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+St. Peter\u2019s Chair at Rome<\/em><\/strong>+<\/p>\n Today the Church celebrates the Chair of St. Peter at Rome, and faithful Catholics have hopefully begun the much-needed Unity Octave (https:\/\/www.betrayedcatholics.com\/that-all-may-be-onepray-for-counterfeit-catholics\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n But alas, there are those who do not even recognize the popes as Supreme Head of the Church, for they would place them secondary to theologians, denying the Divine assistance promised them by Christ. And they continue to perpetuate the dissonance and DISUNITY <\/em><\/strong>so inimical to all who strive to be Catholic, and long to be included in the sheepfold of Christ. Even though we have no pope, we have the priceless treasury of the Deposit of Faith they left us, if only Catholics would accept and obey the contents of that Divine Deposit.<\/p>\n We have published lengthy comments to our last blog; this most recent comment will be answered here. Once again, it is from a \u201cJohn Lewis,\u201d who asks the following questions.<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>. \u201cIf I’m understanding you correctly you believe there are no valid sacraments during a papal interregnum?\u201d<\/p>\n A.<\/strong> Have you read the opening paragraphs of Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis?<\/em> We must ALL<\/em><\/strong> believe that Pope Pius XII has INFALLIBLY TAUGHT<\/em><\/strong> that:<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>. There have been interregnums in the history of the Church other than the present one. Can you cite any theologians or theological manuals that support your conclusion?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>. What theologians teach or think is entirely irrelevant; they have no right to interpret infallible papal decrees<\/em><\/strong>. This has been taught repeatedly by the popes themselves. It does not matter what happened with the Church in the past; Pope Pius XII\u2019s infallible definition did not exist at that time. It exists today. We find in Pope Pius XII\u2019s Mediator Dei<\/em>,<\/strong> Nov. 9, 1947, also determined to be binding on the faithful:<\/p>\n “Clearly no sincere Catholic can refuse to accept the formulation of Christian doctrine more recently elaborated and proclaimed as dogmas by the Church, under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit with abundant fruit for souls, because it pleases him to hark back to the old formulas.<\/em><\/strong> NO MORE CAN ANY CATHOLIC IN HIS RIGHT SENSES REPUDIATE EXISTING LEGISLATION OF THE CHURCH TO REVERT TO PRESCRIPTIONS BASED ON THE EARLIEST SOURCES OF CANON LAW. <\/em><\/strong>Just as obviously unwise and mistaken is the zeal of one who in matters liturgical would go back to the rites and usage of antiquity, discarding the new patterns introduced by disposition of divine Providence to meet the changes of circumstances and situation.<\/p>\n “This way of acting bids fair to revive the exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism<\/em><\/strong> to which the illegal Council of Pistoia gave rise. It likewise attempts to reinstate a series of errors which were responsible for the calling of that meeting as well as for those resulting from it, with grievous harm to souls<\/em><\/strong>, and which the Church, the ever-watchful guardian of the “deposit of faith” committed to her charge by her divine Founder, had every right and reason to condemn.\u201d<\/p>\n And this is repeated in Ad apostolorum principis<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n “We are aware that those who belittle obedience in order to justify themselves with regard to those functions which they have unrighteously assumed defend their position by recalling a usage which prevailed in ages past. Yet everyone sees that all ecclesiastical discipline is overthrown if it is in any way lawful for one to restore arrangements which are no longer VALID<\/u> because the supreme authority of the Church long ago decreed otherwise<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>In no sense do they excuse their way of acting by appealing to another custom, and they indisputably prove that they follow this line deliberately in order to escape from the discipline which now prevails and which they ought to be obeying\u2026<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026The faithful are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience not only in matters which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which concern the discipline and government of the Church.<\/em><\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n “From what We have said, it follows that no authority whatsoever, save that which is proper to the Supreme Pastor, can render void the canonical appointment granted to any bishop; that no person or group, whether of priests or of laymen, can claim the right of nominating bishops; that no one can lawfully confer episcopal consecration unless he has received the mandate of the Apostolic See.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Q<\/strong>. For such a radical proposition to have even been considered a possibility, would this not have been discussed amongst Church theologians and widely debated?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>. See below.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth do hold until he be taken out of the way\u201d (2 Thess. 2:7). This restraining power, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning\u00a0<\/strong>says \u2014 this \u201che who withholdeth\u201d \u2014 is none other than: \u201cChristendom and its head; the Vicar of Jesus Christ.\u201d <\/em>For in that twofold authority, temporal and spiritual, the Supreme Pontiff:<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026is the direct antagonist to the principle of disorder …It was the will of God; it was the concession of the Father that Pilate had power over His Incarnate Son\u2026 In like manner with His Church. Until the hour has come when the barrier, by the Divine will, be taken out of the way, no one has power to lay a hand upon it.<\/em> The gates of Hell may war against [the Church]; they may strive and wrestle, as they struggle now, with the Vicar of Our Lord; but no one has the power to move Him one step until the hour shall come when the Son of God shall permit, for a time, the powers of evil to prevail. That He will permit it for a time stands in the book of prophecy. But the imperishable Church of God…will live on still through the fires of the times\u00a0of Antichrist<\/em><\/strong>\u2026.\u201d <\/em><\/strong>(<\/strong>Henry Cardinal Manning, The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ<\/em>, Burns and Lambert, 1862, London).<\/p>\n Louis-Edouard Cardinal Pie\u00a0of Poitiers<\/strong>, a contemporary of Cardinal Manning\u2019s and a drafter of the Vatican Council\u00a0proclamation on infallibility, wrote:<\/p>\n The Church, though of course still a visible society, will be increasingly reduced to individual and domestic proportions<\/em>.\u00a0 She who in Her young days cried out: \u2018the place is strait: give me room wherein to dwell,\u2019 will see every inch of Her territory under attack.\u00a0 Surrounded on all sides, as the other centuries have made Her great, so the last will strive to crush Her.\u00a0 And finally the Church on earth will undergo a true defeat<\/em><\/strong>: \u2018…and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them,\u2019 <\/em>(Apocalypse 13:7).\u00a0 The insolence of evil will be at its peak.<\/p>\n Hilaire Belloc\u00a0<\/strong>says the same in his The Great Heresies:<\/em><\/p>\n The Church will not disappear, for the Church is not of mortal stuff; it is the only institution among men not subject to the universal law of mortality. Therefore we say, not that the Church may be wiped out, but that it may be reduced to asmall band almost forgotten amid the vast numbers of its opponents and their contempt of the defeated thing. One of the most intelligent of French Catholics, a converted Jew, has written a work to prove (or suggest) that the first of these two possible issues will be our fate. He envisages the last years of the Church on this earth as lived apart. He sees a Church of the future reduced to very few in numbers and left on one side in the general current of the new Paganism. [Pope Pius XII\u00a0calls this resurgence of former errors \u201cthe current of Black Paganism\u201d \u2013 Ed.] He sees a Church of the future within which there will be intensity of devotion, indeed, but that devotion practised by one small body, isolated and forgotten in the midst of its fellowmen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n And there also is this: \u201cWe must not be too ready to pronounce on what God may permit. But we, or our successors in future generations of Christians, shall perhaps see stranger evils than have yet been experienced, even before the immediate approach of that great winding up of all things on earth that will precede the day of judgment. I am not setting up for a prophet, nor pretending to see unhappy wonders, of which I have no knowledge whatever. All I mean to convey is that contingencies regarding the Church, not excluded by the Divine promises, cannot be regarded as practically impossible, just because they would be terrible and distressing in a very high degree\u201d (The Relations of the Church to Society \u2014 Theological Essays<\/em>, Rev. Edmund James O\u2019Reilly, S.J<\/strong>.).<\/p>\n Victorinus \u2014 (Source:<\/strong> Translated by Robert Ernest Wallis. From Ante-Nicene Fathers<\/u>, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co.,1886) http:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/fathers\/0712.htm<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cCh. 6:14<\/strong>. \u201cAnd the heaven withdrew as a scroll that is rolled up.\u201d<\/em> For the heaven to be rolled away, that is, that the <\/em><\/strong>Church<\/em><\/strong> shall be taken away.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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