SSPX and Cluny

[Latinitas]

That’s one thing that a pope cannot do. Popes are bound by divine revelation. From the time of the Apostles, particular churches are under the jurisdiction of a bishop.

…with the authority and approval of the Pope.

The pope does not have the authority to undermine apostolic succession.

True. There is no authority to do evil. But it does not undermine apostolic succession to grant favors and immunities, a privilege which, since the time of Apostles, the Pope has had.

He has universal jurisdiction. This means that he can enter any diocese and command any bishop. He can grant faculties and take away faculties anywhere in the world. But he cannot violate the theology of apostolic succession. He cannot overrule a bishop on that which is the bishop’s divine right. A bishop is a pontiff.

Yes and no. You’re correct in that the Pope can enter, command and grant faculties with our without the approval of the bishop. It’s a not a violation of apostolic succession for the Pope to overrule a bishop, however. In fact, it would be a violation of apostolic succession for the bishop to assert a divine “right” to contest the Pope. The bishop has no divine “right” apart from that which he exercises in communion with the Pope. A bishop has a divine right, but only through the union with His vicar, in law and deed, the Pope.

If a pope were to say to a group that they can set up their tent in a jurisdiction against the will of the bishop, the pope would be violating the bishop’s rights.

The bishop has no right to his own diocese; that’s for the Pope to place him there. Only the bishop of Rome governs by immediate divine right. Read the Dictatus Papae of Pope St. Gregory VII. I cannot emphasize enough, the Pope cannot “violate” the bishop’s “right” to govern his diocese, because it’s the Pope who gives the bishop the authority to govern that diocese. If the Pope wishes to govern the diocese himself, he needs no authorization from the bishop to do so.

These are not rights given to the bishop by law. They are given to him by apostolic succession.

Which law has duly ordained by the vicar of the God-Man Jesus Christ by apostolic succession, the Pope.

This comes through very clearly in Roman history. While Peter was the supreme pontiff, his authority over the churches was limited and still it to this day. It’s not so limited that it is crippling. But there are certain things that have come down not by canon law, but from the early Church itself. One of those is the right of a bishop to govern his territory.

You have a little bit of a mistaken view of canon law. Canon law is from apostolic succession. The right of the apostles in communion with Peter to make laws governing the Church is basically what apostolic succession means. If we’re discussing whether or not the Pope can exempt certain persons from the authority of the bishop, this is a matter of canon law, which regulates the way in which apostolic succession works. Again, the bishop has no right to his territory; he is assigned that territory by the Pope, and can be removed from that territory by the Pope. There are two different theories in how the bishop gains his authority, but both theories make clear that it is the Pope who grants the title of a diocese to a bishop. You can read about the Papal vs. Episcopal theory of governance in Dr. Ludwig Ott’s Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma.

In the case of exempt religious, prelatures and ordinariates, the fact that a bishop cannot intervene once they are inside his diocese is not contrary to revealed ecclesiology. But what he can do is deny entrance to his diocese. There is no pope on earth who can impose it on him.

But the Pope can overrule the bishop and grant the religious and ordinariate the right to enter that diocese. Yes, the Pope has competence and jurisdiction over all cases of law and privilege in the Church, including that which relates to the bishops.

The best the pope can do is to transfer that bishop and assign one who is of like mind to his own and allow the group in.

No, the Pope could simply overrule the bishop, and order him to accept them into his diocese. The Pope could also suppress the diocese, depose the bishop etc.

You don’t want to mess with apostolic succession. That’s very sticky. That’s how the Anglicans got into trouble and how the Orthodox have managed to remain a true Church.

Apostolic succession also includes the monarchical power of the Pope over the bishops, and his supreme and universal jurisdiction in and over the Church. What got the Anglicans in trouble was that the rite they used in the consecration of bishops was defective. Had the words of consecration come earlier, they would have been valid bishops.

I mean to say this with all charity and not in any way to start a quarrel, at all, and I can see why you might think this way, but it is a pernicious error. The Pope is monarch over the Church, and the bishops are like dukes. All authority in the Church is descended from Jesus Christ through his vicar, the Pope.

With all charity,
Benedicat Deus,
Latinitas