A reoccurring argument against the position of sedevacantism that keeps popping up is: “We don’t have the authority to judge whether a pope is a true pope or not. Only a future pope can make that judgment.”
Catholic Answers, Tradition in Action, Dr. Robert Sungenis, and many others have used this argument. However, the burden of proof is on them to provide a Church doctrine, teaching, or law that suggests such a thing.
However, I submit that such an argument is seriously flawed and below provide a counter argument.
Let’s say the current pope is an antipope. Some of his official teachings from Vatican 2 are heretical and some of the laws and disciplines, including sacraments, that have been issued since the 1960’s are evil, harmful, and even invalid. The Catholic Church has already declared that She cannot issue problematic sacraments. If the people believe the current pope is a true pope, they would be bound to accept the evil, harmful and invalid sacraments, and would have to follow those evil and harmful laws, etc. If they believe or suspect that something is wrong, but hold fast to the belief that they can do nothing until a future pope fixes things, they would be obligated to follow the antipope.
Let’s say the next pope (Pope X) declares the last five claimants to the papacy antipopes. He condemns Vatican 2, the new mass, and declares the new rite of orders invalid. This means many, if not all, of the teachings for the past fifty years would be declared invalid. All priests and bishops ordained in the new rite for the past forty years would be considered invalid and would have to be reordained or consecrated. All the past annulments and remarriages would be declared invalid. So on and so forth. Many people will think something is wrong with Pope X, but will say only a future pope can decide on his fate, and so they wait. Pope X reigns for twenty years and dies.
Pope Y gets elected and says Pope X was a heretic for rejecting Vatican 2, and the mass, sacraments, etc. and therefore excommunicates Pope X and declares all his teachings for the past twenty years worthless or wrong. Everything goes back to way things were before Pope X. Pope Y reigns for twenty years and dies.
Pope Z gets elected and says Pope Y was one of the heretics that came out of Vatican 2 and therefore he was an antipope, and Pope X was a true pope. The Church would have to flip-flop again and reject the whole Vatican 2 way of things again. This means the last ninety years had been nothing but a complete mess with no end in sight. The process could be endless, and you would never know for sure what you should believe.
One’s faith would only be as good as the so-called pope that reigns at that time. A Catholic could never be sure if a true pope is reigning or not. It would be impossible to defend a Church teaching, because there would be no ground for the current papacy. This means the system of the papacy would be flawed since one would HAVE to be in error until some future moment. It would all be just an illusion. Being Catholic would be reduced down to an absurdity. One might argue that this scenario would never happen. Nevertheless, this principle behind their argument is present, and so the absurdity remains.
Christ built His Church on a rock. The position that only a future pope can decide about whether a current pope is valid is not a position with a rock foundation. It has no foundation. It’s illogical, and contrary to Scripture. Our faith should be placed in Christ and His promise. While the papacy is an important part of the Faith, it is to be understood correctly in light of Tradition, the Fathers of the Church, and the laws and teachings of the Church.
Secondly, the only-a-future-pope-can-decide argument is impractical, especially for the current situation.
If one had some doubt about whether the last five claimants have been true popes and are waiting because they believe that they’re in no position to judge, they might be waiting for a very long time. It’s been fifty years and it hasn’t happened yet. Only the cardinals that were handpicked by the last four claimants will do the electing. They all believe in the same heresies, laws, etc. as the last four claimants and only they will be elected to the papacy. In other words, the modernist conciliar popes have rigged the system to keep the same type of heretics and apostates in office. In fact, no orthodox cardinal exists. The new religion of Rome has been completely established. Therefore, all hope is gone for those waiting for a future pope from this new religion to fix things back. You don’t fix a new religion back to an old one, anyway. That’s the concept of Protestantism.
Also, you can have no doubt about whether a pope is true or not. He doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt for precisely the reason I just provided.
Rev. Francis X Doyle, S.J. explains: “The Church is a visible society with a visible Ruler. If there can be any doubt about who that visible Ruler is, he is not visible, and hence, where there is any doubt about whether a person has been legitimately elected Pope, that doubt must be removed before he can become the visible head of Christ’s Church. Blessed Bellarmine, S.J., says: ‘A doubtful Pope must be considered as not Pope’; and Suarez, S.J., says: ‘At the time of the Council of Constance there were three men claiming to be Pope…. Hence, it could have been that not one of them was the true Pope, and in that case, there was no Pope at all….” (The Defense of the Catholic Church, 1927)
In light of this teaching, a doubtful pope would lead the faithful to doubt everything he does as pope. What good would that do?
Based on the current situation with the Catholic Church, it would appear that we are in the time of the Great Apostasy foretold in Holy Scripture.
Those who are determined to hold to the personal and non-existent dogma that only-a-future-pope-can-decide argument HAVE LOCKED themselves in the Great Apostasy because they refuse to see the obvious. They must accept evil practices and blasphemous heresies until they die or until the Second Coming, whichever comes first, because they can’t break free from the confines of their own minds and hearts fixated on a lie.
The only way out is to abandon the illogical and impractical position and realize that a heretic can’t be pope since one can’t be the head of the Church of which he is not a member. A true pope loses his office automatically without any further declaration. This is the universal position of the popes and saints. Therefore, one must be able to judge for himself.
Everybody must use his private judgment. It’s inescapable. However, private judgment should be based on facts and logic. If you couldn’t make private judgments on who claims to be pope, you would have been obligated to follow several antipopes in history, such as Anacletus II. He was an antipope and most of the cardinals recognized him. Benedict X was an antipope and reigned for nine months. It would have taken Catholics to use their private judgment to reject them.
It would be silly to say that you don’t get to use your private judgment on such a serious matter. Catholics are not puppets on a string. We are demanded to use our minds to think and make decisions. All decisions ultimately are private ones. As Christians, it is our responsibility to judge. We all have to make judgments of some kind, whether right from wrong, truth from error, good from evil, and safe from danger. We must particularly be able to judge what is and who is or isn’t Christian, especially if he claimed to be pope.
God tells us many times in Holy Scripture to beware of evildoers. These require making judgments. For instance, Jesus states in Matt 7:15-20, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits…the bad tree bears evil fruit…Thus you will know them by their fruits.”
Unless, you can make judgments on men, this verse is meaningless. You must be able to judge men to know when to beware of them. Those bent on accepting an antipope as pope are telling Jesus, sorry Lord but I don’t have the authority to do what you command.
In Matthew 7, Christ warned against judging hypocritically, and in John 7, He warned against judging rashly, but nevertheless, Jesus says to “judge with right judgment.”
We have to judge everything to make decisions on how to act with one another. Love of God and truth requires judgment. When judgment concerns whether the claimant to the papacy is a true pope, one of the first things that needs to be assessed is whether he is a Catholic.
In De Romano Pontifice, II, 30, St. Robert Bellarmine taught: “… for men are not bound, or able to read hearts; but when they see that someone is a heretic by his external works, they judge him to be a heretic pure and simple, and condemn him as a heretic.” In the same writing, St. Bellarmine continues to tell us that a heretic can’t be pope.
This teaching of St. Bellarmine, along with all the saints who unanimously teach the same, is confirmed in the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Papal Elections,” 1914, Vol. 11, p. 456: “Of course, the election of a heretic, schismatic, or female [as Pope] would be null and void.”
The bull Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio by Pope Paul IV would be meaningless if private judgment was out of the picture. The good pope presumes that in order to reject a heretic as pope, even if he is elected by all the cardinals and given obedience by all, a Catholic must use his private judgment. Pope Paul IV implied that this scenario is possible.
How would the bull apply if all the cardinals and the whole Church recognized a heretic as pope? What good is the statement in the Catholic Encyclopedia if a Catholic couldn’t use his right judgment by refusing to acknowledge an election of a heretic by all the cardinals?
Pope Innocent III taught, “The pope should not flatter himself about his power, nor should he rashly glory in his honour and high estate, because the less he is judged by man, the more he is judged by God. Still the less can the Roman Pontiff glory, because he can be judged by men, or rather, can be shown to be already judged, if for example he should wither away into heresy, because he who does not believe is already judged. In such a case it should be said of him: ‘If salt should lose its savour, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under foot by men.”
Christ built His Church on a rock and the unanimous consent of the fathers on Matt 16:18 is that the rock is Peter and his faith. The Office of the Papacy can only be occupied by one like Peter, a man with the Faith whom you must be able to recognize. It’s that simple.
The Popes are the Gates of the Church according to Pope Leo XIII. The Gates of Hell are heresies and heretics according to Popes Vigilius and Leo IX. Therefore, the Gates of the Church can’t also be the Gates of Hell or else Christ’s promise is broken and the Church of Christ becomes Hell.
Christ’s Church doesn’t contradict itself. It’s not an illusion. It’s not illogical. It’s not impractical. It’s perfect, indefectible, and infallible because it’s built by Christ on a rock!
