon themselves to determine the orthodoxy of the pope. This standpoint has awful consequences. Just think: if every time the pope declared a dogma, the lay faithful took it upon themselves to determine if the pope were a heretic or not, the Church would get absolutely nowhere! There is absolutely
no reason to have a pope if we, the Taught Church, have the right to judge the pope’s orthodoxy like the sedevacantists are doing!
The whole reason Jesus established the papacy, the rock of Peter, was so that we could have an infallible guide. This sedevacantist theory is just nuts! If it were true, you have
no reason to be a Catholic! There is no assurance that you are on the right track since you have no rock on which to build your faith.
I do want to make a gentle warning to those of you who are concerned that the arguments of the sedevacantists have some merit: pray for faith and do not get too curious or concerned with their arguments. St. Pius X, in his encyclical
Pascendi Dominici Gregis (On the Doctrines of the Modernists), says, “Curiosity by itself, if not prudently regulated, suffices to explain all errors.” If you do not want to fall into heresy yourself, you must prudently regulate your curiosity. In other words, pray for faith, get educated in your faith by reading the Catechism and other orthodox materials, and remember that it is possible to be on the right track without knowing all the answers to the arguments. Keep humility at the forefront when engaging in debates with sedevacantists; realize that you don’t need to know all the answers, that it is your faith that matters.
F.X. Wernz, P. Vidal: “Finally they cannot be numbered among the schismatics, who refuse to obey the Roman Pontiff because they consider his person to be suspect or doubtfully elected on account of rumours in circulation.” (Ius Canonicum, 7:398, 1943)
If we cannot regard sedevacantists as schismatics because they refuse obedience to the pope on account of doubting his validity, we are forced to regard them as heretics. Because in practice (since they believe the papal seat has been vacant for 50 years) they believe not the words of Christ: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” (Matt. 28:20) “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18)
Maria
The state of your soul was not the intent of my last post
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