What if all the bishops die?

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I think the Church would then be able to come to an arrangement with the SSPX to ordain some new bishops. Of course they might want something themselves…
 
Read “Lord of the World” by Hugh Benson.

By the way this is one reason why there likely will never be another Council, at least in person. Terrorism was rare in the 1960s.
 
As God is the omnipotent, He would not will that all the Bishops die.

Should this happen, we would know that the Church was a lie.
 
Probably several people will step out and claim the succession goes through them. A period of agitation and acrimony would follow, with the Church split in several directions.

While it is not a perfect analogy, the Russian Old Believers formed because a group believed all of the clergy had abandoned the faith. Old Believers in the US will receive communion from he validly ordained, ie Catholics , Orthodox, etc but there are no clergy within heir own communities. A group like that would probably also spring up after the death of the last bishop.
 
That might mean the Church doesn’t survive, and God promised it would.
 
tablekitten said:
One of the Church’s fundamental sources of legitimacy is apostolic succession. What if all of the Bishops in the world, including the Pope and the College of Cardinals, due to some cataclysmic event, die without being able to consecrate any more bishops? Who will lead the Church?
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Frankly, that is not just highly improbable I would venture to say it is impossible. Such an event would have to hit every country on the planet and if that happened probably the human race would be gone.
 
tablekitten said:
What if all of the Bishops in the world, including the Pope and the College of Cardinals, due to some cataclysmic event, die without being able to consecrate any more bishops?
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That’s a very odd idea. Do you envisage a cataclysmic event that wipes out the whole human race at one go, worldwide, or an event that takes out one bishop while he’s saying Mass in his cathedral in Toledo, Ohio, and another bishop while he’s saying Mass in his cathedral in Jakarta, Indonesia, and so on from country to country, targeting a single bishop in each place, with the exception of Rome, of course, where several dozen bishops are annihilated at the same moment, though the hundreds of priests and millions of lay people who live and work in Rome are mercifully spared?
 
The Eastern Orthodox patriarchs would consecrate new Catholic Eastern bishops. Eastern Catholic bishops, at least in some Churches, choose their patriarchs. Patriarchs are papal electors.

The Eastern Patriarchs would elect a pope.
 
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I have to tell you that all bishops will die one day… Like all of us.

I am not afraid of some scary destiny of Church because Christ said that He is with us until the end of the world and even the gates of Hell will not overpower the Church.
 
If all as in all bishops (not just Catholic but all Orthodox, schismatic, and illcit) in the world die such that there is no one alive who carries the episcopal office, then that puts an end to Holy Orders, period. Holy Orders is a pillar of the Church and one of the Sacraments, so if that is cut off at the knees, then the Church dies.

Therefore if that happens, that is solid proof that the Church has no divine protection, it is not indefectible, its claims are meaningless, Christ’s promises are empty, and the Christian faith is a sham and a lie, and not worth following.

Jesus’ promise requires that the episcopate remain till the end of time.
 
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Gorgias said:
Here’s my wild guess: the whole point of canon law is for the good of souls. So, if we reached a point where the good of souls is impeded by a lack of priests and/or bishops, then some provision / exception might be made which would allow for ordination(s) of priests / bishops. I suspect that the Church would allow itself to be “rebooted” rather than let itself die. Just my guess, though.
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Per my comments above, it is entirely possible that the survival of a single priest would be sufficient to restore holy orders. Father Pulvermacher, as “Pope Pius XIII” (not to be confused with Jude Law’s character in the HBO series), did precisely this, and went one step further and created a new line of apostolic succession. Pretty hairy stuff. But, worst-case scenario, as long as one priest were living, we might be able to have priests but no bishops. Matters could be worse.

If all bishops and priests were to perish, with no successors, I have to think that it would mean the coming of the Lord is nigh, or else we would all be in the predicament of the Japanese Catholics who had no priests and no Mass for 200 years, surviving only through baptism and a valid sacrament of matrimony. It would be similar to the Jews of the post-apostolic era who have no priesthood, no sacrifices, and have been “making do” for 2000 years with rabbis, intensive study (that is a gross understatement!), synagogue services, and rites such as Passover, Yom Kippur, the bris, and marriage.
 
Perhaps the OP envisages a worldwide pandemic that kills everyone over the age of 60. That would take out most of the bishops of the world.

Somehow that does not seem like such an unlikely thing these days.
 
Dovekin said:
Perhaps the OP envisages a worldwide pandemic that kills everyone over the age of 60. That would take out most of the bishops of the world.
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“Most” wouldn’t be a problem, though. One cardinal would be sufficient to elect a new pope. Three bishops would be sufficient to consecrate new bishops. One bishop would be sufficient to ordain new priests.
 
Hume said:
Well, in fairness, I’m sure the Levites and Pharisees thought their deal was pretty permenant too, but Yahweh decided otherwise, right?
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So your point is that life is mysterious and full of uncertainty and we ought to have the humility to realize that we don’t control the universe?
 
whatistrue said:
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Gorgias:
Three bishops would be sufficient to consecrate new bishops.
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Are three bishops actually required for the consecration to be valid, or are three used for other reasons?
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Can. 1014 Unless the Apostolic See has granted a dispensation, the principal bishop consecrator in an episcopal consecration is to be joined by at least two consecrating bishops
 
HomeschoolDad said:
Father Pulvermacher, as “Pope Pius XIII” (not to be confused with Jude Law’s character in the HBO series), did precisely this, and went one step further and created a new line of apostolic succession. Pretty hairy stuff.
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At least Fr. Pulvermacher was a priest.

There’s the group in Kansas that elected a layman to be “Pope Michael”. The group included his parents and a couple siblings, as I recall.
 
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