Sedevacantists are Protestants
Jan 6, 2018 21:04:51 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2018 21:04:51 GMT
Do sedevacantists really love the Church? Do they not judge [the Pope] personally, as they say?
It is certainly true that many sedevacantists (i.e., those who believe that the pope has lost the office of the papacy through his heretical actions) think that they love the Church. But they do not love her as she really is, with all her [member] faults and defects. If a man would not love his wife as she really is, but rather a mental picture of how he would like her to be, would he really love her?
Some sedevacantists might state that they do not judge the pope personally. However, to state that his heretical actions remove him from office is to make a public, official judgment. Only a higher authority in the Church can make such a judgment. However, there is no higher authority than the pope, which is why the axiom is to be held Papa a nemine judicatur —the pope is judged by no one. By stating that he has lost the papacy, sedevacantists personally judge the pope, as if they had authority over him. This is not Catholic, regardless of the gravity of his materially heretical actions. It is the Protestant principle of personal judgment which is thereby erected into a principle of Faith, thus destroying the visibility and hierarchy of the Church. [Answered by Fr. Peter R. Scott]
Source : archives.sspx.org/Catholic_FAQs/catholic_faqs__theological.htm#sedevacantistslovechurch
It is certainly true that many sedevacantists (i.e., those who believe that the pope has lost the office of the papacy through his heretical actions) think that they love the Church. But they do not love her as she really is, with all her [member] faults and defects. If a man would not love his wife as she really is, but rather a mental picture of how he would like her to be, would he really love her?
Some sedevacantists might state that they do not judge the pope personally. However, to state that his heretical actions remove him from office is to make a public, official judgment. Only a higher authority in the Church can make such a judgment. However, there is no higher authority than the pope, which is why the axiom is to be held Papa a nemine judicatur —the pope is judged by no one. By stating that he has lost the papacy, sedevacantists personally judge the pope, as if they had authority over him. This is not Catholic, regardless of the gravity of his materially heretical actions. It is the Protestant principle of personal judgment which is thereby erected into a principle of Faith, thus destroying the visibility and hierarchy of the Church. [Answered by Fr. Peter R. Scott]
Source : archives.sspx.org/Catholic_FAQs/catholic_faqs__theological.htm#sedevacantistslovechurch