True or False Catholic Book – Why John Salza and Robert Siscoe Get it Wrong (Part IV)

Recently, John Salza claimed that his book “True or False Pope – Refuting Sedevacantism and other Modern Errors” has not been refuted by any sedevacantist after 6 years. Apparently, he didn’t read my article on Canon 188.4, which alone refutes the entire book. Lately, however, he has been refuting part of his own book.

In response to Kennedy Hall, Salza wrote: “if he actually read that book [True or False Pope] and learned its contents, he would have concluded that the SSPX is in nearly the same canonical situation as the Sedevacantist clergy.” What’s ironic is that Salza himself just came to this conclusion after 6 years of writing his own book. [1] It’s good that he’s realizing his errors, but he’s got a long way to go.

Therefore, I’ve decided to do a whole series of articles on his other errors and contradictions from his book. This installment will only cover the Preface. The next installment will cover Chapter 1, and so on.

The Preface

Error 1: Sedevacantists hold: “Whatever comes from or is approved by a Pope must be true and good because ‘the Pope is infallible.’” (p. 2)  

Right off the bat, Salza and Siscoe demonstrate that they don’t understand sedevacantism or they intentionally misrepresent it.

Sedevacantists understand that popes can err. Not everything they approve must be true and good. The correct major premise of sedevacantism: Whatever decree or law that’s approved and promulgated by a pope must be safe and sound for all Catholics to hold for they must give their assent to them.

Error 2: “The correct Major Premise is actually the following: “A true Pope cannot give or approve evil teachings and practices when he invokes Christ’s gift of infallibility” (which is not an habitually active charism).” (p. 3)

This is a half-truth. Salza’s and Siscoe’s statement implies that popes can approve evil and heretical teachings and practices when not invoking infallibility, which is incorrect. I answer this error here: Non-infallible Church Teaching Can’t Be Heretical

Error 3: “While some of Vatican II’s teachings are ambiguous and even erroneous, they have not compromised the Church’s infallibility.” (p. 4)

The Church has infallibly declared that she is holy. This means the Church’s teachings can’t intentionally be ambiguous to decieve or promulgate heresy or lesser errors against the faith in any form. Vatican 2 did both by decree. Only false religions promulgate errors and heresies against the Faith, not the Catholic Church. On Salza’s and Siscoe’s website, they argue that the Catholic Church has promulgated heresy by canon law. Yes, you heard that correctly. They have argued that the Catholic Church has been a heretical religion. [2] I have published a full rebuttal to this blasphemous nonsense. [3]

Error 4: “None of [Francis’ heretical] statements were in any way contrary to the doctrine of infallibility, since papal infallibility is only engaged when a Pope defines a doctrine, which Pope Francis has never done.” (p. 6)

This is a red-herring and is connected to Error 2. It’s irrelevant whether Francis was teaching domatically or not. The doctrine of papal infallibility doesn’t mean popes can teach heresy when not using their full apostolic authority. We believe the Church is infallibly one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Are we one in faith with the pope? If not, the problem doesn’t lie with the Church.

Error 5: “What is common among [sedevacantists] is their belief that the ultimate determination of who is a valid Pope and who is not is a matter of the private judgment of individual Catholics, and not the authority of the Catholic Church. In fact, this ultimate judgment of who is a valid Pope and who is not perhaps best exemplifies the reflexive “Protestant” nature of Sedevacantism.” (p. 7)

The fact is sedevacantists don’t hold that private judgment is what determines who is and is not a valid pope. What determines who’s pope is if he meets the qualifications, such as being a Catholic man, elected by the Church, and fits the First Vatican Council’s definiton of the pope. Catholics must be able to recognize Catholic truths such as these qualifications. 

True popes can’t be heretical as Vatican I necessarily implies, nor can the Church stand in judgment of a pope (it wouldn’t need to if he fit’s Vatican I’s definition), like Salza and Siscoe heretically hold. Also, obedience is to be given to the pope, something Salza and Siscoe don’t do. They use their private judgment as to what laws and decrees they’ll accept as Catholic. This practice is what best exemplifies the reflexive Protestant nature of their resistance position.

Error  6: “Those Sedevacantist clerics who have not declared themselves Pope certainly act as de facto Popes over their Sedevacantist communities, such as Bishops Clarence Kelly, Donald Sanborn, Mark Pivarunas and Daniel Dolan, as well as Fr. Anthony Cekada” (p. 8)

This is another red-herring and half-truth. Bishops are to act as bishops. Regardless whether our bishops act correctly or not has no bearing on the position of sedevacantism. The Catholic Church has always had bishops and popes who have not acted correctly according to their positions. 

Error 7: There are no sound theological arguments in favor of Sedevacantism, “as this book demonstrates.” (p. 8)

This is just a lie. For instance, I presented the argument of altar girls. [4] Salza and Siscoe argue that altar girls are a scandalous prudential judgment that doesn’t contradict the doctrine of the Church (pp. 480-482). However, it does contradict the dogma of the holiness of the Church and Can. 7 of session XXII of Trent, which I spelled out in my argument. Salza and Siscoe completely ignored the dogma of holiness and Trent’s canon.

Not only did they misrepresent my arguments, but they misrepresented all the sedevacantist apologists. Their book only demonstrated their dishonesty and inability to comprehend what they read. 

Error 8: “‘Sedevacantists’ have ‘lost the Faith in the Church’ and don’t recognize the ‘disfigured’ Church and ‘vilify the Church with diabolical fervor.’” (pp. 8-9)

We most certainly have not lost Faith in the Church. That honor goes to those who left sedevacantism to join the Eastern Orthodox or something else. The meaning Salza and Siscoe give is to their church, but the reality is they have lost Faith in the Church. They have vilified the Catholic Church by accusing it of heresy by law and by attacking the papacy. They accuse the papacy of being the office that’s caused the Church to be disfigured. That’s like saying Jesus disfigured Himself and was the cause of His Passion. Their argument is absolute blasphemy. The Church is disfigured not because of popes, but because of an imposter popes. Christ was disfigured by those who weren’t members of the Church and so it is with His Church. Salza and Siscoe are partly guilty of disfiguring the Church with their heretical book and website.

Error 9:  “‘This cannot be the true Church!,’ the Sedevacantists proclaim. ‘God would simply not permit it. It is impossible!’ And why is it impossible? They claim it is not possible because of the alleged violations of the Church’s infallibility. But about this they are gravely mistaken, for nothing that God has permitted has violated any of His promises or the infallibility of His Church, as this book will aptly demonstrate.” [p. 10]

Take out the words “the Sedevacantists proclaim” and replace them with “Salza and Siscoe proclaim” and read it through. We could make the same statement back to them, but it doesn’t prove anything. 

Of course, nothing God has permitted has violated any of His Promises or the infallibility of His Church. What is impossible is for God to permit His Church to be heretical and to lead the faithful astray to hell. What is impossible is for the papacy to be the cause of the Church’s destruction by heresy. What’s impossible is for the gates of hell to run the Church. [5]

Salza and Siscoe have it exactly backwards. 

To be continued…

 

Footnotes:

[1] True or False Pope

[2] True or False Pope: Pope Celestine III’s Error on the indissolubility of Marriage

[3] Censoring Truth – Fr. Paul Kramer debunks Robert Siscoe and the Remnant Newspaper

[4] Altar Girls are Impossible for the True Catholic Church | Speray’s Catholicism in a Nutshell (wordpress.com)

[5] the-gates-of-hell-and-the-gates-of-the-church1.pdf (wordpress.com)