In entering a debate there is often a tendency to start off with your conclusion, through the exercise of the will or the emotions, and then to gradually work backwards to justify your position. The danger of this procedure, of which we are all guilty from time to time, is to disregard any evidence which challenges our preconceived notions. Our conclusion may even contradict such evidence. The use of ad hominem arguments is very common also, such as: “Well, someone like him would say that, wouldn’t he?” The other obvious danger present in this line of thinking is that it can result in such an entrenched opinion that bitter strife ensues. One thing for sure is that the holder of views which have been acquired in this manner is unshakeable and impervious to alternative opinions, regarding any further argument more in terms of a personal attack.
In most areas of human endeavour such attitudes may be completely harmless and part of the cut and thrust of real life. After all, who would want a world where everyone argued on the basis of incontrovertible evidence with no room for emotions of any kind? In addition, on any given issue, who is right? Access to objective truth in issues outside the perennial teaching of the Church might sometimes be beyond our means. That is why, presumably, hundreds of historians dispute the exact number and relationship of the causes of the First World War, for example. All we can know for certain is that historians might all be wrong about a particular subject, but it is impossible that they can all be right.
There’s a huge and emergent danger to the faith of good and loyal Catholics and that is the proliferation of the sedevacantist (SV) position. I refer here to the theory that we have not had a Pope since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. There is a multiplicity of variations on that theme, such as Pope Francis is not the true pope because of the invalidity of his election, but I propose to stick with the authentic SV position which is that the see of Peter has been vacant since 1958. I do not do so for arbitrary reasons or for convenience. I do so because I do not believe that Pope Francis is any worse than his post-conciliar predecessors.
If Francis automatically relinquishes his throne because of heresy, then all the Popes since 1958 are equally guilty. The fact that some of them were not quite as bad as Francis doesn’t acquit them of invalidity, according to the SV proponents. Most of them were probably at least as bad as Pope Francis and one only has to recall the appalling prayer meeting at Assisi (1986) to be reminded how Pope John Paul II did incalculable harm to the souls of good Catholics. And how about Pope Paul VI imposing a novel and un-Catholic rite of Mass on the unsuspecting faithful? That surely places him high on a pedestal in the rogues’ gallery!
I have examined, so far as my poor brain is able, the theological arguments for, and against, the proposition that the see of Peter has been vacant since the death of Pope Pius XII and I have tentatively concluded that these arguments are finely balanced. Yet one cannot be certain whether any of the classic authorities had reckoned with a situation like that of the post-conciliar popes. There is really no precedent in Church history for the successor of Peter to announce that all religions lead to God, for example. The canonists and theologians, indeed some of the greatest minds in the Church nowadays, are dealing with a new conundrum.
The greatest threat to the Catholic Church comes, not necessarily from the intellectual elite, but from ordinary Catholics who love their faith and are nursing varying degrees of a sense of being betrayed by the Holy See. They say “He can’t possibly be the Pope. Just listen to what he said on the plane last week!” I have also heard: “I gave up on the papacy when John Paul II kissed the Koran.” I expect that the prayer meeting at Assisi must have bolstered the SV ranks and who can blame them? And what about putting Pachamama on the altar? And blessing homosexual couples?
We are now faced with the huge problem that many Catholics take one look at the sovereign pontiff and say, “No thank you!” These are usually good people who cannot bear to witness the attacks on their beloved Church. Some of them may start to work backwards and read the excellent literature, which is available on the internet, but in doing so, most will filter out all those arguments which proclaim that we still have a valid pope. Many have turned to SV websites, especially Novus Ordo Watch, the talks given by Bishop Sanborn, and, to a lesser extent, the informative interviews given on a weekly basis by the veteran campaigner, Father William Jenkins. For Catholic content, all these outlets are irresistible: they instruct, and they entertain. Who can resist the almost salacious voyeurism of Novus Ordo Watch and the eloquent episcopal outrage of Bishop Sanborn? Both websites are masterful in their exposition of all that is wrong with the papacy and always end up by jeering at what they call the ‘recognise and resist’ position.
I am drawn to Novus Ordo Watch and Bishop Sanborn because in some ways they do a service to the Church by stating confidently and clearly where the Pope is going wrong. I do switch off, however, when the ‘recognise and resist’ bit comes at the end. This is because, compared with their nightmare solution that we have no popes, I much prefer muddling through the crisis and learning about how to defend my Catholic Faith whilst taking every announcement from the papal throne with a huge pinch of salt.
“Aha!” says Novus Ordo Watch: “By picking and choosing which part of the pope’s teaching you prefer, you are a Protestant!” I had got so used to this line of argument and, not finding an answer, was momentarily persuaded by it. I began to think that, after all, perhaps I am a Protestant! Yet I know, along with all those other ‘recognise and resist’ Catholics, that I am trying to do my best in the face of a dire situation which has never existed before in the history of the Church. Yet faithful to the Holy See I shall remain, because I know, from the bottom of my heart, that of all the sins I commit during my life, attachment to the Holy See is not one of them and God will not punish me for refusing the SV position. We have to hold on to our trust and confidence that God will put everything right in His own time. It is not for us mere mortals to try to do it for ourselves.
For the vast majority of laymen and clergy who have abandoned the Pope in favour of the various versions of sedevacantism, it doesn’t end there. In the spiritual life one gets better, or one gets worse. One doesn’t simply stay the same. From initially laughing at the Holy Father and mocking his Indian head-dress, one can graduate to open and vehement dislike, aided and abetted by the internet. It will not be long before one goes only to SV Masses which may not happen more than once a month in special chapels where prayers for the Pope are left out. Sermons designed to fortify the faithful in the SV position can ultimately wear them down and they may start to miss Mass altogether as despair takes hold. Finally, they may give up their Catholic religion, which was what the Devil was planning all along.
It is the duty of every Catholic to pray for the Holy Father and to do penance for him, however ghastly we think he is. I do not rule out the possibility that we have not had a valid Pope since Pius XII, as it is a theory which one can expound in the lounge bar. However, this is definitely not part of the Catholic Faith and, as St Paul advises us in the epistle for the 3rd Sunday of Advent: ‘Nihil sollicitis sed in omnia oratione...’ Translated roughly ‘stop worrying and get praying!’ At the general judgment we will know the answers to all these questions, but it is not for us to abandon hope and the salvation upon which it depends. In the current era of Catholic history, where so much has been taken away from us – the Mass, Catholic teaching, and Catholic morality, to name a few – we have to hold on to what God has left us, by our fingernails if need be. As Sebastian Flyte exclaims in Brideshead Revisited: “It’s so hard being a Catholic!”
Joseph Bevan, December 2024
Joseph Bevan has just published his memoirs, Two Families: A Memoir of English Life During and After the Council (Os Justi Press, 2024), available from the publisher or from Amazon.
