Sedevacantists are often challenged to explain – if indeed the Chair of Peter has been empty for some six decades running – how the Church will ever go about electing a true pope.
Most sedevacantists, it seems, willingly admit to not having a detailed answer. Many would be more inclined to respond by suggesting a number of possibilities rather than attempting to describe a step-by-step process.
Is this a cop out?
No, of course not. There’s no shame in saying, “I don’t know for sure.” It’s called humility.
What’s more, there’s historical precedent.
During the Great Western Schism – a time of great division and confusion wherein three men at once, each with his own following, claimed possession of the Office of Peter – no one could say with absolutely certainty exactly how the crisis would be resolved.
At the same time, the truly faithful held fast to what was known with absolute certainty.
The same is true today.
While no one among the faithful knows for certain how the present crisis will end, what every Catholic does know with certainty is the following:
- The Church is indefectible.
As explained by the Catholic Encyclopedia, this means, among other things, “not merely that the Church will persist to the end of time, but further, that it will preserve unimpaired its essential characteristics … [and] can never undergo any constitutional change which will make it, as a social organism, something different from what it was originally.”
- As such, the Church will always have the ability to elect a pope.
For the most part, the tradservatives who argue against sedevacantism hold to these truths as well. When it comes to the following things that every Catholic knows with certainty, however, the Resist-the-Pope crowd typically either ignores, rewrites, or flat out rejects them.
- The Church is visible and knowable, as are her members.
St. Robert Bellarmine explains:
The Church is a definite society, not of angels, or of spirits, but of men. Therefore, it cannot be called a human society unless bound together by external and visible signs. How could it be a society unless those who belong to it recognized each other as members? And being men, they have no other means of mutual recognition than the sensible and external bonds by which the society is united. (De Controversiis Christianae Fidei)
We also know for certain that:
- Profession of the true faith is among the external and visible signs of membership in the Church.
Pope Pius XII explains, “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who … profess the true faith” (Mystici Corporis 22). Within that very same text, the Holy Father repeats this critically important teaching, stating, “The cooperation of all its members must also be externally manifest through their profession of the same faith” (ibid., art. 69)
These truths, which every Catholic knows (and must embrace) presents a serious problem for members of the Resist-the-Pope movement given that, as even as they plainly acknowledge, Francis most certainly does not manifest the true faith.
This invites a question that practically answers itself:
How can a man who isn’t even a member of the Mystical Body of Christ be the visible head of said body?
In any case, I digress… let’s now return to the question posed in the title to the post:
Is a future true pope guaranteed?
There are some sedevacantists who are open to the possibility that the Chair of Peter may remain empty until end of time when Our Lord will return in glory to judge the living and the dead.
I find this idea very compelling. After all, if this isn’t the Great Apostasy…!
On the other hand, in order to believe that a future true pope is not guaranteed, it seems that one would have to call into question the authenticity of the Fatima messages.
On July 13, 1917, Our Lady said:
I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace…
We tend to focus on the consecration of Russia, as if it alone will affect the conversion of that nation while leading to a period of peace. Note, however, that Our Lady spoke of the necessity of her “requests” – plural – being heeded, i.e., many seem to overlook the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
Our Lady’s message that day concluded:
In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
Though Communion of Reparation on First Saturdays is not mentioned here, one assumes that “in the end” the faithful will have responded in such a way as to fulfill this requirement.
NB: As recorded in Sr. Lucia’s diary, on December 10, 1925, while at the Dorothean convent in Pontevedra, Spain, Our Lady appeared to her along with the Child Jesus, who said:
Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.
At this, the Blessed Virgin explained that the intention we are to have for the first Saturday devotion is to make reparation to her Immaculate Heart.
Note that during the July 13, 1917 apparition, Our Lady plainly stated in relation to her requests, “God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart.” In other words, this is the very purpose of both the consecration of Russia and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
So, has the latter request been sufficiently heeded?
I think not, and it occurs to me that perhaps, just maybe, this is precisely what Our Lord is awaiting before He moves to set in motion the cure to the present ecclesial crisis, which, it seems, will necessarily include the elevation of a true pope.
Of course, it may very well be that a holy pope will precede the fulfilment of the requested devotion. In fact, that a true pope will come first seems to be more in keeping with the nature of the Church, i.e., it is the Shepherd who leads the sheep.
With all of this said, and bearing in mind that the Miracle of the Sun was given as proof of the authenticity of the Fatima apparitions, I tend to think we have little choice but to believe that a true pope is going to be realized at some point in the Church’s future.
