The Impossibility of Judging or Deposing a True Pope

The Impossibility of Judging or Deposing a True Pope

Accepting the Vatican II Sect as the Catholic Church has consequences. So does believing that Jorge Bergoglio is the Vicar of Christ despite being a public apostate: If he is a valid Pope, then there is no power on earth that can undo his papacy. If he is truly the successor of St. Peter, then he can resign voluntarily, but no one can take the pontificate from him.

This clear truth does not sit well with many in the “Recognize-and-Resist” (aka “Semi-Traditionalist”) camp, now that Francis is so obviously a non-Catholic and so clearly doing grave damage to Catholicism. As the situation gets more and more unbearable by the day, we hear anything from exhortations to hold out and wait for this “pontificate” to blow over, to ludicrous petitions for Francis to become a Catholic or else resign, to now outright calls for him to be removed by “the bishops” or “the cardinals”. The new anti-sedevacantist book True or False Pope? by John Salza and Robert Siscoe even attempts to give a theological justification for deposing a Pope and presumes to show how it can be accomplished.

Yes, you read that right: The very people who always prattle on about how we cannot “judge the Pope”, are now issuing calls for… the “Pope” to be judged. It’s funny how that works in Novus Ordo Land: Sedevacantists are lambasted for “judging the Pope” because they realize that if Catholic teaching has any meaning, then Jorge Bergoglio cannot possibly be a valid Pope, yet those who believe Francis to be a valid Pope can, without any qualm of conscience, not only treat him like the village idiot and contradict, deride, and criticize him at will, but now even demand that others in the “Church” remove him from office — all without, of course, “judging the Pope”. Welcome to the jungle.

Clearly, it is high time we looked at what the Catholic Church teaches on the (im)possibility of judging and removing a valid Pope. In this post, therefore, we will examine two things: (1) What “judging the Pope” really means; and (2) whether a validly reigning Pope can be removed or “deposed.”

What does it mean to “judge the Pope”?

The Catholic Church teaches dogmatically that no one is allowed or able to judge the Pope. The Vatican Council (1869-70) taught dogmatically:

Since no one may judge the Pope, then, it is of the utmost importance to know just what constitutes judging the Pope. To spill the beans right up front: “Judging the Pope” does not mean judging whether a particular claimant is Pope, which would obviously involve circular reasoning. Rather, it means putting one’s own judgment above that of the (acknowledged) Pope by refusing to accept the final sentence rendered by the Vicar of Christ on any given matter pertaining to Faith, morals, or discipline, or by presuming to make his teachings, laws, or disciplinary decisions subject to review, revision, or validation by another. The Pope is the highest authority in the Church, and for this reason no one can question, appeal from, or overturn his judgment.

But, one may ask, why is it that no one can judge the Pope? The simple truth is that judging — understood in the proper canonical sense — is an act that belongs by right only to a superior, and the Pope, being the highest authority in the Church, has no superior on earth. It is for this reason that no one could summon the Pope before a tribunal for questioning, much less render any kind of judgment against him. No one is above the Pope, and therefore no one can judge him — not even all the bishops or cardinals collectively, not even the entire Church Militant taken together. No, this isn’t our idea; this is binding Catholic teaching, as we will now see.

Before we proceed to various quotes proving our position with respect to how the Church understands her teaching that a Pope cannot be judged, we must emphasize that all the evidence we adduce is deliberately chosen only from the time of 1870 onwards — that is, from the time of the First Vatican Council, which settled a lot of Catholic doctrine regarding the papacy and made it untenable to hold a number of theories that had still been permissible to hold up until that time. In this we distinguish ourselves from the recognize-and-resist proponents, specifically Messrs. Salza and Siscoe, who in large part advance ideas that were abandoned after Vatican I because they could no longer be held in light of the council’s teachings — which is why nearly all of the prooftexts they use come from theologians and canonists who wrote before the First Vatican Council, such as Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, Fr. Francisco Suarez, John of St. Thomas, Fr. Paul Laymann, and others. Yet, if these theories were still acceptable after Vatican I, how come Salza and Siscoe never cite any theologians or canonists from the twentieth century on these points?

We will revisit this question later on. Right now, let’s examine what the Church teaches about “judging the Pope”.

First, we’ll have a look at the actual principle as enunciated in the 1917 Code of Canon Law: “Prima Sedes a nemine iudicatur” (Canon 1556) — “The First See is judged by no one.” This is the canonical rendition of Vatican I’s teaching about the impermissibility of judging the Pope. What exactly does it mean? To ensure we understand this principle correctly, we will simply look at what various Catholic studies and commentaries on the Code of Canon Law say about it.

We begin with the Benedictine Fr. Charles Augustine’s Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law, published in 1921:

Then we turn to the popular Woywod-Smith commentary, which has the following to say about Canon 1556:

Next, we look at Fr. Sylvester Berry’s explanation of how Canon 1556 is not simply a disciplinary matter subject to change but actually expresses a principle rooted in the unchangeable divine law:

As Fr. Berry points out, the doctrine about the Holy See not being subject to anyone’s judgment was already taught by St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), whose teaching on the papacy was adopted in essence — sometimes even verbatim — by the First Vatican Council. It is good to remember this against our opponents, who love to rely on those who contradicted Bellarmine on various matters regarding the papacy: Cajetan, Suarez, and John of St. Thomas, whom they quote extensively. Yet, it is Bellarmine’s teaching that was adopted by the council, not that of the others, and it is Bellarmine who was canonized a Saint and declared a Doctor of the Church, not Cajetan, Suarez, or John of St. Thomas. (There is a Saint Cajetan, it is true, but he is not the same Cajetan spoken of here.)

A succinct summary of the whole matter with some welcome additional information is given by Fr. Thomas Burke in a canon law dissertation published in 1922:

Such is the Catholic teaching, and it makes a lot of sense. It is not difficult to understand or accept.

In sum, the maxim “no one can judge the Pope” means that the Pope has no superior, and therefore his teachings, his judgments, his decisions are final and not subject to review, revision, or validation by anyone. In so far as a particular judgment or decision is in itself changeable, it could only be modified by another (i.e. future) Pope, who, although not superior to a prior Pope, is nevertheless his equal. (Thus, for example, we find in Church history that the supression of the Jesuit order imposed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 was rescinded by Pope Pius VII in 1814.)

Now that we are clear on what the maxim does mean, it is necessary also to consider what “judging the Pope” does not mean: Notice that none of the evidence quoted above talks about judging whether a particular papal claimant is actually Pope; for the principle in question is that no one can judge the Pope, not that no one can judge whethersomeone is Pope. The former concerns the dogma of the papacy; the latter concerns a particular individual as eligibleto possess the papacy. The principle exempting the Pope from all judgment, therefore, applies to all valid holders of the papal office only, and it has no bearing whatsoever on what is a completely different question altogether, namely, how to ascertain whether a particular individual’s claim to be the Pope is true or not. This latter issue is, of course, of the utmost importance, especially considering the nature and function of the papacy, but we will leave its in-depth discussion for a future blog post.

Back in the 1980s, Lefebvrist apologist Michael Davies (1936-2004), one of the most influential “recognize-and-resist” advocates, went on the record claiming that to say that John Paul II (who was then reigning in the Vatican) is not a valid Pope is impermissible because it would amount to “judging the Pope”, which a Catholic is not allowed to do. In his scathing and comprehensive critique of Davies, sedevacantist author John Daly exposes the absurdity of this contention:

It is clear, then, that the teaching and law that no one may judge the Pope has nothing to do with discerning whether a particular claimant is Pope — rather, it has everything to do with the fact that the Pope is the highest authority in the Church, and for this reason no one can question, appeal from, or overturn his judgment. That is what the Church means when she teaches that no one can judge the Pope.

Thus, we come to the ironic conclusion that not only are our “recognize-and-resist” opponents wrong to accuse us of “judging the Pope” for saying that Jorge Bergoglio isn’t Pope; rather, considering what judging the Pope really means, it is clear that they are the ones who are judging the (supposed) Pope, because they refuse, question, or pretend to overturn his teachings, laws, judgments, and decisions all the time. The Society of St. Pius X is a textbook example of this, for they are in essence running a parallel church with its own phony marriage tribunals and a faux quasi-magisterium, and they constantly subject the “Holy See” to their judgment instead of the other way around. For some more specific examples, see our post, “The Pope Speaks — You Decide?”.

Still not convinced? Have a look at the following papal quotes and see if you do not find in them condemnations of, in essence, the very things the SSPX and similar “recognize-and-resist” adherents habitually do or advocate:

These three quotations are a near-perfect condemnation of the position maintained by the Society of St. Pius X and its supporters, and they reiterate the Catholic view that the Pope cannot be judged by anyone on earth because he has no human superior, and a legally binding judgment can only be rendered by a superior.

This is why we call the recognize-and-resist adherents “Semi-Traditionalists” or “Neo-Traditionalists”: They embrace Tradition only up to an extent, only in part; and their understanding of Tradition is quite novel and therefore not genuinely traditional at all.

Having clarified what is and is not meant by “judging the Pope”, we can now consider the second question which presents itself: Can a true Pope be deposed?

Can a valid Pope be deposed?

If no one can judge the Pope because only a superior could judge him and the Pope has no superior on earth, then it follows necessarily that, a fortiori, he cannot be removed from his office, or deposed, since such actions involve a great deal more than just judging.

The subject matter of deposition is a bit tricky to research because in Church history, particularly in the first few centuries, the word “deposition” did not always enjoy the clearly defined meaning it does today (see Rev. H. A. Ayrinhac, Penal Legislation in the New Code of Canon Law [New York: Benziger, 1920], p. 145). However, at least since the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the definition of the term is settled, as Fr. Ayrinhac’s commentary on Canon 2303 expounds:

We see, then, that deposition is by no means synonymous with removal from office. In fact, although it includes removal from office (“it takes away the office”), it is much more than that (see also Canon 2288). This is important to keep in mind when reading canonical or theological sources that speak about deposition.

Another significant distinction to be aware of is that a privation of office — i.e. the removal from office — is essentially different from the automatic loss of office that occurs by the very fact and without the need for a declaration if a cleric publicly defects from the Catholic Faith (see Canon 188 n.4). The Code of Canon Law, in fact, terms this automatic loss of office a “tacit resignation”, not a privation, removal, or deposition:

An in-depth discussion of Canon 188 n.4 now would exceed the scope of this post and will be left for a later time (you can read an older treatment of the subject here), but we mention it here to point out that it would be an error to think that because deposition and removal from office are impossible in the case of a Pope, that therefore it would also be impossible for a true Pope to automatically lose his office by tacit resignation through public defection from the Faith. Those are completely different things, and although we do not concede that it is possible for a true Pope to ever publicly defect from the Faith, we nevertheless insist, with the bishops at Vatican I, St. Robert Bellarmine, and the Code of Canon Law, that if a Pope could do such a thing, he would indeed immediately cease to be Pope.

An excellent pre-Vatican II study on tacit resignation is contained in the work The Renunciation of an Ecclesiastical Office by Fr. Gerald McDevitt (1945), which is now back in print. It comes as no surprise to us that in over 700 pages of True or False Pope?, Salza and Siscoe manage to mention or reference McDevitt exactly zero times. Instead, they spill their ink advancing positions by Cajetan, Suarez, and John of St. Thomas, who wrote well over 200 years beforethe First Vatican Council, the teachings of which rendered their theories on deposing a Pope untenable, as we already said.

This tactic of using as “evidence” for one’s theological position texts and arguments from ages past that were decided against by a definitive judgment from the Church later on, is not new. For example, at the time of Vatican I, Bp. Henri Maret used this trick in an attempt to justify certain Gallican doctrines against the theological position of the so-called Ultramontanist party that was later confirmed as orthodox by the council. Maret, who had published a two-volume work under the pseudonym “Bishop de Sura”, was answered by the famous Dom Prosper Gueranger of the Abbey of Solesmes, France. Gueranger’s response to all of Maret’s errors was published as The Papal Monarchy and received the explicit approbation of Pope Pius IX.

Here is what Abbot Gueranger had to say about Maret’s tactic:

This is eerily similar to what Salza and Siscoe like to do in True or False Pope?: turn to theological theories advanced at a time when they were still acceptable to hold or at least tolerated, and pretend that these ideas are still tenable today, even though since Vatican I and the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, they can no longer be maintained — which is precisely why Salza and Siscoe cannot quote or cite any twentieth-century Catholic theologian who agrees with them.

We see the same trick repeated on their web site, where they posted a pompous article entitled, “A Renowned 17th-Century Canonist Refutes Sedevacantism”. Why did they have to go back to the seventeenth century, ladies and gentlemen, to look for support for their position? Because at that time, the thesis advanced by the canonist in question (Fr. Paul Laymann) was still permitted to be held, whereas since the 1870 Vatican Council and the 1917 Code of Canon Law, this is no longer an option.

Don’t believe it? Don’t take our word for it; take that of Cardinal Louis Billot, S.J. (1846-1931). In his Tractatus De Ecclesia Christi (“Treatise on the Church of Christ”), the great Jesuit theologian addressed the question whether it was possible for a Pope to be deposed, and he did so in light not only of St. Robert Bellarmine’s teaching but, writing in the twentieth century, also in light of the decrees of the First Vatican Council and the Code of Canon Law:

Having thus thoroughly demolished the idea that a true Pope can ever be deposed, Billot then proceeds to tackle the question of defection from the Church, i.e. what would happen if the Pope became a heretic, a schismatic, or an apostate (notice that this parallels our discussion from earlier, where we distinguished removal from office that occurs in deposition from tacit resignation that occurs concomitantly with public defection). Not surprisingly, Billot once again sides with us sedevacantists:

In this, Billot refutes the erroneous position taken by Cardinal Cajetan and others before the First Vatican Council, which is now again being promoted by Salza, Siscoe, and the SSPX/resistance traditionalists at large. A lot more from Billot’s Thesis could be quoted but we will not do so here because it is too much text for a simple quote — instead, we invite you to read the Thesis in its entirety on your own because it deserves to be read in full and in proper context. To this end, we are providing an exclusive English translation of the whole of Thesis XXIX, of which the above is only a small excerpt. It can be accessed here:

• Cardinal Louis Billot on the Legitimacy of the Roman Pontiff
  (taken from Tractatus de Ecclesia Christi, 5th ed. [1927], Question 14, Thesis 29)

In this Thesis, Cardinal Billot also briefly advances the idea that peaceful adherence by the whole Church to a particular papal claimant is an infallible sign that the individual in question is in fact a legitimate Pope. Salza and Siscoe have been using this as one of their main arguments against Sedevacantism, and we mention it here only for the sake of fairness, lest anyone accuse us of trying to “hide” what Billot says on the matter. We will address the issue of universal peaceful adherence at length in a subsequent article or blog post, but we will gloss over it here, because for discussing the impossibility of judging or deposing a Pope, the issue of peaceful acceptance is irrelevant.

In their book True or False Pope?, the anti-sedevacantist authors dedicate an entire chapter to arguing, albeit with countless supposed nuances, that a Pope can be deposed (pp. 331-368). Unfortunately, Cardinal Billot’s Thesis XXIX does not make an appearance in the chapter at all. In fact, throughout their book, Salza and Siscoe quote Cardinal Billot mainly with regard to the issue of universal peaceful adherence — but on the question of whether a Pope can be deposed, Billot is hardly cited at all, and where he is quoted he is misrepresented (e.g., on p. 151).

In any case, the foregoing sufficiently refutes the notion that a Pope can be deposed or removed from office. However, there is one argument of Salza and Siscoe that deserves to be addressed still, and that is the claim that although judging belongs by right to a superior, in the case of heresy, even an inferior may judge his superior. Salza and Siscoe claim that this was the position of St. Robert Bellarmine, as an “exception” to the principle that the First See can be judged by no one (pp. 300-303). Here is the quote they base their assertion on:

At first sight, it may indeed seem like St. Robert Bellarmine is going against what was later defined by Vatican I, namely, that no one can judge the First See. But as we saw earlier: “This principle, whether taken juridically or dogmatically, suffers no exception” (Burke, Competence in Ecclesiastical Tribunals, p. 87). So, what is going on here?

We may safely turn to Cardinal Billot for help, who addresses the examples given by Bellarmine of Popes Innocent III, Adrian II, etc., albeit in a slightly different context:

Put simply, when St. Robert Bellarmine says that a Pope can be judged in the case of heresy, he means it in a manner of speaking, much like St. Paul said that an angel from Heaven who preaches a false Gospel would be anathema (see Gal 1:8-9). Bellarmine does not mean that an inferior can legitimately render a canonical judgment against the Pope, his superior, by way of some mysterious exception — although this is what Salza and Siscoe insist is Bellarmine’s position (pp. 300-303) — any more than St. Paul meant that a genuine angel could actually preach a false gospel. Rather, Bellarmine simply means that if a Pope were to become a public heretic, he could then be judged by his inferiors because he would no longer be Pope — which is exactly what he argues in the very same chapter from which this quote is taken.

Likewise, the reason why Pope Adrian II could say that “in the case of heresy, a Roman Pontiff can be judged”, is not because heresy is some sort of exception to the principle codified at Vatican I that no one can judge the Pope, but because public heresy alone — together with schism and apostasy — is a sin that of its very nature can make a true Pope cease being Pope: “For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy” (Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis, n. 23).

That is why a superior can then be judged, so to speak, by his inferiors: because he is then no longer the lawful superior, but, being a heretic, he is cut off from the Body of the Church. This is what St. Robert Bellarmine means, and this is also how Cardinal Billot understands the Doctor of the Church, because he does not contradict St. Robert in any way, which would be odd because it is Billot who argues, as we saw, that for “the Pontiff [to] be placed under legal liability to the judgment of inferiors … involves an open contradiction” and that if one were to grant a single exception even for heresy, “there is no longer at hand any reason why the possibility of deposition should be restricted to only a case of heresy … and nothing remains except a voluntary rule to which an arbitrary exception is added.”

At last we have arrived at the end of our little excursion. We must disappoint the Semi-Traditionalist loudmouths who are currently roaming the internet calling for Francis to be deposed: Sorry, folks, but if Francis is a true Pope now, then no one can take the pontificate away from him. He cannot be removed from office; he cannot be deposed. You’re simply stuck with him. Welcome to Catholic teaching on the papacy.

The good news is, however, that Francis is not a valid Pope now, and never was. He is not a Catholic and therefore not eligibile to be Pope, no matter how many “cardinals” elect him. Remember that those who scream the loudest that sedevacantists are wrong and Francis is a valid Pope, waste no time refusing this “true Pope” the submission they owe him. As we said in our TRADCAST 012, it’s not just that the recognize-and-resist traditionalists are wrong about Francis being Pope, it is much worse: They are wrong about the papacy.

Accepting Jorge Bergoglio as Pope has consequences. Our opponents are now paying the price of their erroneous position that a public apostate can be a true and lawful successor of St. Peter.

Image Attribution:
By Joachim Specht (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons