The short passage below, solemnly promulgated by Paul VI in union with the council that shall not be named, conveniently kills two birds with one stone. Not only does it vaporize the Recognize and Resist position, it also exposes the intellectual dishonesty of all “Conservative” conciliarism.
The R&Rs, who largely hold the council to be valid, say Bergoglio is definitely pope, shut up. We’ve had many bad popes before, you see, we just have to ignore disobey him until he dies. He hasn’t tried to do heresy ex cathedra, you know. “Conservatives” claim the council was hijacked, or badly implemented, and that you really need to look for the continuity, man.
Okay, here we go:
Among the principal duties of bishops the preaching of the Gospel occupies an eminent place. For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock. Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking. Lumen Gentium, 25a
Now try saying this with a straight face: “Jorge Bergoglio is the true Vicar of Christ, leading the Church in an epic battle against the heresy, apostasy, corruption, thievery, perversion, idolatry, and Marxism of the antichurch.”
Here is the rub: Is this passage from LG true or false, objectively speaking? Have you read anything regarding obsequium religiosum — “assent of the will” due the true Vicar of Christ, as promulgated by the Council of Trent, and reiterated by Pius IX, Leo XII, Pius X, Pius XII?
You really should look into that.
Sedes in my combox in 3-2-1 screaming this proves we haven’t had a pope since 1958.
Obsequious behavior is not Catholic or hardly human. Sounds like Communist mind control, political correctness, and Liberal ideology.
Vatican II must be abrogated in its entirety. And everything spoken by all Popes since Pius XII must be open to question.
The sedevacantists do have lots of good analysis. We should listen to them. Novus Ordo Watch is a great place for Catholic history and information on our faith. https://novusordowatch.org/site-map-index/
It’s called the Francis Magisterium – disconnected from Tradition, a little pile of lonely substandard structure.
Legitimate Popes have their Papal Magisterium, but it is always connected and built on the magnificent, beautiful, awsome edifice of all that came before – Christ at its source, Christ as its destiny, its destination is heaven.
Fr. Gregory Hesse (RIP) does an outstanding job of explaining VII in a series of CDs. He was a Canon Lawyer, Doctor of Thomistic Theology and Secretary to Cardinal Alfons Stickler. I originally purchased them through Catholic Family News.
I would appreciate it deeply if someone from the Benedict-is-Pope camp would do a thorough refutation of sedevacantism. Sedes have been attacking me recently and due to my ignorance, all I have is posterior evidence of the validity of the sacraments since VII.
The biggest thing I always come back to is Visibility of the Church, including its need for a visible head. To have not had a visible head for three generations – 62 years and counting – is irreconcilable with this, and is to embrace Gnosticism.