De Romano Pontifice, Book II, Chapter 30

Whether a Heretical Pope Can Be Deposed?

by Saint Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, S.J.

Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church
Canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930
Declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931
Feast Day: May 13

Translated from the original Latin by Mr. Ryan Grant
used with permission


Chapter XXX: The Last Argument is Answered, Wherein the Argument is Taken up, Whether a Heretical Pope can be Deposed

The tenth argument. A Pope can be judged and deposed by the Church in the case of heresy; as is clear from Dist.… READ MORE

Clarity on a much-misunderstood issue…

The Question of Authority:
“Who are YOU to say who is a Heretic?”

It happens all the time when discussing Sedevacantism or related topics, especially with people in the recognize-and-resist camp, like adherents of the Society of St. Pius X or the Fraternity of St. Peter: Whenever the other side is out of arguments, the objection will be made that the sedevacantist has no authority to say what he is saying — for example, to determine who is a heretic, or to say whether a particular theological conclusion is indeed correct — as though it required an act of authority to discern whether a man is a Catholic or a heretic, or as though Catholic teaching were only to be held in theory but never allowed to be applied in practice to a concrete situation.… READ MORE

The blind still leading the blind…

On Christopher Ferrara’s “Undertaker Pope”

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Almost finished…

On June 6, The Remnant published a blog post written by its chief rhetorician, Christopher Ferrara, with the amusing title, “The Undertaker Pope: A Brief Study of an Infallibly Politically Correct Pontificate”. The retired American lawyer takes Francis to the woodshed for his most recent outrageous, erroneous, and sometimes downright ridiculous statements and actions, of which Ferrara provides the following summary:

  • Francis’s warm relations with socialist dictators;
  • his lauding of pro-abortion and pro-“gay” politicians;
  • his abuse of the papal office as a platform for globalist enviornmentalism (thus advantaging the same transnational corporations he professes to deplore);
  • his refusal to intervene in opposition to the legalization of “gay marriage” because “the Pope belongs to everybody, he cannot enter the concrete, domestic politics of a country.
READ MORE

That sums it up…

SSPX Bp. Fellay: Francis considers us Catholics — Doctrine is not that important to him

Almost there: Bp. Fellay was interviewed on Reconciliation with Rome
by Edward Pentin on May 13, 2016

The Society of St. Pius X’s Superior General Bishop Bernard Fellay was back in his comfort zone when Novus Ordo journalist Edward Pentin questioned him on May 13 in a new exclusive interview for the National Catholic Register published on May 18. It was friendly fire only, and this is how he likes it, quite in contrast to his epic fail when interrogated by Tim Sebastian on the aptly-named Conflict Zone program in February — a performance so embarrassing that the SSPX never alerted its adherents to the interview’s existence.… READ MORE

START HERE

So you just stumbled upon this web site and are wondering what in the world this is all about? Then this page is for you!

What’s going on? Why this odd web site?

To make a long story short: What is today known as Roman Catholicism is in fact not the Roman Catholicism of the past. You can verify this for yourself just by looking at Church history, and virtually all disinterested historians will confirm this. The big rupture occurred at the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of all Catholic bishops called in 1959 by the newly-elected “Pope John XXIII”.… READ MORE

For Heaven’s sake, wake up!

An Update: Francis and the Society of St. Pius X

The Society of St. Pius X, since 1994 headed by the intrepid Bp. Bernard Fellay, who considers himself the leader of Traditional Catholicism yet without even so much as a single significant theological contribution to back him up, has now released a statement on Jorge Bergoglio’s infernal exhortation Amoris Laetitia:

The Society’s reaction is entitled, “Enough to make one weep” — which about sums up all the SSPX has left at this point to put up against Francis’ in-your-face apostasy: tears, sobbing, and hand-wringing.… READ MORE

Refreshing Catholic Truth…

Recent Conferences by Bishop Sanborn:

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The Great Apostasy, Vatican II, the Novus Ordo Church, and Sedevacantism

In these first few months of 2016, sedevacantist Bishop Donald Sanborn has done some traveling and given conferences on true Catholicism, the changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council, and the current state of “Catholicism” in the Novus Ordo Church. The audio recordings of these highly informative talks have now been made available by His Excellency to the general public and can be downloaded or streamed free of charge below.

Bp. Sanborn is rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Brooksville, Florida.… READ MORE

Leaked Internal Paper…

SSPX’s Fr. Schmidberger makes Case for Union with Rome

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Former SSPX Superior General, Fr. Schmidberger, with the current one, Bp. Fellay

The Spanish-speaking “Resistance-SSPX” web site Non Possumus has published an internal letter of Fr. Franz Schmidberger, formerly the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (1982-94) and currently the head of the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen (Germany), in which he lays out the case for full canonical recognition by Modernist Rome under “Pope” Francis and responds to various objections.

The three-page letter, dated February 19, 2016, is entitled Überlegungen zur Kirche und der Stellung der Priesterbruderschaft St.

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Setting the Historical Record straight…

The Truth about Pope Liberius and the “Excommunication” of St. Athanasius

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Now that Francis has successfully detonated his nuclear bomb called Amoris Laetitia — the “Apostolic Exhortation” effectively granting free rein to people in permanent adultery and other “irregular unions” to receive the Novus Ordo sacraments — the anti-sedevacantist “resistance traditionalists” are scrambling to justify their refusal to countenance the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, a man whom anyone can see is truly the Vicar of Satan cannot also be the Vicar of Jesus Christ at the same time (cf. 2 Cor 6:15).

One of the most predictable internet sites in this regard is the famous indult blog Rorate Caeli, which quickly recycled the old litany of “heretical Popes” of the past to justify the current situation:

Why it is intrinsically impossible to be more Catholic than the Pope, is something we explained to The Remnant’s chief rhetorician Christopher Ferrara a few months ago, and it bears repeating:

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Like clockwork…

SSPX Bp. Fellay: Francis extends Faculties for Confession beyond ‘Year of Mercy’

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Looks like everything is going according to plan. Just as we predicted, as Francis opens a huge door for the “divorced-and-remarried” — unfortunately, it’s the door to hell — he is likewise being very “merciful” to the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X. Gotta keep those traditionalists happy in the face of such a big whopper as the “Apostolic Exhortation” just released.

On April 10, 2016, the SSPX Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, announced during a sermon (full audio here) in Puy-en-Velay (France) that “Pope” Francis had told him at a recent meeting in the Vatican that he would extend the faculties he had given the SSPX to hear confessions validly, beyond the “Jubilee Year of Mercy”, which ends on November 20 of this year.… READ MORE

Impeccable Timing!

Vatican: SSPX Need Not Adhere to All of Vatican II for Canonical Recognition

“Abp.” Guido Pozzo

In American politics, this would be called an “October surprise”. In the Vatican II religion, it is just another whim of Francis’ god of surprises: As the ink on the dreaded post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia has not even dried yet, the Vatican announces a curious concession to the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X: Adherence to all of Vatican II is not a requirement for canonical recognition by the “Holy See”. Thus says “Archbishop” Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei Commission in charge of dealing with the SSPX.… READ MORE

Vatican confirms April 2 meeting

“Pope” Francis meets with SSPX Superior General, Bishop Fellay

The Press Office of the “Holy See” has confirmed a newspaper report of an unannounced meeting that took place between “Pope Francis” and the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, on Saturday, April 2, at Vatican City. The Italian paper Il Foglio broke the story, quoting sources who said the meeting “was positive” and “understanding is good” between Fellay and Francis, whom Fellay had called “a genuine Modernist” in 2013.

According to Il Foglio, the discussions between the “Pope” and the Lefebvrian SSPX are moving towards a personal prelature model similar to that under which Opus Dei operates.

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Catholic Quotes to remember and share

The following is a list of quotes by various Catholic authorities before the Second Vatican Council. These days there is so much misinformation about what true Catholicism is that these little snippets will serve as a welcome and refreshing reminder and a veritable “reality check” against the errors and misconceptions of our times. In the collection of quotes presented here, you will find timeless truths, aphorisms, warnings, clarifications, predictions, and exhortations.

Be sure to share these quotes with friends!

  • “Reveal to the faithful the wolves which are demolishing the Lord’s vineyard.”
    —Pope Clement XIII, Encyclical Christianae Reipublicae, 1766
  • “We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.”
READ MORE

March Madness in Brazil

Bishop Williamson consecrates Fr. Tomás de Aquino a Bishop for Resistance Group

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The newly-consecrated Bishop Tomas de Aquino, OSB
Image Source: Non Possumus Blog

In an effort to expand the group of clerics that left the Society of St. Pius X in recent years because the SSPX wasn’t SSPX enough for them anymore, Bishop Richard Williamson — himself expelled from the SSPX in 2012 — consecrated another bishop, this time, Fr. Tomas de Aquino, OSB. The episcopal consecration took place as scheduled on March 19, 2016, in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, near Rio de Janeiro.

Some photos of the ceremony can be viewed here.… READ MORE

Epic Fail…

Salza and Siscoe’s Errors on Canon 188

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In a new post on his blog Speray’s Catholicism in a Nutshell, sedevacantist blogger and author Steven Speray has posted a rebuttal to John Salza and Robert Siscoe’s arguments about Canon 188 n.4, the part in the Code of Canon Law that says that any cleric automatically loses his office by the very fact of publicly defecting from the Faith, without the need for a declaration.

Speray, who is one of the named direct targets of True or False Pope?, identifies four main errors made by the authors, Salza and Siscoe, which he then proceeds to refute, based on expert commentaries on the matter.… READ MORE