Sixty years without a Pope — how could this happen?

Like Sheep without a Shepherd:
60 Years of Sede Vacante

During last year’s Fatima Conference sponsored by the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI) in Spokane, Washington, Mr. Mario Derksen, pictured below, delivered a lecture on the subject of 60 years of sede vacante since the death of Pope Pius XII on October 9, 1958. We are happy to be able to share the 42-minute audio recording and also a written transcript in this post.

Looking at the extreme devastation of the Catholic landscape that has been wrought in the past 60 years, Mr.… READ MORE

Why those troubles do point to Sedevacantism…

Peter Kwasniewski and “the Troubles of this Pontificate”:
A Sedevacantist Reply

As of late, more and more Novus Ordo and semi-trad publications have felt the need to write something about — that is, something againstSedevacantism. That’s a good sign, since it shows that the truth about the nature of the Vatican II Sect and its anti-Catholic hierarchy is making inroads like never before. Were it not so, the Novus Ordo pundits and commentators would not give this issue the time of day.

And no wonder: Never since the Modernists took over the Vatican in 1958 has the chaos been greater than today under the man who styles himself “Pope Francis” — Jorge Bergoglio — a mere layman, an Argentine Jesuit without even so much as a valid diaconate ordination.… READ MORE

Substantial error on Barnhardt’s part…

Benedict XVI’s Mysterious Resignation:
A Reply to Ann Barnhardt

On Nov. 17, 2018, the colorful blogger Ann Barnhardt, a Resignationist since 2016, released a video presentation in which she tries to convince her audience that “Pope” Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013 was invalid because he is, so she argues, in “substantial error” about the Papacy, and substantial error renders a resignation invalid according to Canon 188 of the 1983 Novus Ordo Code of Canon Law (this same law is also found in the 1917 Catholic Code of Canon Law; see Canon 185). Ergo, Barnhardt reasons, the resignation was not valid and Benedict XVI is the Pope, albeit, so she says, the worst Pope in history.… READ MORE

TRADCAST 023 is here

Novus Ordo Watch for your ears…

TRADCAST 023 Now Available

left to right: Georg Gänswein, Jorge Bergoglio, Asia Bibi

TRADCAST — The Traditional Catholic Podcast

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION
AND TO LISTEN TO ALL EPISODES

In case you missed our initial announcement on November 12: We have published another full-length episode of our popular TRADCAST podcast program. As always, it is loaded with real traditional Catholicism, hard-hitting refutations of various errors, and razor-sharp analysis. Our content is typically challenging but is always delivered with a relieving touch of humor.

TRADCAST 023 consists of two separate segments. In the first, we look at how Sedevacantists are truly the “last Catholics”, those who believe exactly what was believed and taught until Pope Pius XII died and refused to change their religion afterwards.… READ MORE

TRADCAST 023 (12 NOV 2018)

Contents

  • Segment 1: Introductory comments; giving up on Francis; anything but Sedevacantism; the last Catholics; Vatican-China deal; “Abp.” Georg Ganswein canonizes Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer; Faith, reason, and Modernism; the Vatican and environmentalism; Francis’ silence on the Asia Bibi case
  • Segment 2: Thank you to our donors; the Roman Catholic Mass vs. the Novus Ordo “Mass”; Francis says Christ received his authority from the people; book recommendation: Contra Crawford by Dylan Fellows and Christopher Conlon
  • Total run time: 1 hr 1 min

You can listen to the show by clicking the big play button in the embedded player above.… READ MORE

Reply to Jason Morgan…

Missing the Forest for the Trees:

The Remnant on Schism and Sedevacantism

The pseudo-traditionalist flagship publication The Remnant has once again graced the world with the full depth of its theological wisdom. This biweekly American newspaper promotes what is perhaps best called a “pop traditionalism”, a distortion of traditional Catholicism that emphasizes certain popular elements or emotionally satisfying aspects — such as the Latin Mass, traditional practices, and rejection of whacky Novus Ordo ideas — but without any commitment to (or even regard for) sound Catholic theology, knowledge of which would have to be acquired through laborious effort and might lead to undesirable consequences.… READ MORE

Requiescat in Pace

The Editor of The Daily Catholic has died:
Michael Cain, R.I.P.

With great sorrow we announce the passing of Mr. Michael Cain, the founder and long-time editor of the Daily Catholic web site. He died at the age of 75 on Thursday, the feast of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Mother, Oct. 11, 2018.

An initial announcement posted on the Daily Catholic by the new editor reads as follows:

Michael Cain, the founder of Daily Catholic, passed away yesterday morning, on the Feast of the Divine Maternity of Mary, October 11th. May his beautiful soul rest in peace!

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Sede vacante since Oct. 9, 1958…

Sixty Years since the Death of Pope Pius XII

The body of Pope Pius XII is blessed with holy water by Cardinal Eugene Tisserant on Oct. 9, 1958
(Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy Stock Photo)

Pope Pius XII, R.I.P.

Mar. 2, 1876 – Oct. 9, 1958
elected Pope Mar. 2, 1939

It has now been 60 years since the death of the last known true Pope, His Holiness Pius XII, born Eugenio Pacelli, reigned 1939-1958. To honor and remember him, we are sharing with our readers the following select videos and some photos of the pontificate of Pius XII.… READ MORE

Rejoinder to recent arguments…

The Limits to Invoking “Papal Lapses” as a Justification for the Recognize-and-Resist Position:

A Response to Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

by Francis del Sarto

“Lessons from Church History: A Brief Review of Papal Lapses” is an article by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski that was published on August 6, 2018, by the OnePeterFive website. An editor’s note informs the reader that it is an update of an article that first appeared in October 2015. The author is identified as “a Thomistic theologian, liturgical scholar, and choral composer…”, who has taught at Novus Ordo colleges in Austria and the United States, written six books, and is a regular contributor on “Catholic blogs”.… READ MORE

Everything in the Vatican II Church is false – except the “Pope”?

The Absurdity of the Recognize-and-Resist Position demonstrated in two easy-to-understand Memes

Some things are easier to grasp in simple memes than in pages upon pages of text. We have produced the following two memes to illustrate the folly of the pseudo-traditionalist “recognize-and-resist” position, according to which one must recognize the papal claimants after Pius XII as valid Popes but resist them in whatever they teach, legislate, etc., that appears to one contrary to the pre-Vatican II Magisterium.

Depsite its inherent absurdity and anti-Catholic nature, this position is very popular, perhaps because it promises “the best of both worlds”, so to speak: One gets all the comfort and convenience of having a Pope and a hierarchy, all the while being exempt from the pesky problems associated with submitting to Modernists.… READ MORE

The Catholic Teaching on the Papacy

A Collection of Quotes from Magisterial Documents

In our day there are a lot of people who call themselves, and mean to be, traditional Roman Catholics. Yet a great many of them do not hold to the traditional Catholic understanding of the Papacy, either because they do not know it or because they unhappily accept the “Popes” after Pius XII as valid and legitimate but know that they cannot submit to them without abandoning the traditional Catholic Faith. The tragic irony in the latter case is that by denying the Catholic teaching on the Papacy, they are abandoning the Faith just as much.… READ MORE

A papal reality check…

A Conspiracy against the Catholic Church?

The True Popes Speak

When discussing the issue of Sedevacantism with Novus Ordos, it is not uncommon that someone will dismiss it on the grounds that it involves a “conspiracy”; and of course nothing is more absurd to contemporary man than giving credence to a position that differs from what most others hold to be the obvious truth.

Two thousand years ago, our Blessed Lord taught: “…the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). People who love and seek the truth ought to be concerned about, not whether something involves a conspiracy, but whether it is true.… READ MORE

We Had Been Warned:

Father E. Sylvester Berry on the Persecution of the Church in the Last Days (Part 3):

A False Pope and a Vacant Holy See

We cannot emphasize often enough that the terrible afflictions Holy Mother Church has had to endure since the death of Pope Pius XII were predicted and prophesied in Catholic Tradition, in one way or another. We have had numerous posts on this topic in the past, and today we would like to call to mind a particular prediction made by Fr. Elwood Sylvester Berry (1879-1954), professor of apologetics at Mt. Saint Mary’s seminary in Maryland, as part of his interpretation of Chapter 13 of the book of the Apocalypse (a.k.a.… READ MORE

The debate continues…

Novus Ordo vs. Sedevacantist Discussion, Part 2

The Catholic vs. podcast is a Novus Ordo podcast produced and hosted by David Mary Andrew Ross. The host, who is a convert to the Vatican II Church from atheism (2009), interviews guests who have a religious position different from his own. The format is informal and conversational, and the idea is to generate light rather than heat.

On Sep. 30, 2017, in an episode entitled Catholic vs. Catholic, the host interviewed sedevacantist Stephen Heiner, an episode we featured on this blog. The audio is still available and can be listened to here.… READ MORE

The case of Galatians 2:11-14…

The “St. Paul resisted St. Peter to his Face” Objection

Time and again we hear from those we call Semi-Traditionalists the argument that a Pope can lead the faithful astray into errors against the Faith through the exercise of his non-infallible Magisterium; and when that happens, it is then the right and the duty of the victim faithful to resist him, clinging to “Tradition”.

Those who defend this position often point to an incident that occurred between St. Paul and St. Peter recorded in Galatians 2:11-14, as supposed historical precedent for an error-teaching Pope being corrected and resisted by his inferiors.… READ MORE