by T. Stanfill Benns | Oct 13, 2024 | New Blog
+St. Edward the Confessor+
ATTENTION READERS: Please pray for the repose of the soul of Irene Keast, who passed away Oct. 9 following a long battle with cancer. Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen. Without Irene’s help, The Phantom Church in Rome could not have become a book, and the translation of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis could not have been made. She was a spiritual treasure, a dear and faithful friend who will be greatly missed.
Introduction
A reader recently inquired about Pope Paul IV’s Cum ex Apostolatus Officio — when did Hutton Gibson first publish his translation of Cum Ex… online, what year did I publish my breakdown of Cum Ex…, and whether the sedevacantist position stands without Cum Ex…? While there are several articles on Cum ex… published to this site, many of which have been there for nearly 20 years, I will summarize below.
— Argentinian Professor Dr. Carlos Disandro translated both editions of the Bull (1977,1987) into Spanish, from the Latin text of the Magnum Bullarium Romanum, pages 829-831. The 1987 edition contained a detailed commentary on the bull.
— Publications such as Veritas and Hutton Gibson’s The War Is Now printed parts of the Bull in 1982, 1983 without offering commentary, although Hutton Gibson did remark that under Can 6 § 6, the Bull was still in effect. Veritas claims to have obtained their copy of the bull in 1975 from Hugh McGovern, publisher of The Voice. If Gibson ever published a copy of Cum ex…, I have no knowledge of that. I first published my copy of the bull online in 2006.
— In 1984, Briton’s Catholic Library (BCL), cited the Bull in their Under the Laws of the Catholic Church the Papal See is Vacant and later, in one of their “Library Letters,” John S. Daly translated the entire bull (most likely from Disandro’s Latin edition). N. M. Gwynne and Daly also wrote what seems to be the only other commentary extant on it.
— Prof. Benjamin Dryden translated the Bull in 1984-85, with the cooperation of Daniel Dolan, but Dryden initially followed the SSPX in declaring it had been abrogated. Later he advocated for a papal election, based on the Bull. Dryden’s translation can be viewed HERE.
— I addressed Cum ex… in my 1990 book Will the Catholic Church Survive…?, and I do believe there was enough said in that book that people could easily come to the conclusion that the hierarchy was basically defunct. In the book, I gave a history of the Bull and referred to the BCL commentary, because at the time I did not have Carlos Disandro’s commentary on Cum ex… in English translation. That was later posted HERE. My observations on Disandro’s commentary are posted HERE.
So Cum ex… was well known and debated in LibTrad circles in the 1980s. The allegations the bull has been abrogated, first raised by the SSPX against Disandro in 1977, were refuted in my 1990 book. Later, further evidence of the infallible nature of Cum ex… and its retention in the 1917 Code of Canon Law was published to this site in 2006. The abrogation allegations are still insisted upon by various LibTrad sects and even Sedevacantists cannot agree on what constitutes an heretical act, although this is not hard to determine. Canon 2200 tells us that: “Given the external violation of the law, the evil will is presumed in the external forum until the contrary is proved.”
Roncalli clearly proved that the suspected modernist label first pinned to him by Pope Pius XI and never removed by Pius XII was more than justified, given his later promotion of ecumenism and other heresies. He was a Communist sympathizer, an ecumenist, hence a heretic at the time of his “election,” so could never have been validly (canonically) elected. This was proven from his own public statements in my 1990 book. Those who argue that he “became” a heretic as “pope” embrace heresy, for they deny Christ’s promise to Peter that his faith and the faith of his successors could never fail.
Denying the necessity of canonical elections is heretical
Those who refuse to believe that Roncalli was invalidly elected and likewise refuse to consider evidence to prove this fact also deny a truth of faith necessary for salvation. Only canonical elections are valid, as the Church teaches. To be canonical they must be in accord with the rules existing and applicable at the time under canon law, as will be explained below. According to the work Dr. Littledale’s Theory of the Disappearance of the Papacy by Sydney F. Smith, S. J., (Farm Street, Berkeley Square, W. London 1896): “Of the vast majority of individual Popes, and still more of the line of Popes, reaching not merely up to the sixteenth century, but to our own days, it is absolutely clear that they received that loyal adherence and obedience from the Universal Church which Leo XIII receives now, and which of itself is so sure a sign of the legitimacy of his title that we can even make it the matter of an act of faith that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ. This is no mere theory, but the common doctrine of Catholic theologians, as will appear sufficiently from the following passage in Ferraris Bibliotheca, a work of the highest authority.
“In his article on the Pope, (S.v. Papa, p. 949) Ferraris says: ‘It is of faith that Benedict XIV, for instance, legitimately elected and accepted as such by the Church, is the true Pope (common doctrine among Catholics). This is proved from the Council of Constance, where Martin V’s Const. Inter Cunctus decrees that those who return from heresy to the faith shall be asked, among other points, ‘Whether they believe that the Pope canonically elected, for the time being, his name being expressly mentioned, is the successor of St. Peter, having supreme authority in the Church of God.’ For thereby he supposes it to be an article of faith, since those who abjure heresy are ‘interrogated only as to truths of faith.’” And indeed it is enshrined as an article of faith in DZ 650 and 674 under the condemnations of Wycliffe and Huss. So what possible excuse can LibTrads offer to explain their absolute dereliction of duty in formally declaring that election null and void on numerous counts? They commit heresy by pretending a canonical election is irrelevant, which is no surprise since they since they routinely discount and violate canon law.
Those believing John 23rd’s election was valid point to his “acceptance by the universal Church.” Of course this would be the cardinals, bishops and clergy, then the faithful. Well we know where they all wound up — wholeheartedly approving of and voting for Vatican 2! They definitely were NOT members of the universal Church once they elected and accepted Roncalli as “pope,” nor were many of the cardinals voting in Roncalli’s “election” members of Christ’s Mystical Body. With no legitimate, canonical election, and acceptance by a universal Church no longer truly Catholic, there can be no true pope. Canonical election depends on faithfully following all the rules laid down in the prevailing election law, in this case Pope Pius XII’s Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis (VAS). In The Phantom Church in Rome and in articles on this site, I have carefully detailed the many violations of VAS, documented in biographies of Roncalli, the histories of his election and the history of Vatican 2. And the evidence shows that there were clear violations of Pius XII’s election law that invalidated Roncalli’s election from the start, making him ineligible as a candidate, even aside from the fact that he was a heretic.
One of the very few articles in English (other than those on betrayedcatholics) that treat of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis at all is one written by Anthony Cekada. Cekada sets out to answer the question of whether para. 34 of VAS negates the sedevacantist premise. “If so, the passage means an excommunicated cardinal can be validly elected pope. Doesn’t this shoot down the fundamental principle behind the entire sedevacantist case?” In the process of answering this question, Cekada makes points that should lead everyone to the infallibility of Cum ex… but fails to mention the connection. And the connection is right there in VAS itself, para. 36: “Canonically deposed Cardinals, or those who have renounced the cardinalitial dignity with the Roman Pontiff’s consent, have no legal right at an election. On the contrary, during the vacancy of the See, the Sacred College cannot restore or bring back to their former state Cardinals stripped of this right or deposed by the Pope.”
Disandro on tacit resignation
Cardinals can resign officially or tacitly, according to Can. 188 §4. And what constitutes tacit resignation? Apostasy, heresy or schism. Can. 188 §4, as pointed out by Prof. Disandro in his Doctrinal Precisions, is directly related to Pope Paul IV’s Cum ex… :
“Pius XII’s article 36 [in his election law] is talking about those “deposed canonically.” The debate is thus opened, since 1945, on the meaning of this expression. Are they the canonically deposed cardinals which the text of Pope Paul IV considers? Is there a coincidence between 1559 and 1945? Yes, naturally, and with a greater foundation [for such a “coincidence”] if we consider the “larva stage” of Modernism. Deposed cardinals cannot function now, nor are they subject to excommunication or interdict. Excommunication could refer to other details, while [these cardinals] remain faithful to the Church. The deposition, in effect, is RADICAL, that is, it affects not only the privileges or canonical singularities of the subject, BUT ALSO ANNULS THE DIGNITY ITSELF, (in an irreversible manner), and of course the position in the hierarchy or office, assumed or conceived in any manner. How then would an election rule be able to determine the resumption of the state of the cardinalate if the Bull itself takes care to emphasize that it is absolutely impossible?
“4. We affirm in a bold manner:
- a) cardinals deposed, by the force of the Bull are canonically deposed, and they are not able to function either as electors or eligibles;
- b) the reasons defined by the Bull, by referring to the bond between the Faith and the Hierarchy, are imprescribable, and they act ipso facto (by the very fact), such as the text itself of the 16th century intended;
- c) cardinals excommunicated for other disciplinary reasons enjoy the exception granted in the document of Pius XII [para. 34], BUT THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO MONTINIAN AND POST-MONTINIAN CIRCUMSTANCES;
- d) never have we spoken of excommunications or suspensions of cardinals for reasons other than doctrinal. And speaking of the primacy of DOCTRINE over DISCIPLINE, the question which we have pointed out against the heretics who lead the Conciliar church, against the Montinian heresy, has always been and will always be simply referred to the order of being (what actually is): EITHER THERE ARE OR THERE ARE NOT CARDINALS, THERE ARE OR THERE ARE NOT POPES, THEY FUNCTION OR THEY DO NOT FUNCTION IN SUCH OFFICES AND DIGNITIES.”(End of Disandro quote)
As a public heretic, a man declared suspect of such even by two popes, Roncalli was deposed prior to his election. He could not vote or be considered a candidate. Some contest the “public” nature of his heresy, but they should not. The definition is clear under Can. 1325. “Whenever by silence, subterfuge or manner of acting,” one even implicitly denies the faith. Subterfuge and manner of acting are definitely in play here, both in the case of Roncalli and the cardinals who “elected” him. It was a public act, the attempt to promote an unworthy man to the papacy.
A certain number of these cardinals went into the conclave as occult heretics. Their heresy became manifest on accepting Roncalli as papabile (capable of election), because he had violated VAS and they knew this, having participated in the violations. This itself is heresy, a denial of the necessity of canonical election, which resulted in their tacit resignation; they could not cast valid votes. Roncalli was suspected of heresy by two popes and in violation of several VAS provisions, and only a future pope could lift the excommunication attached to such violations. He was therefore not eligible for election. Moreover, Pope Pius XII states infallibly in VAS that all the acts of anyone violating papal or canon law are null, void and invalid. The attempt to elect a man who was guilty of such violations and hence incapable of being elected until absolved by a future pope was automatically invalidated. As for his suspected heresy, that matter was presumed under Can. 2200 to exist until proven otherwise, and only a future pope could determine this. For as VAS clearly states, NONE of the canons can be changed or dispensed from during an interregnum.
Cekada quotes from the theologians
“’Heretics and schismatics are barred from the Supreme Pontificate BY THE DIVINE LAW ITSELF… [T]hey must certainly be regarded as excluded from occupying the throne of the Apostolic See, which is the infallible teacher of the truth of the faith and the center of ecclesiastical unity.” (Maroto, Institutiones I.C. 2:784)
“Appointment to the Office of the Primacy. 1. What is required by divine law for this appointment… Also required for validity is that the one elected be a member of the Church; hence, heretics and apostates (at least public ones) are excluded.’” (Coronata, Institutiones I.C. 1:312)
“’All those who are not impeded by divine law OR BY AN INVALIDATING ECCLESIASTICAL LAW are validly eligible [to be elected pope]. Wherefore, a male who enjoys use of reason sufficient to accept election and exercise jurisdiction, and who is a true member of the Church can be validly elected, even though he be only a layman. Excluded as incapable of valid election, however, are all women, children who have not yet arrived at the age of discretion, those afflicted with habitual insanity, heretics and schismatics.’” (Wernz-Vidal, Jus Can. 2:415)
“Thus heresy is not a mere “ecclesiastical impediment” or censure of the type that Pius XII enumerated and suspended in paragraph 34 of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis. It is instead an impediment of divine law which Pius XII did not suspend — and indeed could not have suspended, precisely because it is one of divine law.
“Paragraph 34 of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis suspends the effects of censures (excommunication, suspension, interdict) and other ecclesiastical impediments… for cardinals who are electing a pope and for the cardinal they finally elect. Thus, a cardinal who had incurred an excommunication prior to his election as pope would nevertheless be validly elected. This law concerns only impediments of ecclesiastical law, however. As such, it cannot be invoked as an argument against sedevacantism, which is based on the teaching of pre-Vatican II canonists that heresy is an impediment of divine law to receiving the papacy.”
What Cekada could have mentioned here but did not mention is the fact that one suspected of heresy, when that suspicion still exists, automatically incurs the censure for heresy if the suspicion is not removed within six months’ time (Can. 2316). Obviously, Popes Pius XI and Pius XII did not see fit to remove this suspicion of heresy notice from Roncalli’s file, placed there in the 1920s, meaning that this suspicion still existed. Meaning also that on Roncalli’s part, the six months had long expired. He had been advised officially by Pope Pius XI of his delict and had recanted, and by Pope Pius XII regarding the worker priest affair and Roncalli’s naming of a known Freemason, his friend Yves Marsaudon, as the head of the French branch of the Knights of Malta. He may have appeared to repent, but his usurpation clearly showed that he was never sincere and continued in his heresy, just as the embracing of the false Vatican 2 council proved that the cardinals and bishops had all lost the faith. The popes’ failure to remove the suspicion of heresy letter posted to his official file is proof they believed he could not be trusted.
Papal candidates and invalidating ecclesiastical law
Above Cekada says, quoting Wernz-Vidal: “’All those who are not impeded by divine law or by an invalidating ecclesiastical law are validly eligible [to be elected pope].” Let me ask you, who is the sole interpreter of what constitutes divine law? Definitely not Wernz-Vidal or any other theologian. Pope Paul IV was the one who made this divine law clear to all in his bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio. And he wrote regarding a man, one Cardinal Morone, who was aspiring to the papacy and was on trial for, but not yet convicted, of heresy! Morone was later excluded from being made a candidate by the future Pope St. Pius V, who as pope confirmed Cum ex… in his Intermultiplices.
In his bull, Paul IV also made clear that all the acts of apostates, heretics and schismatics who tacitly resigned from their ecclesiastical offices were invalid, null and void because they had lost their offices and had no power whatsoever. This he extended to cardinals and bishops. Therefore, Cum ex… was also an invalidating law. Pope Pius XII also invalidated any acts performed during an interregnum that violated any of the provisions of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis regarding papal elections, usurped the papal power or violated papal or canon law in any way. The cardinals violated divine law by electing a man suspected of heresy. They, including Roncalli, violated several election protocols, among them one allowing the interference of secular authorities in the election. Pope Pius XII clearly declares all these acts null and void, and any acts issuing from them null, void and invalid. This is “invalidating ecclesiastical law.”
Pius XII concludes his Constitution with the words: “This present document and whatever is contained in it can by no means be challenged… [It] will be always and perpetually true, valid, and effective, and acquire and obtain their own full and undiminished results… We command those individuals to whom it pertains and will pertain for the time being to vote, that the ordinances must be respectively and inviolably observed by them, and if anyone should happen to try otherwise relative to these things, by whatever authority, knowingly or unknowingly, the attempt is null and void.” Sedevacantists could not afford to wholeheartedly endorse Cum ex… because it deprived those who had “ordained” and “consecrated” them of any power to perform these acts validly, and this based on the divine law they pretend to champion. They did not dare mention Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis because that law invalidates everything done during an interregnum that is not in conformity with papal and canon law. VAS likewise invalidates all usurpations of papal authority, including the approval process necessary prior to episcopal consecration. This also nullifies any priestly ordinations emanating from men falsely claiming to have become bishops during such an interregnum.
Conclusion
The answer to the reader’s question is that the sedevacantist position is verified both by Cum ex Apostolatus Officio AND Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis; they are both documents issuing from the infallible magisterium and both work in tandem. It is impossible to discount Cum ex…as abrogated or dismiss it as a non-infallible document, since it treats of the manner of determining what is a violation of Divine law. Cekada even backhandedly admits this. Cum ex… treats of the Divine law; VAS of invalidating ecclesiastical law applicable during an interregnum. VAS prohibits, however, all LibTrad and Novus Ordo operations and nullifies all attempts at the usurpation of papal jurisdiction and violation of Canon Law. All this has been covered here before, but refresher courses are necessary when some seem to be unclear regarding the actual course of events. The one thing that should be more firmly emphasized here is that denying the necessity of confirming that an election is unquestionably canonical is to deny an article of faith — that canonical election is essential to Apostolic Succession.
This is the predominating heresy embraced by LibTrads and the Novus Ordo sect that should have been addressed from the beginning. We know that God willed otherwise, that His ages-old plan for the Church be fulfilled. And so we accept His will, pray and watch, and lift up our heads, ever hopeful that our redemption is at hand.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Aug 15, 2024 | New Blog
+Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary+
An article written in June has been submitted for comment by a reader from a Novus Ordo site called Canon Law Made Easy. The Canon Law referred to on that site is the false revision of the 1917 Code issued in 1983 by the usurper John Paul 2. This revision was first suggested by Angelo Roncalli before the first session of the false Vatican 2 council. In the Novus Ordo article, statements are made and links provided regarding the “schismatic” sedevacantist position and the false basis for this position. Of course no one expects members of this non-Catholic sect to get anything right, regardless of their supposed canon law credentials. But the points they use to deflect enquirers from sedevacantism need to be addressed, since they predictably fail to inform their readers that they do after all have the obligation to diligently research the legitimacy of the 1958 election and form their conscience accordingly.
The revised 1983 “code”
Abp. Amleto Cicognani observed that changes to the law are odious and are to be made sparingly. Revs. Woywod-Smith state under Can. 22 that “Changes in the law are made solely by the Holy See, and only for serious reasons and after mature deliberation… It is a fundamental principal that the general presumption is always in favor of the old law remaining unchanged.” So if those considered doubtful “popes,” at best, change the laws, then in doubt the old laws always remain in force under Can. 6 §4. Doubt concerning the validity of these false popes suffices, for those not able to gain a more advanced degree of certainty; a doubtful pope is no pope, as St. Robert Bellarmine teaches, and as a doctor of the Church his opinion is probable according to the moral theologians. We are to use such opinions, also reflex principles whenever we have no one to consult regarding such situations. Canon 22, in the 1917 Code states: “A more recent law given by the competent authority abolishes a former law if the new law explicitly says so or if it is directly contrary to the old law or if it takes up and readjusts the entire subject matter of the former law.”
The entire question here must be asked and answered for those who have not yet done the necessary study: were Roncalli and his successors true popes, “competent authority”? Were their elections unquestionably valid? The answer to this question should be obvious, given the fruits of these imposters and what has been presented by this author and others for nearly 35 years. This is why, of course, all these objectors assume the question is preposterous, schismatic, absurd, etc. They list those who have the least likelihood of offering any credible evidence for Roncalli’s false election, the more fantastical sedevacantist proponents, to make sedevacantism appear to have little value as a tenable theory. While claiming to uphold the law, they violate it, resorting to sophisms to avoid addressing the issue, that is arguing beside the point. The elephant in the room remains very large and real while they talk around it.
They don’t even get the real jist of the issue or the sedevacantist position held by LibTrads, writing: “And since a man who isn’t validly elected Pope can’t validly select new Bishops and Cardinals, this means that subsequent Popes were chosen by non-Cardinals, meaning that the new Popes weren’t/aren’t validly elected either. So sedevacantists are basically saying that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church has pretty much ceased to exist” (June 6, 2024). Only those praying at home really believe the hierarchy has ceased to exist, in this the end times. Sedevacantist pseudo-clergy believe they are the hierarchy and can continue to function without their head bishop, the pope. The proper term, which all canonists should be familiar with, is actually canonically elected. And the real issue here is not whether the non-cardinals chose subsequent popes or a non-pope could select new bishops. The old law easily solves the problem, and if these commentators were truly competent canonists who had done their due diligence, they would know this. Canon 2391 § 1 states that a college electing an unworthy candidate is automatically disqualified from proceeding to a new election.
Certitude and matters of faith
In a link to a 2017 article, provided in the June 6, 2024, article, we read: “Canon 205 tells us that a baptized Catholic is in full communion with the Catholic Church if he accepts the Catholic faith, Catholic sacraments, and Catholic governance — and it’s the issue of rejecting church governance that is the key problem with sedevacantism. If you don’t believe that this or that papal document was issued by a man who is/was really the Pope, then you naturally don’t intend to abide by whatever it says by refusing to accept the authority of the current Pope or his recent predecessors, a Catholic who’s a sedevacantist willfully puts himself into a state of schism… But since sedevacantists tend to cite (incorrectly) a lot of canon law in support of their positions, it seems reasonable to assume that they are aware of both the Church’s position on the crime of schism, and the penalties that may accompany it…
“Sedevacantism… is a schismatic movement rather than a heretical one. As sedevacantist Catholics refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Holy Father(s), deciding for themselves that he/they are not really Pope(s), they are deliberately taking themselves out of full communion with the Church… When people take it upon themselves to decide that the Pope isn’t really the Pope because he took a sketchy theological position, or because his personal morals were scandalous, or because it looks like his election wasn’t done quite right… they’re playing with fire.”
But there is a major problem with these statements. Catholics MUST decide for themselves, for they are obligated to arrive at certitude that the man claiming to be pope was canonically elected, according to the laws prevailing at the time, NOT the revised 1983 code — the old law still prevails. Theologians unanimously teach that one cannot act in a state of doubt regarding matters concerning eternal salvation, such as obedience to a true pope, unless and until that doubt is resolved, and no one will consider ALL the evidence to resolve it. That we are bound to remove this doubt is clearly demonstrated from the binding decrees found in Henry Denzinger’s Sources of Catholic Dogma, (DZ 570d, 650, 652, 674, also Cum ex Apostolatus Officio): “A pope canonically elected, who lived for a time after having expressed his own name, is the successor of blessed Peter, having supreme authority in the Church,” (DZ 674). This is an article of faith, proposed for belief to the Armenians and to Wycliffe and the Hussites. The article proposed to the Armenians asks them to hold that “all the Roman Pontiffs who… succeeding Blessed Peter have entered canonically and will enter canonically,” will possess the same plenitude of jurisdiction Christ granted to St. Peter. Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton states that what was proposed to the Armenians is to be considered a dogma of faith, (The Concept of Sacred Theology, pgs. 132-33).
In his 1896 work Dr. Littledale’s Theory of the Disappearance of the Papacy, Sydney F. Smith, S.J. wrote: “The following passage is [found] in Ferraris Bibliotheca, a work of the highest authority. In his article on the Pope, (S.v. Papa, p. 949) [the respected theologian] Ferraris says: It is of faith that Benedict XIV, for instance, LEGITIMATELY ELECTED and accepted as such by the Church, is the true Pope (common doctrine among Catholics). This is proved from the Council of Constance, where Martin V’s Const. Inter Cunctos decrees that those who return from heresy to the faith shall be asked, among other points, ‘Whether they believe that the Pope canonically elected, for the time being, his name being expressly mentioned, is the successor of St. Peter, having supreme authority in the Church of God.’ For thereby he supposes it to be an article of faith, since those who abjure heresy are ‘interrogated only as to truths of faith.’” (See DZ 674, 675).
No schism if positive doubt established
This same article of faith is one we ourselves must believe. But if certitude cannot be had regarding the canonical status of the election, and the book The Phantom Church in Rome, also articles on this site have provided sufficient evidence for years to cast grave doubt on the results of the 1958 election, then one is bound in conscience NOT to hold such an election valid. According to the opinions of seven notable theologians, in withdrawing from the “obedience” of a man claiming to be pope who you believe was never canonically elected, no schism is involved. Vermeersch-Cruesen, Reiffenstuel, Schmalzgrueber, Ferraris, Vechiotti and Szal state: “There is no schism involved… if one refuses obedience [to a pope] inasmuch as one suspects the person of the Pope or the validity of his election…” (The Communication of Catholics with Schismatics, Rev. Ignatius J. Szal, A.B., J.C.L.). Serious reasons, that is positive doubt, must exist and proofs must be presented to support such a position. This fulfills the provisions of Can. 20 and establishes probability according to Church teaching. These theologians agree that one need only suspect that the man claiming to be Pope is irregular in some way or invalidly elected (Can. 2200), and we have established far more than just suspicion in the documents presented on this subject.
And then we have the probable opinion of St. Robert Bellarmine, who teaches a doubtful pope is no pope: “When there is a prudent doubt about the validity of an election to any official position, there also is a similar doubt whether the person so elected really has authority or not. In such a case, no one is bound to obey him… But a superior whom no one is bound to obey is in reality no superior at all… An authority that may be justly doubted at all times is no authority; it commands neither obedience nor respect as is evident in churches that reject the claim to indefectibility… One who intrudes himself into the ministry against the laws of the Church receives no authority, and consequently can transmit none to his successors…
“Therefore,” continues the Cardinal, “If a papal election is really doubtful for any reason, the one elected should resign, so that a new election may be held. But if he refuses to resign, it becomes the duty of the bishops to adjust the matter, for although the bishops without the pope cannot define dogmas nor make laws for the universal Church, they can and ought to decide, when occasion demands, who is the legitimate pope; and if the matter be doubtful, they should provide for the Church by having a legitimate and undoubted pastor elected. That is what the Council of Constance rightly did.” (Rev. E.S. Berry, The Church of Christ: “p. 402).
St. Antoninus, commenting on the Great Western Schism, also noted: “The question was much discussed and much was written in defense of one side or the other. For as long as the schism lasted each obedience had in its favor men who were very learned in Scripture and Canon Law, and even very pious people, including some who – what is much more – were illustrious by the gift of miracles. Nonetheless the question could never be settled without leaving the minds of many still in doubt. Doubtless we must believe that, just as there are not several Catholic Churches, but only one, so there is only one Vicar of Christ who is its pastor. But if it should occur that, by a schism, several popes are elected at the same time, it does not seem necessary for salvation to believe that this or that one in particular is the true pope, but just in general whichever of them was canonically elected. The people are not obliged to know who was canonically elected, just as they are not obliged to know Canon Law; in this matter they may follow the judgment of their superiors and prelates.” And the superiors and prelates WE follow are those writing before the death of Pope Pius XII.
Another respected theologian weighs in here: “A doubtful pope may be really invested with the requisite power, but he has not practically in the Church the same right as a certain pope — he is not entitled to be acknowledged as Head of the Church, and may be legitimately compelled to desist from his claim,” (The Relations of the Church to Society — Theological Essays, Rev. Edmund James O’Reilly, S.J., emph. his.) Rev. O’Reilly was the theologian of choice in Ireland for local Irish Councils and Synods and was a professor of theology. The opinion of these men and the proofs that the 1958 election was invalid also constitutes the juridical certainty in way of evidence required by Dom Charles Augustine under Can. 430. What Szal presents, then, is a solidly probable opinion, one which helps establish certitude, and according to the laws and teachings of the Church it may be followed at will.
So those among LibTrads holding John 23 as validly elected and the Novus Ordo “experts” who criticize others for misquoting Canon Law and accuse them of willfully committing schism are asking Catholics to actually ignore their conscience and deny an article of faith. Furthermore they have entirely argued beside the point regarding the question, refusing to consider evidence that amply shows there were numerous alarming irregularities and evidence of outside election interference in 1958. These facts have been available for years, even decades. Pretending to be champions of Canon Law, they entirely discount and ignore the canons then in effect which have been cited here numerous times. But most importantly, they entirely dismiss Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, which infallibly voids any attempted act or acts contrary to those canons, and levies penalties for violations of his law that could be lifted only by a future canonically elected pope. This renders their reasoning and their arguments null and void.
Peter’s faith lacking in Roncalli, Montini
We read above from this NO site that: “Canon 205 [1983 code] tells us that a baptized Catholic is in full communion with the Catholic Church if he accepts the Catholic faith, Catholic sacraments, and Catholic governance… it’s the issue of rejecting church governance that is the key problem with sedevacantism.” No, the issue of Church governance and unchanging faith is the key problem with ALL LibTrad and Novus Ordo sects. The Church was founded on a rock — on PETER’S FAITH. It was not founded on fractured rock or sand. Both Cum ex Apostolatus Officio and Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis exclude heretics or suspected heretics from election and Roncalli was a proven suspected heretic (see HERE). And the Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: “Of course, the election of a heretic, schismatic, or female would be null and void.” Neither Roncalli or Montini were loyal to Pope Pius XII or retained that same faith. His governance meant nothing to them; they were working together and with others to establish a new church, and they succeeded. Many instances have been cited proving they questioned or denied the faith; Vatican 2 and the Novus Ordo Missae proved that most effectively. Montini and Roncalli were Catholics in name only. But how do you make an objective judgment in this case when the man falsely elected has been declared a “saint”?!!
Dr. Cyril Andrade wrote in a 1976 article, Are Papal Elections Inspired by the Holy Ghost?”: “Pius XII is pope: Montini is his pro-secretary of State: Roncalli is Papal Nuncio in Paris: the Pope suppresses the “Worker Priest” movement in France because far from reclaiming the workers to the Church, all of the 200 “Worker Priests”, themselves, lost their faith; but Montini and Roncalli, in collusion, secretly encourage the movement and keep it alive against the order of the Pope.” After explaining how both the elections of Roncalli and Montini were secretly engineered by Freemasons and others, Andrade writes: “Does this scenario of low, vile intrigue, connivance, collusion and treachery of the hierarchical mafia led by the liberal (heretical) gang of Suenens, König, Döpfner, Lercaro, et al, in any way lend credence to the canard that the Conclave that elected [Roncalli and] Montini was “secret” and “inspired by the Holy Ghost”?
“To thus make a mockery of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, in this vile fashion, is to be guilty of the unforgivable sin. But, then, the Vatican II Mafia does not believe that the Holy Ghost is God for, in the fourth Eucharistic prayer which they have concocted for their Novus Ordo Missae (New Mass) they state categorically: “Father in heaven, you alone are God . . .” (Emphases added), thus excluding the Son and the Holy Ghost from the Trinity Godhead.” And these Novus Ordo pretenders can dismiss these heresies and proofs that faith is lacking, in Francis AND his predecessors, to accuse sedevacantists of schism and rejection of lawful authority? Please see the article HERE which confirms what Andrade wrote so long ago.
And not only must the one elected as pope be considered here but the ones electing as well. As Andrade notes and Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis states, the cardinals are tasked to select who they believe is the worthiest among them to act as Christ’s vicar. Those making this selection must certainly be Catholic themselves. Yet we see that all those cardinals who participated in Roncalli’s election, minus those who had the good fortune to pass away, went on to convene and approve the deliberations of the false Vatican 2 council. And they were good Catholics, they can be trusted and we have no reason to doubt them? How could anyone be so blind? A canonical election requires that all those voting be Catholics who have not automatically forfeited their office owing to some heresy. Ecumenism is a heresy; religious liberty is a heresy; the insertion into missalettes distributed in 1959 containing the English translation, “for all men,” is a heresy. If only a few cardinals could be proven to be suspect of heresy, or disobedient to the pope or to have participated in plots to confirm Roncalli as pope before Pope Pius XII’s death, and there is proof of this, Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis declares the election is invalid for want of a two-thirds plus one vote.
Peter’s faith is the rock, and without it the entire foundation that is the papacy crumbles. Does any true Catholic really believe that the Holy Ghost would descend upon and grant the gift of infallibility to a man suspected of heresy for over 25 years, elected by men, some of whom were complicit in rigging the election, with assistance from the CIA and other groups? Canon Law and pre-1958 canonists deny the election would be valid. Pope Pius XII declares in his infallible Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis that anything done in violation of the sacred canons during an interregnum is null and void. Common sense and any reverence for the institution of the papacy should tell us that such an election is doubtful in the extreme, especially considering what went before compared to what followed. It would convince a rational person, if we were dealing with truly rational human beings identifying as Catholic. But sadly this is not the case today. Pray that the veil be lifted from their eyes and the hardness be driven from their hearts.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Jul 31, 2024 | New Blog
+St. Peter in Chains+
+Prayer Society intention for August+
“O HEART most pure of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
obtain for me from Jesus a pure and humble heart.”
First, I would like to address the conspiracy theories. There has been speculation on social media that Trump staged his own near-miss, that he was never grazed by a bullet, with the after-bandage photos seeming to show little if any residual damage. That doesn’t mean that a bullet whizzing by that barely touches the ear could not cause profuse bleeding, even if no tissue damage is visible. Or that the inside back of the ear, which cannot be seen, was not abraded. Cosmetic surgical procedures unavailable to the general population and high-tech cosmetic aids can expertly mask skin damage. Even had the shooter missed Trump entirely and only hit the firefighter and father who tragically died, it would still qualify as an attempted assassination.
And yes, as one reader writes in, Trump “could be one of them.” The Church fully understands what voting for an unworthy but less evil candidate entails. Those presenting as Catholic need to be conscious of the fact that they are branded as crackpots and their religious position damaged by suppositions they make that cannot be proven, i. e., conspiracy “theories.” When certainty cannot be obtained, moralists allow us to follow a probable opinion. Let’s leave what we can’t prove aside and focus on what affects us from a strictly religious standpoint, which places us on much safer ground.
Is Trump a Christian?
I recently received the following link from yet another reader: https://www.bitchute.com/video/uNky8MT7g0NX In this video, Trump states he is NOT a Christian, something many did not previously know. I watched some of this speech live and Trump admitted that Catholics have been persecuted and that no Catholic could vote for a Democrat in good conscience. He also embraced all non-Christian religions and placed them on an equal footing, as all those promoting “democracy” do. Those who lean toward him now know his true orientation. His true religious affiliation seems to be unknown. Of course in politics these days it is all irrelevant. We have Pres. Biden, a baptized Catholic and culpable as such, supporting full-term fetal death, as does VP Harris, and Trump, (sporting a Novus Ordo VP), who dodges the issue by leaving it to the states to decide. Anyone expecting a genuine Christian to be capable of election is living in a fantasy world.
Could Trump be Jewish, or at least leaning in that direction? We must remember that Trump’s daughter converted to Judaism, the faith of her presidential senior advisor-husband Jared Kushner. Trump’s father reportedly had many Jewish friends and business associates. And we know Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel’s war against Palestine following the Oct. 7 attack, the latest result of a conflict ongoing for over 100 years. Israel’s response to this attack is justified because Palestine is currently in the hands of Hamas, the terrorist organization that attacked Israel following numerous skirmishes over the years, aided and abetted by other terrorist groups. All would support any nation’s right to defend itself from such attacks. But the overall history of this conflict, which has escalated into a war, is little understood. And what is not understood at all is the longstanding position of the Church regarding the Jewish occupation of Palestine, which has been effectively buried. So a refresher course is provided below.
Valuable Catholic lessons on the Palestine question
First a little background on the history of the Palestine situation. “The Balfour Declaration of 1917, issued by the British government, supported the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire and under British control following World War I.
“The British Mandate for Palestine (1920-1948) saw increased immigration of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe, particularly during the Nazi era, which led to rising tensions between Jewish and Arab communities. The Arabs opposed the growing Jewish presence and the idea of a Jewish state, leading to outbreaks of violence” ) https://worldhistoryedu.com/origin-and-history-of-the-conflict-between-israel-and-palestine/).
When Israel became a state in 1948, the Arabs occupying that territory objected and went to war against Israel. Although the UN had established specific borders, the war ended with an increased number of Jewish Palestine refugees, which many considered as illegal occupation under international law. Several other wars followed.
In a scholarly work delivered as a history dissertation by Adriano E. Ciani in 2011 (https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/348/), Ciani carefully details the Church’s stance pre-Vatican 2 on the Palestine question. He begins with the following:
“In 1904, Pope Pius X granted an audience to the prominent Zionist Theodor Herzl, in which he reminded his guest that the Roman Catholic Church could never endorse or support the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine. This was to remain the essence of papal policy on Palestine for decades to come. A reader has been kind enough to provide the exact text of Pope St. Pius X’s comment to Herzl: “We are unable to favor this movement. We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem but we could never sanction it. The ground of Jerusalem if it were not always sacred has been sanctified by the life of Jesus Christ. As the head of the church I cannot answer you otherwise. The Jews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people. And so if you come to Palestine and settle your people there we will be ready with churches and priests to baptize all of you.”
What has happened, beginning in the 20th century, is that anti-Semitism, which the Church has repeatedly condemned, was extended at Vatican 2 to the Palestine question itself, a completely separate political issue promoted by the Zionists, that had no relation to Jewish persecution. Despite their false claims to hold all things Catholic just as they existed prior to Vatican 2, LibTrads have adopted the stance that not only has the Church never condemned anti-Semitism, Her distrust and dislike for the Jews is evidenced by many warnings issued against them and confirmed by their confinement by the popes to the ghettoes of Rome. LibTrads even have revived the ritual murder charge, long ago dismissed by the popes. The founders of Traditionalism in Mexico and the U.S. blamed the Church’s infiltration and demise mainly on the Jews, and for many years those following them have continued to believe this was the case. Some have even descended to neo-Nazism, as various articles and studies have confirmed.
But fingering the Jews is a classic example of projection, which lifts blame for what has befallen the Church from those commissioned to die rather than let this happen — the cardinals and bishops — and transferring it to the Jews and others. Even the laity who were then adults and educated in Catholic schools must accept this blame for not better studying these issues and coming to the aid of the Church. Instead of adopting the offensive, they took the victim stance, waiting to be rescued and comforted. Of course we were all victims, but that should not have been our chosen designation. We are meant to be soldiers of Christ, not shell-shocked survivors of the spiritual combat in which all of us are expected to engage. By playing the victim, we effectively surrendered. The distinction must be clearly made between anti-Semitism and support of Israel’s recovery of the holy places in order to settle their own people there. Below, Ciani provides proofs that although the Church did all She could possibly do to combat anti-Semitism and help the Jews, at the same time She consistently opposed Israel’s efforts to resettle Jews in Palestine.
“Between 1939 and 1945, more than six thousand Italian Jews obtained passports, ship tickets and travel money from the Rome-based St. Raphael’s Association, an organization directly funded by the Vatican. Countless others were sheltered in monasteries, churches, convents and private homes, all with the explicit knowledge of the Pope, and consistent with his opposition to Nazi and Fascist racialist policies. The Vatican Relief Commission, at a cost of nearly one million dollars, supplied food, clothing, and medicine to untold thousands of refugees, prisoners and partisans during the winter of 1943-44, including at least 6,000 Jews in Rome alone.
“Throughout the war, a distinct bifurcation endured in the Vatican’s response to persecution of Europe’s Jews, characterized by assistance to Jews, where possible, on the one hand, and an opposition to the goals of political Zionism on the other. Simply put, the tragedy of the Holocaust and the refugee crisis that it created did not translate into Vatican support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Assistance to European Jews was regarded as a Christian duty, an obligation to lend assistance to a suffering fellow man. Monsignor Domenico Tardini, the Vatican’s undersecretary of state, expressed as much in the spring of 1943, when he observed that “the Jewish question is a question of humanity. The persecutions to which the Jews in Germany and the occupied or conquered countries are subjected are an offence against justice, charity, humanity… Therefore, the Catholic Church has full reason to intervene, whether in the name of divine law or natural law.” Support for a Jewish homeland, however, despite the catalyst that the Holocaust had created toward that very end, was unfailingly opposed by Pius XII‟s Vatican, based on the ancestral Roman Catholic tenet that the Terra Santa was sacred to the faith, and must never fall under the political jurisdiction of a sovereign power.
“In large part, Catholic periodicals and diocesan newspapers in the United States reflected the position of Rome; namely that the persecution of European Jews was a tragedy for all humankind, but that it did not necessitate, or obviate, the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine… Vatican policymakers preferred to keep discreet any public stance on the future of Palestine. Privately, however, Pius XII and his Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione, continued to express severe reservations about the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, fearing a loss of control over Christian sites in the Holy Land, and concerned with the possibility of a “Jewish beachhead‟ for communist influence and infiltration in the Near East. These sentiments were shared by a number of the Vatican’s most powerful Cardinals and diplomats, including Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, who as nuncio to Istanbul was noted for his efforts to save Jewish lives, but was unreceptive to the solutions posed by political Zionism. In a September 1943 letter to Maglione, Roncalli expressed discomfort about the degree to which Vatican aid to Jews would be later considered an endorsement of their ‘messianic dream’, adding that the ‘reconstruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the Israelites would not create a utopia.’
“The Holocaust, despite providing the most compelling rationale yet for the creation of a Jewish home in Palestine, did not alter either the Vatican’s or the American bishops’ opposition to the Zionist program, a stance which remained firmly rooted in historical and theological notions… On the substantive question of Jewish emigration to Palestine, and the creation of a Hebrew national home there, however, the American bishops remained resolutely in line with Rome. It was a policy that withstood the full airing of the tragedy of the Holocaust, and which stood firm against the rising tide of sympathy for Zionism in the United States, not just among Jews but among a growing segment of American Protestant Churches, Congress and even the Truman White House.
“The American Episcopal consensus that remained intact from the 1920s to the 1950s was weakened in subsequent decades by a number of factors, not least the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the great renewal movement in the Roman Catholic Church that was called by Pope John XIII in 1959. A number of American bishops took active roles at the Council, embracing its reformist zeal as evidenced by the promulgation of Dignitatis Humanae, a declaration on religious freedom conceived by John Courtney Murray and tabled by Archbishops Albert Meyer of Chicago and Joseph Ritter of St. Louis. Though Cardinal Spellman loomed large at the Council, and was undoubtedly the leader of the “conservative‟ faction of American bishops, there emerged in Rome a growing faction of liberal-minded bishops, which included Meyer and Ritter as well as Detroit’s John Dearden and Kansas City’s John Patrick Cody, who more openly took up the Council’s mandate of revival and renewal.
“The Second Vatican Council was also significant, moreover, for the promulgation of Nostra Aetate, a declaration on the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church with non-Christian religions. Notable was the fourth section, which dealt specifically with Judaism. It repudiated the centuries-old charge of deicide against the Jews, and stressed the religious and spiritual bonds shared by the faiths, reaffirming the eternal covenant between God and the people of Israel. It further dismissed the Catholic objective of trying to convert the Jews, a symbolic turning point if juxtaposed with Pope Pius X’s 1904 warning to Theodor Herzl that should the Jews return to Palestine, there would be “Catholic priests waiting there to baptize them all.” For the first time in history, Nostra Aetate called for Catholics and Jews to engage in friendly dialogue and theological discussion to better understand each other’s faiths. After intense debate, the declaration was adopted by the world’s cardinals and bishops on 28 November 1965, a definitive turning point in the history of Catholic-Jewish relations.
“The Second Vatican Council, and its promulgation of Nostra Aetate, would herald the beginning of a new era both in relations between Catholicism and Judaism and, by extension, between the Vatican and Israel. The Council, moreover, would unleash a plurality of views in the Church that would preclude the survival of such a monolithic transnationalism.” (End of Ciani quotes)
What this means for us today
In Nostra Aetate, John Courtney Murray’s American proposition, as explained in our last blog, was finally admitted as Catholic practice. It taught that the Church need not evangelize to secure converts, Jewish or otherwise, and Jews could not be held responsible for crucifying Christ. Forget the fact that according to Rev. Denis Fahey, Rev. Cahill and others, the Jews had never been held responsible by the Church for this act as a race for His death on the Cross, only the Jewish leaders of that day who actually crucified Him. For they alone knew that He had indeed fulfilled all the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and certainly the rabbis leading the Jewish people following the destruction of the temple, as prophesied by our Lord, never acknowledged Him and shamelessly spread filthy lies about Him and His Blessed Mother. The Church would not have the Jews persecuted for this, but neither would they ever concede that the Holy Land should be given over to the very people who rejected our Lord and had no reason to honor or preserve the ground He trod or the places He taught.
So while we cannot support Muslim control of the Holy Places existing today, neither can we support the plans of the Zionists to repopulate Palestine in order to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem and install the Jewish Messiah, as Roncalli (already in on the plan) well knew. And that is their goal. See https://www.betrayedcatholics.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Final-Chapter-for-web.pdf for the full overview, but we will provide some excerpts here. As one Jewish writer observed many years ago, “The Roman Catholic Church wants Israel to lose sovereign control over the Old City of Jerusalem so that “the promises to the literal descendants of Abraham will be applied to the ‘New Jerusalem.’ If Israel controls Jerusalem, it is evidence that Rome’s claims are not legitimate and that the literal interpretation of Scriptures is correct. There is no place for the restoration of the nation of Israel in its theology. How can the Vatican claim to be “the New Jerusalem” and “rightful heir to the Kingdom of God” if the Jews control Jerusalem? How is the Catholic Church going to convince the world that their version of theology is correct?
“The premise is this: According to Rome there will never be a Temple/Synagogue built in Jerusalem unless Rome first controls the real estate (Temple Mount, Old City, City of David, Mt. Zion) upon which it will be built. The Vatican is actively pursuing these goals… The Vatican has attempted to obtain control of Jerusalem, which started with the Crusades. For them to convince the world that the Messiah they put on the world’s stage is going to be accepted as genuine, they need to perform this play in the Old City. The story of this production is that this “Messiah” will merge THE THREE MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS, usher in peace and harmony in the world, and solve the Middle East conflict. The location for this “production” will be in none other than the Old City of Jerusalem.”
“This so-called “Messiah” that will be proclaimed, will be a false one and it will insist that by having a “world government” (i.e., the United Nations) the world peace and harmony will be ushered in. This will be a lie, and a fraud, but never mind. In our world, reality isn’t important. Public perceptions are. The end result is the stripping of Israel’s sovereignty as an independent nation giving way to a “regional bloc of nations” in the Middle East. Israel will be pressured to accede to these demands by all world bodies and the superpowers on the claim that “this is the only way to solve the Middle East conflict.”
“In order for the Jews to go along, they will convince them that with the “Messiah” having appeared for the Jews, it is time to start rebuilding the Third Temple — what they call “Solomon’s Temple.” This version of events is widely available through a simple search on the Internet… “Again: The Vatican is going to have everyone believe this “mysterious individual who will ‘unite the faiths’ and appear in Jerusalem which will be under the control of an authority headed by The Vatican.” That deal to have the Vatican come into Israel and take over these properties and to “control and dominate the Old City of Jerusalem” already exists and has been fully documented and reported in the world’s media.
“The deal that it has signed with Israel via Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres (in secret and without the approval of the Knesset, [Israeli legislature, Ed.]) gives the Church not only extraterritorial status to their properties (which is what the bi-lateral agreement the Israeli government signed with the Vatican on December 30th, 1993, put in law) but of control over the entire city as “custodians” under UN presence. In this way the Jews will give up control over the Old City. To the Vatican, the Israeli people they would have a problem with. To the UN, they would say, “We had no choice.”
“Arafat had been lobbying for the idea of sharing undivided Jerusalem, and for creating a Vatican-style sovereignty in the Old City.” (Somehow we are supposed to believe that Arafat initiated this, and not the Vatican. [Is that why he was murdered? — Ed.). The agreement calls for Jerusalem to be “an international city based on international resolutions and an international guarantee.” The pack was signed despite the Vatican having signed an agreement with Israel six years earlier on December 30, 1993, which gave legal jurisdiction under Israeli law over the Church’s own institutions and assets in the Holy Land” (Barry Chamish, Israeli investigative writer and reporter).
David Ben-Gurion, London, Dec. 16, 1949
“In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a shrine of the prophets to serve the federated union of all continents: this will be the seat of the supreme court of mankind, to settle all controversies, as prophesied by Isaiah. Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel and world Jewry: It aspires to become the spiritual center of the world.” And this is their goal, achieved in part by the recent erection of the Abrahamic Family House, which officially opened February 16, 2023. https://www.forhumanfraternity.org/abrahamic-family-house/.
Trump has not formally weighed in on the Palestine question. But he seems in favor of a peaceful resolution and a cessation of hostilities, both in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
Conclusion
Not Francis nor any of his successors are Catholics, or representatives of the Vatican. Any “deal” made with the Vatican was never made with the true Catholic Church, but with the Whore of Babylon, who Protestants themselves established through their creation of Freemasonry. Protestant pastors cooperated in the destruction of the Catholic liturgy and were present at Vatican 2. They applauded ecumenism, the absolution of the Jews as responsible for Christ’s death and the modernization of the Church. It is a certain faction of Protestantism, called Dispensationalists, who have supported the rebuilding of the Temple all along. One group has even established an evangelical seminary in Jerusalem with claims of Jew and Arab converts to Christianity (One for Israel). They teach that “The people of Israel are God’s chosen people whom He loves with an everlasting love. God continues to fulfill all of the promises given to the Fathers. … Yeshua the Messiah will return to establish God’s manifest kingdom, to resurrect the dead and determine the eternal destiny of all men, eternally blessing the believers and eternally punishing the wicked.”
These comprise many of the “Christians” who support Trump unconditionally because he supports Israel, and the number of these people seems to be growing. They are known as British Israel proponents, a rung listed on the ladder of Freemasonry, and they even count among their number a faction of Traditionalists. Certainly supporters of Hamas such as Harris could never be trusted. And if Trump is not a Christian and has Jewish leanings, one worries he would not be able to appreciate or impartially uphold the right of TRUE Catholics and sincere Protestants to lobby for the preservation of Israel from destruction of the holy places and protest its occupation by the usurpers. But at least it seems he is willing to protect the rights of Christians whether he professes to be a Christian himself or not. That is something that all those voting for him are bound to hold him to, should he be elected.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, Christ and His true followers will prevail in the end. The Jews longed for a fiery-eyed and righteous Messiah, and they shall have Him. Christ the King shall ride His white horse into the arena followed by a legion of angels, headed by St. Michael, when they least expect it and take possession of His throne. For He alone is the King of Zion, reigning forever and ever, Amen.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Apr 12, 2024 | New Blog
+St. Hermenegild, Martyr+
Read HERE of how St. Hermenegild. chose martyrdom rather than receive the Sacraments from the hands of heretics!
Well the solar eclipse has come and gone and here we all are, waiting for the media to exploit the next celestial event on the horizon. Christ told us we could expect signs — in the sun, the moon, and the stars — and we have seen them. He told us that one of these would be given to an evil and adulterous generation, and it would be only a sign, (not a notable event), involving Jonah and the whale. This of course points to Nineveh; in other words, one last chance to repent. If some expected His second coming based on this sign, they have forgotten that He will come as a thief. We continue to pray and watch, do penance for our sins, and pray for the conversion of sinners.
Below we will address a subject that has received little attention in these times in order to explain why it is so important for all to understand the necessity of obeying the teaching of the Continual Magisterium, the popes and ecumenical councils — not those who break the laws of the Church and question the supreme authority of the Roman Pontiffs by demanding belief in absurd propositions.
The necessity of passive infallibility
1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Infallibility — “When we speak of the Church’s infallibility we mean, at least primarily and principally, what is sometimes called active as distinguished from passive infallibility. We mean in other words that the Church is infallible in her objective, definitive teaching regarding faith and morals, not that believers are infallible in their subjective interpretation of her teaching. This is obvious in the case of individuals, any one of whom may err in his understanding of the Church’s teaching; nor is the general or even unanimous consent of the faithful in believing a distinct and independent organ of infallibility. Such consent indeed, WHEN IT CAN BE VERIFIED AS APART, is of the highest value as a proof of what has been, or may be, defined by the teaching authority, but, except in so far as it is thus the subjective counterpart and complement of objective authoritative teaching, it cannot be said to possess an absolutely decisive dogmatic value.”
Fr. E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ, 1927 — “Thesis: The body of the faithful infallibly accept the truths of revelation proposed to them by the teaching authority of the Church. The Church is infallible in believing, i.e., the faithful, as a body, are preserved from error in accepting and professing the doctrines taught by the Church. Individuals may err; whole provinces, and even nations may fall away from the faith, as history testifies; but those professing the true faith must always remain sufficient in number and in distribution throughout the world to preserve the Church truly Catholic in the unity of faith and worship.
“PROOFS. I. From Reason. Passive infallibility, in the sense just explained, IS A NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE OF THE INDEFECTIBLE UNITY OF FAITH and the perpetual Catholicity of the Church. Since the Church is immutably one in the profession of faith, the faithful as a body must be free from error, otherwise the faith would not be one, but many. Moreover, the profession of a false faith constitutes manifest heresy and excludes one from membership in the Church. Consequently, if the faithful as a body could fall into error in the profession of faith, the Church would immediately cease to be Catholic and would therefore cease to be the Church of Christ. It is evident, then, that the faithful as a body must be infallible or free from error, at least in the profession of faith.
“Passive infallibility, bestowed upon the Church primarily for the purpose of preserving unity of faith, also furnishes a rule of faith, since any doctrine professed by the whole Church must be a revealed truth. Practically, however, such a rule of faith is not sufficient for the needs of the faithful, because it requires long and diligent research to discover whether any particular doctrine is held by the universal Church, and also whether it is held as a revealed truth or merely as a pious belief.
“The value of Tradition as proof for revealed doctrine rests principally upon the active and passive infallibility of the Church. Whenever there are sufficient witnesses to prove that a certain doctrine is accepted by the whole Church as a revealed truth, or that it is taught as such by a majority of the bishops, it is immediately evident that the doctrine is infallibly true and could be defined as a dogma of faith, IF NOT ALREADY SO DEFINED. When appealing to tradition in this sense, it matters not what age of the Church be selected, since truth does not change with the centuries. The truth of a doctrine is established just as securely by proving its universal acceptance today, as by showing that it was universally accepted in any past age of the Church.
Henry Cardinal Manning, Petri Privilegium, Three Pastoral Letters to the Clergy of the Diocese, 1870 — “Passive infallibility… is, the Divine security which sustains the whole Church in its faith: so that it is impossible for the whole Church to err in believing, because the pastors of the Church, WITH THEIR HEAD, cannot err in teaching.But it is manifest that, according to this doctrine, the fountain of infallible teaching is the Divine Head in heaven, through the organ of the visible head of the Church on earth… It is also a matter of faith that not only no separation of communion, but even no disunion of doctrine and faith between the Head and the Body, that is, between the ecclesia docens and the ecclesia discens can ever exist. Both are infallible, the one actively, in teaching, the other passively, in believing; and both are therefore inseparable, because necessarily united in one faith.
“And lastly, that though the consent of the Episcopate or the Church be not required, as a condition, to the intrinsic value of the infallible definitions of the Roman Pontiff, nevertheless, it cannot without heresy be said or conceived that the consent of the Episcopate and of the Church can ever be absent. For if the Pontiff be divinely assisted, both the active and the passive infallibility of the Church exclude such a supposition as heretical. To deny such infallible assistance now after the definition, is heresy. And even before the definition, to deny it was proximate to heresy, because it was a revealed truth, and a Divine fact, on which the unity of the Church has depended upon from the beginning…
“Now, before the definition of the Vatican Council, the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff was a doctrine revealed by God, delivered by the universal and constant tradition of the Church, recognised in (Ecumenical Councils, pre-supposed in the acts of the Pontiffs in all ages, taught by all the Saints, defended by every religious Order, and by every theological school except one, and in that one disputed only by a minority in number, and during one period of its history; believed, at least implicitly, by all the faithful, and therefore attested by the passive infallibility of the Church in all ages and lands, with the partial and transient limitations already expressed. The doctrine was therefore already objectively de fide, and also subjectively binding in conscience upon all who knew it to be revealed.”
Phantom bishops and other fantasies
All the quotes above are not obscure passages taken at random from certain works, but the common teaching of the Church as found expressed in the same exact way in both catechisms and other works of theology. We bring this topic to the attention of readers today because we are engaged in an ongoing war with those who falsely hold that passive infallibility is not important. They presume to continue to inform those praying at home that LibTrad bishops are only “illicit,” not invalid, even after incontestable proof has been carefully researched and presented clearly showing that Pope Pius XII teaches it is impossible, during an interregnum, for such men to ever become priests or bishops.
According to the heretical teaching of certain LibTrads rejecting Pope Pius XII‘s teaching in VAS, the indefectibility of the Church depends on the existence of mysterious bishops still in hiding or incognito “somewhere,” even without the Roman Pontiff ruling as one of these phantom bishops. Those insisting on this theological absurdity never so much as mention the necessity of the pope to their existence. Why is such a teaching heretical? Because, as the Church has always taught and Pope Pius XII later officially confirmed, unless they are under the direction of the Roman Pontiff and in communion with him, bishops may have orders (if consecrated prior to Pope Pius XII’s death) but they have no power; their jurisdiction comes not directly from Christ but only through his Vicar (Mystici Corporis Christi, Ad Sinarum Gentum). The contention of those insisting there must always be bishops is that “the episcopal order of the hierarchy consisting of Catholic bishops with the power of Orders and the power of jurisdiction” can never cease to exist. They claim that to state otherwise is to commit heresy.
The absurdity of such a statement lies in the denial of the necessity of a HEAD BISHOP, the pope, who alone can grant the necessary approval for consecration of those priests selected to be promoted as bishops. Unless this approval is granted, episcopal consecration cannot be validly received during an interregnum because the papal approval/mandate is lacking. This is no interpretation of a papal document; it is the clear, unmistakable and infallible teaching of Pope Pius XII in Vacantis Apostiolicae Sedis. In Pope Pius XII’s Ad Apostolorum Principis the pope taught: “No authority whatsoever, save that which is proper to the Supreme Pastor, can render void the canonical appointment granted to any bishop…” And in VAS, during an interregnum. Pope Pius XII does so use his supreme authority to declare that the consecrations of any men as bishops, performed without papal approval, are a usurpation of papal jurisdiction and such consecrations are to be considered null, void, and invalid.
What Pope Innocent III tells us in his profession of faith proposed to the Waldenses (DZ 424) about the consecration of the Eucharist and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass also pertains to this topic. He taught that the Eucharist is not validly consecrated by just any priest, “…however honest, religious, holy and prudent [he] may be…Unless he be a priest, regularly ordained by a visible and perceptible bishop.” Pope Innocent III defines such a priest as one who is “established by a bishop for that office…And so we firmly believe and declare that whosever without the preceding episcopal ordination believes and contends that he can offer the Sacrifice of the Eucharist is a heretic and is a participant and companion of the perdition of Core and his followers and he must be segregated from the entire holy Roman Church.” What is of interest here is that we are talking about a “visible and perceptible bishop” and priests established by such a bishop to function as priests. So where are these visible and perceptible bishops? Do these people now believe in an “invisible Church,” a heresy condemned by Pope Pius XII in Mystici Corporis Christi? Do they also believe in fairies and leprechauns?!
It is interesting to note that in attempting to sidestep the invalidity issue those claiming these pseudo-clerics are only illicit resort to the same defense used by the late Daniel Dolan (CMRI) to defend his validity. Dolan also cites Ad apostolorum principis as declaring illicit but valid orders conferred by those not possessing the mandate, quoting the following from Pius XII’s encyclical: “Acts requiring the power of Holy Orders which are performed by ecclesiastics of this kind, though they are valid AS LONG AS THE CONSECRATION CONFERRED ON THEM WAS VALID, are yet gravely illicit, that is, criminal and sacrilegious.” But here Dolan commits a fallacy in logic known as “begging the question,” assuming as true that which has yet to be proved. Did Lefebvre or Thuc validly consecrate? Not without the mandate! Did the pope refer to consecrations performed during an interregnum in Ad apostolorum principis? Obviously not, since he was still alive.
Conclusion
Those pushing the “bishops must yet exist” heresy claim they do so to counter the “heresy” held by this author and those who frequent this site — that the laity can effectively constitute the hierarchy, that the Church as Christ constituted it is not indefectible and that five of the seven Sacraments no longer exist. No one has ever said that these five Sacraments (excluding Baptism and Marriage) have ceased to exist; being instituted by Christ they will always exist. We simply no longer have access to them thanks to the wholesale apostasy of the hierarchy and the commands of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, which we must accept with a firm and irrevocable assent. This is God’s will for us, and these deniers of papal supremacy would be more honest if they simply proved Pope Pius XII was a heretic and VAS was therefore a non-binding decision. As for the indefectibility of the Church, Rev. E. S. Berry and Henry Edward Cardinal Manning are quite clear in what is quoted above:
“Passive infallibility, in the sense just explained, IS A NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE OF THE INDEFECTIBLE UNITY OF FAITH and the perpetual Catholicity of the Church. Since the Church is immutably one in the profession of faith, the faithful as a body must be free from error, otherwise the faith would not be one, but many. Moreover, the profession of a false faith constitutes manifest heresy and excludes one from membership in the Church.” (Rev. Berry) And from Cardinal Manning: “It is also a MATTER OF FAITH that not only no separation of communion, but even no disunion of doctrine and faith between the Head and the Body, that is, between the ecclesia docens and the ecclesia discens can ever exist. Both are infallible, the one actively, in teaching, the other passively, in believing; and both are therefore inseparable, because necessarily united in one faith.”
It is the ones promoting the necessary existence of bishops who deny indefectibility and the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, not only in his ability to declare such bishops could never be appointed and consecrated without him, but in his grant to the faithful of the responsibility to carry on in their absence. This is treated below.
1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Laity — “The laity… may be appointed to give doctrinal instruction more or less officially, or may even become the defenders of Catholic truth. Thus they give excellent help to the clergy in teaching catechism, the lay masters in our schools give religious instruction, and some laymen have received a missio canonica, or due ecclesiastical authorization, to teach the religious sciences in universities and seminaries; the important point in this, as in other matters, is for them to be submissive to the legitimate teaching authority… The principle is that the laity as such have no share in the spiritual jurisdiction and government of the Church; but they may be commissioned or delegated by ecclesiastical authority to exercise certain rights, especially when there is no question of strictly spiritual jurisdiction…”
And this is what we have received from Pope Pius XII, a missio canonica which is devoid of any spiritual (sacramental or other) jurisdiction; it must be strictly confined to the preservation of all the Church taught prior to Pope Pius XII’s death. For as Pope Pius XII instructed, Catholics must take up all the responsibilities of the hierarchy in their absence, but only if it involves nothing opposed to faith and morals, the implicit or explicit will of the Church or anything contrary to ecclesiastical discipline (Mission of the Catholic Woman, September 29, 1957; entered into the Acta Apostolica Sedis). Faith and morals demand that we accept the teaching of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis. The will of the Church is clearly expressed by Pius XII in this infallible constitution. And in that constitution, he declares null, void, and invalid anything that violates papal law or Canon Law.
It is the most ludicrous of all contentions to hold that bishops could still exist on this earth minus their head bishop, a canonically elected pope, as the identical hierarchy established by Christ with all the rights He acceded to the Apostolic College. THAT is the denial of the Roman Pontiff’s supremacy of jurisdiction; THAT is the Gallicanist heresy. And worse than that: it is the occult Gnosticism that still prevails among the LibTrads generally, as explained HERE. One of the main proponents of this Gnostic “catholicism” once wrote to me: “It is heretical to state that the Catholic Church can be in existence without the episcopal order of the hierarchy consisting of Catholic bishops with the power of Orders and the power of jurisdiction… You deny the dogma that there is a perpetual, living, and infallible magisterium in the Catholic Church.”
The above statement is pathetically devoid of any true understanding of integral Catholic truth. And what is most alarming is that it is cunningly phrased to appear to those not well-instructed in the faith to be a legitimate statement. For the “episcopal order of the hierarchy” MUST include the head bishop, the Pope — Peter is the Rock on which Christ established His entire Church, not the bishops. His faith alone is indefectible, as Rev. Berry notes. And that it is a lie to say that I deny the “perpetual, living, and infallible magisterium” when all I do is insist it be upheld should be apparent to anyone reading what is presented on this site.
The perpetual, living and infallible magisterium is found in all the infallible writings of the popes. Exclude belief in one and you are done. If the pope says bishops can no longer exist during an interregnum, then they do not exist. If the laws of the Church tell us they become heretics and can no longer elect a true pope if they violate the terms of a papal law or Canon Law, then they are unable to do so. And if said cardinals and bishops lose their offices by joining a false sect — as ALL did at Vatican 2 — they are no longer cardinals and bishops!!! WHAT bishops??? Please tell me, if you, dear friends, truly believe in the perpetual, living, and infallible magisterium, which lives on in the Deposit of Faith even without the presence of the Roman Pontiff, how true bishops could ever exist without him?
There cannot be two Catholic churches, one believing LibTrad pseudo-clergy are only illicit and others believing they are invalid. This cannot be when the Roman Pontiff has infallibly taught otherwise. The Catholic Church either lasts until the consummation teaching ALL that Christ’s Vicars have taught, as they have taught it and in its entirety, or it does not exist at all. Those reading this have a choice to make: they can be numbered among the members of the invisible Gnostic “catholic” church praying at home or they can choose to obey ALL the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs. It is as simple as that. What they cannot do is pretend that given the infallible nature of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, they are members of the Catholic Church if they believe LibTrad pseudo-clergy to be only illicit.
by T. Stanfill Benns | Mar 6, 2024 | New Blog
Prayer Society Intention for March, Month of St. Joseph
“Oh blessed Joseph… most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, protect the chosen people of Jesus Christ; keep far from us, most loving father, all blighted error and corruption. Mercifully assist us from heaven, most mighty defender, in this our conflict with the powers of darkness.” (Raccolta)
+St. Thomas Aquinas, Confessor+
“It is charity I want, not learning. I have a great dread of learning, and a boundless love for charity. God grant that learning be not a source of division amongst us! God grant that charity may edify and unite us all in Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom alone be all honour and glory forever.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Letters 242.)
Introduction
It is the purpose of this blog to try and clarify the many misconceptions yet surrounding invincible ignorance and the true meaning of the term “implicit desire.”
The popes speak of individuals who are invincibly ignorant as non-members of the Church. We know those guilty of heresy and schism and or communicatio in sacris, whether Novus Ordo, LibTrads or members of some other non-Catholic sect, are at least material heretics. In other words they are to be considered outside the Church for reasons of external acts of heresy or schism until a true bishop or pope determines otherwise (Canon 2200). This is explained HERE. We judge them only in the external and not the internal forum. Despite their status however we cannot as Pope Pius IX teaches in Singulari quadam and his other encyclicals make any decision on whether they are formally guilty or excused for various reasons. That is to be determined by the Church. It is enough that, sadly, they have lost Church membership and cannot be considered members of the Mystical Body. Their actual guilt before the eyes of God is something He alone can judge.
Many have become confused about the Church’s actual teaching on these matters for two reasons: 1) The Feeney heresy and its fanatical supporters who falsely claim that popes the Holy Office’s teachings in Suprema haec sacra, the Holy Office being headed by Pope Pius XII himself, deny the dogma of no salvation outside the Church and 2) the Novus Ordo sect teachings, which openly declare that a person can be saved with some vague, ineffective act of the will, which was never the intention of the Church. Not only that, but the Novus Ordo teaches that man has an inherent right to choose his own religion and the Catholic Church has no inherent right to teach She is the one, true Church, outside of which no one can be saved. All this in the name of “freedom of religion,” thanks to the efforts of the Jesuit heretic John Courtney Murray and his supporters. These are the men who worked for two decades to engineer what later became Vatican 2 as explained at length in The Phantom Church in Rome.
We cite and obey Can. 2200 not to condemn others; this they do themselves by their own external acts. We simply obey this law in order to protect ourselves and the Church from any least tendency to heresy and from all the teachings of heretics and schismatics. This the Vatican Council ordered us to do in DZ 1820, where it taught: “But since it is not sufficient to shun heretical iniquity unless these errors also are shunned which come more or less close to it,we remind all of the duty of observing also the constitutions and decrees by which base opinions of this sort which are not enumerated explicitly here have been prescribed and prohibited by this Holy See.” This same teaching can be found in Can. 1324, which precedes the actual canon defining heresy, apostasy and schism. We believe, without making the actual judgment, that only by God’s mercy alone and the operation of grace in the individual soul that those outside the Church could be saved, but we do not presume such is the case. Pope Pius XII himself taught in Mystici Corporis that it is a difficult thing to be saved without being in the Church, narrowing the field to a chosen number of souls.
In our times, given the terrible confusion that prevails, the deliberate suppression of the truth and the lack of hierarchy to condemn the many sects that seem to pop up overnight, we do have reason to hope. I think that God, in His infinite mercy, will have pity on souls who really do try their best to know and understand the truth, to lead a Godly life, yet fall short. We cannot forget that the Jews considered themselves superior to the Gentiles and saved by their birthright alone. Yet in the end it was the Gentiles primarily who converted to Christianity. The name Catholic will not save us; only obedience to all that Christ taught, as relayed to us by His Vicars will guarantee our salvation. Those still trapped in non-Catholic sects are hampered mostly by their prejudices and lack of knowledge about how these sects actually came to be.
We can warn them that resisting the known truth, when they find it, is a sin against the Holy Ghost. But God alone can give them the grace to accept it and it is a pure gift from the Holy Ghost to understand it. As explained in our last blog, knowing is one thing; it is understanding and putting into practice what we know and understand that is most important. We must constantly pray for the gifts to know the truth, to understand it and to act accordingly. It takes a great deal more effort today to discern the truth without the Pope to guide us. That is why we must limit our inquiries to papal teachings and the teaching of ecumenical councils, also the precepts of Canon Law, most of which come to us from the ecumenical councils (particularly Trent) and the teachings of the popes themselves.
This is why the 1917 Code is determined to be negatively infallible and the popes have always referred to these laws as the Sacred Cannons. And when the teachings of the Church seem different, difficult or questionable to us then we resort to this explanation of a select few theologians of the past 150 years, especially among them such greats as Henry Cardinal Manning, Rev. E. Sylvester Barry, Louis Cardinal Billot, Msgr. Van Noort, Rev. Adolphe Tanquerey, Rev. Jean Marie Herve and others, including Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton and Rev. Francis J. Connell. These were the theologians most loyal to the magisterium. We invest more trust in them because already in the 1800s, as Pope Gregory XVI noted, evil forces were aligning to topple the papacy and the remaining monarchies.
Invincible ignorance as explained by Fr. Michael Muller
It is not for a lack of searching for the truth on these matters that those truly seeking it have been led astray; it is the misinformation or incomplete explanation of the faith provided them by false guides. Many became derailed in this search when they encountered varying opinions among trustworthy theologians writing before 1950. In that year, by issuing Humani generis, Pope Pius XII laid to rest all these concerns when he directed theologians and all the faithful to the binding decisions recorded in the Acta Apostolica Sedis. But still there were those in Pius XII’s time who chose to ignore his teachings, just as there are those today who dismiss or omit these decisions, choosing to believe as they please and not as the Church teaches. Even renowned catechists taught, in the early 1900s, that we must not consider all those outside the Church as lost. Fr. Michael Muller, C.S.S.R., wrote as follows on that topic: “
The Catholic Dogma, pp. 217-218, 1888:
“Inculpable or invincible ignorance has never been and will never be a means of salvation. To be saved, it is necessary to be justified, or to be in the state of grace. In order to obtain sanctifying grace, it is necessary to have the proper dispositions for justification; that is, true divine faith in at least the necessary truths of salvation, confident hope in the divine Savior, sincere sorrow for sin, together with the firm purpose of doing all that God has commanded, etc. Now, these supernatural acts of faith, hope, charity, contrition, etc., which prepare the soul for receiving sanctifying grace, can never be supplied by invincible ignorance; and if invincible ignorance cannot supply the preparation for receiving sanctifying grace, much less can it bestow sanctifying grace itself. ‘Invincible ignorance,’ says St. Thomas, ‘is a punishment for sin.’ (De, Infid. Q. x., art. 1). “It is, then, a curse, but not a blessing or a means of salvation… Hence Pius IX said ‘that, were a man to be invincibly ignorant of the true religion, such invincible ignorance would not be sinful before God; that, if such a person should observe the precepts of the Natural Law and do the will of God to the best of his knowledge, God, in his infinite mercy, may enlighten him so as to obtain eternal life; for, the Lord who knows the heart and the thoughts of man will, in his infinite goodness, not suffer anyone to be lost forever without his own fault.’ Almighty God, who is just condemns no one without his fault, puts, therefore, such souls as are in invincible ignorance of the truths of salvation, in the way of salvation, either by natural or supernatural means.”
Fr. Michael Müller also wrote a catechism titled Familiar Explanation of Christian Doctrine. He writes:
Q. What are we to think of the salvation of those who are out of the pale of the Church without any fault of theirs, and who never had any opportunity of knowing better?
A. Their inculpable ignorance will not save them; but if they fear God and live up to their conscience, God, in His infinite mercy, will furnish them with the necessary means of salvation, even so as to send, if needed, an angel to instruct them in the Catholic faith, rather than let them perish through inculpable ignorance.
Q. Is it then right for us to say that one who was not received into the Church before his death, is damned?
A. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because we cannot know for certain what takes place between God and the soul at the awful moment of death.
Q. What do you mean by this?
A. I mean that God, in His infinite mercy, may enlighten, at the hour of death, one who is not yet a Catholic, so that he may see the truth of the Catholic faith, be truly sorry for his sins, and sincerely desire to die a good Catholic.
Q. What do we say of those who receive such an extraordinary grace, and die in this manner?
A. We say of them that they die united, at least, to the soul of the Catholic Church, and are saved.
Q. What, then, awaits all those who are out of the Catholic Church, and die without having received such an extraordinary grace at the hour of death?
A. Eternal damnation. https://cathexcerpts.blogspot.com/2020/02/fr-muller-on-invincible-ignorance-and.html
The reference by Fr. Muller above to “the soul of the Church,” however, is a term that can no longer be used since the issuance of Mystici Corporis and Suprema haec sacra. This is yet another example of why catechisms alone are not sufficient to know what the Church teaches. Msgr. Joseph C. Fenton explains why this term should no longer be used below:
“The most important and the most widely employed of all the inadequate explanations of the Church’s necessity for salvation was the one that centered around a distinction between the ” body” and the ” soul ” of the Catholic Church. The individual who tried to explain the dogma in this fashion generally designated the visible Church itself as the ” body ” of the Church and applied the term ” soul of the Church ” either to grace and the supernatural virtues or to some fancied ” invisible Church.” Prior to the appearance of the encyclical Mystici Corporis there were several books and articles claiming that, while the “soul” of the Church was in some way not separated from the “body,” it was actually more extensive than this “body.” Explanations of the Church’s necessity drawn up in terms of this distinction were at best inadequate and confusing and all too frequently infected with serious error. When the expression “soul of the Church” was applied to sanctifying grace and the organism of supernatural virtues that accompany it, the explanation was confusing in that it stressed the fact that a man must be in the state of grace, and that he must have faith and charity if he is to attain to eternal salvation, but it tended to obscure the truth that a man must in some manner be ” within ” the true and visible Catholic Church at the moment of his death if he is ever to reach the Beatific Vision. When, on the other hand, some imaginary ” invisible Church,” some assembly of all the good people in the world, was designated as the ” soul of the Church,” these explanations lapsed into doctrinal inaccuracy” (The Catholic Church and Salvation, pgs. 126-127, nos. 3 and 4).
Meaning of implicit desire
Where people also become confused is the term “implicit desire,” which Msgr. Fenton explains in his book as follows:
“The Catholic Church and its theologians had likewise taught that a sincere desire to enter and to remain within the Church could be effective for the attainment of eternal salvation even when that desire was merely implicit, that is, not based on a clear and distinct notion of the Church itself… It is absolutely imperative to remember that being “within” the Church is not exactly the same thing as being a member of this social unit. A man is a member of the Church when he is baptized, and when he has neither publicly renounced his baptismal profession of the true faith nor withdrawn from the fellowship of the Church, and when he has not been expelled from the company of the disciples by having received the fullness of excommunication. But a man is “within” the Church to the extent that he can be saved ” within ” it when he is a member or even when he sincerely, albeit perhaps only implicitly, desires to enter it. The condition requisite for profiting from the reception of the sacraments or from the performance of acts which should be salutary is being “within” the Church.
“Now, while it is possible to have a desire to be within the Church, and, indeed even to be a member of the Church, without having the love of charity for God, it is quite impossible to have charity without being within the true Church, at least by an implicit desire to dwell in it. The love of charity is, by its very nature, a sovereign affection. It is definable in terms of intention rather than of mere velleity; and it necessarily embodies an intention, rather than a mere velleity, to do what Our Lord actually wills we should do. And Our Lord wills that all men should enter and remain within the one society of Mis disciples, His Kingdom and His Mystical Body in this world” (pgs. 25, 39). And Msgr. Fenton continues:
“(8b) The Suprema haec sacra then brings out the fact that, in the merciful designs of God’s providence, such realities as the Church itself and the sacraments of baptism and penance can, under certain circumstances, bring about the effects which they are meant to produce as means necessary for the attainment or eternal salvation when a man possesses them only in the sense that he desires or intends or wills to have or to use them. Obviously the text cannot be understood unless we realize what the ” certain circumstances” mentioned in the text really are.
“Basic among these circumstances is the genuine impossibility or receiving the sacraments of baptism or of penance or of entering the Church as a member. It is quite clear that if it is possible for a man to be baptized, to go to confession and to receive sacramental absolution, or really to become a member or the true Church, the man for whom this is possible will not attain to eternal salvation unless he actually avails himself of these means. But, on the other hand, should the actual employment or these means be genuinely impossible, then the man can attain to eternal life by a will or desire to employ them.
“Here, of course, we must distinguish sedulously between the order of intention and the order of mere velleity. What is required here is an effective desire, an effective act of the will, as distinct from a mere complacency or approval. A non-member of the Church can be saved if he genuinely wants or desires to enter the Church. With that genuine and active desire or intention, he will really become a member of the Church if this is at all possible. If it is not possible, then the force of his intention or desire will bring him ” within ” the Church in such a way that he can attain eternal salvation in this company. An inherently ineffective act of the will, a mere velleity, will definitely not sufficefor the attainment of eternal salvation” (p. 111).
Where error crept in
How many poor people today, seeing the disarray in the church in Rome and in general among the entire “Christian” denominations, really want to be a member of Christ’s true Church — or believe they are such a member and truly love and serve Him — but either don’t know where to turn or truly doubt that the church they think is Catholic today could be the true Church? And they are right in doubting this! Does anyone really think that God, in His infinite mercy, would visit this punishment on the Church and the world in general then throw them to the wolves?!
Summarizing a passage from De Ecclesia Christi by Louis Cardinal Billot, Rome, 1921, Msgr. Charles Journet, in his 1952 work The Church of the Word Incarnate, writes:
“THEOLOGICAL FAITH IS MORE NECESSARY STILL THAN THE SACRAMENTS, SINCE NOTHING CAN REPLACE IT, WHEREAS THOSE WHO POSSESS IT IN CHARITY ALREADY POSSESS THE SACRAMENTS AS BY DESIRE, VOTO. If then the Sacraments can in some sense be had ‘outside’ the Church, to those who receive them in uprightness of heart, it is still more necessary that a sufficient proposal of the faith should be made outside the Church, and that true believers in the true faith should be found even amongst those whose ecclesiastical rulers hold doctrines that are contrary to orthodoxy or erroneous…The way of justification remains open ‘outside’ the Church to men of good will, who are ready at heart to believe all that God has revealed. It can even be opened to them by the message proposed by schismatics and heretics, provided, of course, that this message still contains that minimum of truth without which no adult in any event can be saved — namely the supernatural mystery of the existence and providence of God. So that the sects separated from the legitimate Bride of Christ see, in these circumstances, to become Her servants to aid her to engender new children to grace, not solely by the ministration of the Sacraments but also by proposing a doctrine, tainted with error though it may be.”
WE cannot countenance error; we are members of the Church by our Baptism and Profession of Faith. Those not born into the faith and now genuinely struggling to seek the truth will be saved if they genuinely wish to be members of the Church and love God with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength; we simply are not allowed to presume who they may be. In Traditionalist circles, much sway is given to works such as The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved by St. Leonard of Port Maurice, and certainly works by the saints should be read and respected. But few realize that this is one of the matters on which the Church has never officially rendered an opinion, one of those areas where later decisions of the Holy See such as Mystici Corporis and Suprema haec sacra have a direct bearing. In other words, it is the development of dogma that forces us to view this in a different light, now that the Church has clarified certain points of doctrine.
One Jesuit advocate of the milder opinion, Rev. Nicholas Walsh S.J., in his 1908 work, The Saved and the Lost,describes it as a swinging pendulum, at first resting in favor of the stricter view and then later swinging to the opposite side, in favor of the milder opinion. As all devices of this nature, when it comes to rest, it stops halfway between the two unless dialed back altogether by the Holy See.
According to Rev. Walsh, “Whether there be few or many that are saved [is] an open question… There is no authoritative decision of the Church or unanimous opinion of her Fathers or theologians: [it is therefore] an open question about which we may speculate as a ‘doubtful law’ (St. Augustine).” Walsh’s work is available for free download HERE. So the insistence by some that we must consider the majority lost is not accurate in light of Pope Pius XII’s later decisions. For the truth is, as Rev. Walsh states, that: “If the upholders of the severe rigorous opinions ask me in what way God weaves his ‘web of love’ about every soul He has created, even about souls which look to the human eye outcast, I answer at once: ‘It is his secret; I do not know.’ But if they ask me why I believe He does I answer without fear: Because His character as Creator of all men clearly revealed in Scripture and formulated by eminent theologians obliges me to think so.
“I would then be tempted to ask them what reasons they have for thinking and saying plainly, ‘All infidels are damned on account of their infidelity. The great majority of mankind is lost because infidels heretics etc. always made the majority.’ That in a word the Creator as well as Judge will say, ‘Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire.’ to the whole mass of unbelievers — as well, as according to some, the majority of Catholics. I can only find two reasons. Some text types are parables of Scripture which do not in any way prove their most dismal views and the external bad aspect of the world which is at best misleading and which certainly cannot limit or interfere with the universal secret action of God by grace in the souls which He has created. ‘We may depend upon it, writes Fr. [Frederick] Faber, that in 1,000 spots which look desert, waste, fire-blackened, God’s mercy is finding pasture for His glory.” While I do not agree with Rev. Walsh that the majority of mankind will be saved, I do not necessarily disagree with him, either. For as he said, God alone knows, and it is not something any of us can determine.
Conclusion
It is my firm belief, both from personal experience and the testimony of theologians, that the Jansenist heresy and its rigorism — a rigorism which extends to teaching that only a limited number will be saved — is responsible for much of the confusion regarding the salvation of those not officially members of the Church, but who are “within it” in a way only God understands. We must adjust our Catholic beliefs according to the documents of the magisterium whenever it overrides the writing of the saints or theologians and their opinions. And this regardless of the strident insistence of those who may presume to claim otherwise and even threaten those not adopting their rigorist stance with eternal damnation. I cannot repeat often enough that we must flee from all those who will not adhere to papal teaching and refuse to allow them to lead or instruct us. For these are the very hirelings and false shepherds, the wolves in sheepskins, Christ warned us to avoid.
(P.S. And BTW, those who complain about the length of these blogs and the articles referenced here and the time it takes to read them, but who dedicate endless hours to viewing “Catholic” videos, are not being sincere in discerning the truth or obedient to the popes and ecumenical councils.)