TIA,

To open: I write to you as one Catholic to another in, I hope, a true spirit of charity.

Let me say, that I have read many of your articles with much interest. However, I am quite puzzled about your conclusion from all your cogent premises.

I am a sede-vacantist that attends an SSPX chapel here in the Detroit area. I have no degree in theology or canon law, so I try to keep it quite simple: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck; guess what, I bet it's a duck. (This applies to those destroying our Church).

Now, you've written a brilliant exposé of the horrors of VII and those responsible. I find it quite difficult to excuse people well-trained in pre-VII theology for ignorance. I may not know the exact Church definition of heresy or error, but if this isn't the "great apostasy," then I don't know what is.

Sede-vacantism is the only truly Catholic response to today's difficulties. Just because a few adherents of this position have gone off into the weeds, does not change the truth of the position. I don't know of any position today that does not have problems with certain people.

Your position puts you in the difficult position of defending the indefensible: what about the indefectibility of the Church's doctrine? And I don't just mean ex cathedra statements, there is a whole host of the universal, ordinary magisterium that is equally infallible, which I think probably includes the sacraments, the liturgy, etc. You, also, have the difficult job of trying to explain your position towards the papacy. Do we now become the pope's pope? Who do I see to determine which day he is the pope and which day he isn't, or which document is Catholic or what parts are, etc.?

Sede-vacantism has only one difficulty which is the restoration of a true claimant to the chair of Peter. This is much like Abraham and Isaac. Sedevacantism is not against reason (or Catholicism), it's simply in the realm of mystery.

I would appreciate your comments about your position, and the position vis-a-vis the papacy.

     Thank you for some wonderful, thought-provoking reading.

     M.G.

TIA responds:

M.G.,

Thank you for your consideration. We also make our response in the spirit of charity.

We are not sede-vacantist, our position is explained in detail in the booklet Resistance versus Sede-Vacantism.

Even though there is a serious probability that the conciliar Popes can have fallen into heresy and, as such, stop being Catholics before God, they continue to be recognized as Popes before the visible Church. For them to cease to be recognized as Popes, one of two conditions must be met: either the due authority must declare them heretics, or their heresy must become known throughout all the Catholic Church.

Until this happens, they are still Popes before the visible Church. Consequently their sacramental and juridical acts are valid. In these points they should be obeyed. They should be resisted insofar as they attack, deny, or boycott the previous Catholic Magisterium and Tradition.

To serve the Catholic cause well in this sad situation, one should spread as much as possible the progressivist errors to which the conciliar Popes adhere. Doing this, we call them to convert and, at the same time, enlighten the faithful not to follow the same errors. Thus, the exposition of their errors is done for the glory of God and His Church, and also it helps to show the whole Church that they fell into error.

To leave the Church and found parallel institutions such as the sede-vacantists do only adds more confusion to the present chaotic situation, even though it is understandable as a reaction of insecurity and self-defense to avoid the progressivist errors. This is a simplistic solution based on an extremely simplistic reasoning: because the Popes fell into heresy they completly lost the papacy, and the entire Church who follows them is no longer Catholic. Like many simplistic solutions, this one is wrong, it cuts the living flesh of the Church, and the new institutions that adopt it run a grave risk of falling into Protestantism.

On the Way of the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ was so transformed by the sufferings inflicted on Him that he did not look like the Son of God. So, also His Church today is disfigured from the suffering inflicted by Progressivism. To leave the Church at this moment by declaring that one no longer recognizes in her the Catholic majesty of old, and saying that one wants just to preserve his own spiritual well-being is equivalent to abandoning Him during His Passion. TIA does not do this.

We remain inside the Church suffering with her in her sorrows, disputing each inch of ground with the enemy, and holding high the banner of Catholic truth and tradition.

We hope these considerations will help you to see more clearly the consistency of our position, and the flaw in yours.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk.

Follow us