An honest discussion on this topic has been delayed long enough. We are all suffering for it. The most hotly debated issue in the Traditional Movement of the Roman Catholic Church is the question regarding the effect of heresy both taught and defended by the occupant of the Chair of Peter in a manner that is clearly an exercise of the official papal office. Does he remain the Pope CAN or not for doing this? What is more, are those who even voice such a possibility heretics themselves? Are they attacking and dividing the doctrine of the infallibility of the Papacy? Can someone judge the Pope? These are many other questions regarding this important issue are discussed in this book by Arnaldo da Silveira. Written early on in the THE POPE current crisis, the author displays a true love for the Church of Jesus Christ by reviewing what theologians, many of whom are saints and Doctors of the Church, have had to say on this issue. Contrary to the opinion of a growing number in our age, this issue has been discussed in great detail in the past, leaving the feeble attempts by the modern “leaders” of the Traditional Movement to pale by comparison. In answer GO BAD? to those who ask what good will come from this discussion, da Silveira reminds us that we have the right and obligation to know for certainty where our obedience should be given. It is less than Catholic to admit that heresy is being taught, to follow the Scripture command to avoid a person guilty of such an error, but then try to demonstrate that obedience must still be rendered to the heretic. At the very least, full resistance (da A call for the resumption of a debate not Silveira points out) to such a leader is the Catholic viewpoint -- full taken seriously since the 17th Century resistance meaning not looking to the heretic for guidance or obedience in any way. While it is true the Catholic Church has not yet dogmatically defined what would happen if a pope fell into heresy, as well as how and why such a thing would happen, we are not, thereby, “off the hook” on this issue. A serious debate, which will lead to a solid common opinion about the pope heretic, has not taken place since the Seventeenth Century. This book is a call to resume this debate, striving thus to arrive at a BY ARNALDO VIDIGAL XAVIER DA SILVEIRA common Catholic opinion wherewith to form our consciences. Our starting point is the place where the debate left off: the Five Opinions of St. Robert Bellarmine. Such a debate is not an option; it is a necessity. Catholic Research Institute P.O. Box 589 Veradale, Washington 99037 USA Web site: http://www.asisna.com/cri CATHOLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE ISBN 1-929968-00-0 First Printing: June, 1998 CAN Second Printing: September, 1999 Copyright 1998 Catholic Research Institute THE POPE ISBN 1-929968-00-0 This work is Part II of a larger work entitled Theological and Moral Implications of the New “Ordo Missae” by the same author. This section was originally presented under the title The Theortical GO BAD? Implications of a Heretical Pope. Part I will be available at a later date. No reproduction of this work may be done, in whole or in part, by any medium, without previous permission of the author and the publisher, except to quote in a review. When this done, due reference must be given to this work. A call for the resumption of a debate not taken seriously since the 17th Century In accord with the principles of Pope Urban VIII, this work is submitted for ecclesiastical approval. Nothing in here is presented except that which is the teachings of the Catholic Church or which comes from the approved writings of her saints and BY ARNALDO VIDIGAL XAVIER DA SILVEIRA Doctors. That which is the author’s opinion is duly expressed as such, and which is subjected to the judgment of the Church. TRANSLATED FROM PORTUGESE BY: JOHN RUSSELL SPANN Catholic Research Institutue P.O. Box 756 Greenacres, Washington 99016 U.S.A. E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.asisna.com/cri CATHOLIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE GREENACRES, WASHINGTON USA 3 4 FORWARD CAN THE POPE GO BAD? I first became aware of this publication on a trip to Australia in late 1997. Already nearly 30 years had gone by since the beginning of our “crisis”, and the issue that is brought forth here has failed to receive its due appreciation. There is a certain element of a crime in this consideration. There are some who have gained notoriety in the Traditional Movement of the Roman Foreward........................................................................................ 4 Catholic Church who have sidelined the debate using false reasoning. They Introduction: The Theological Hypothesis .................................... 5 have weakened the will of the clergy to debate this issue and come to a common opinion regarding the pope heretic. Likewise, they have terrified Chapter 1: Bellarmine’s Five Opinions .......................................... 9 the laity to the point that they think such a debate would be un-Catholic and giving room to Satan. God help us to get past this. Chapter 2: First Opinion -- God Won’t Permit It ........................ 11 The debate regarding a pope heretic has surfaced in the Church at several times in Her history, most especially when the Chair of Peter was occupied Chapter 3: Second Opinion -- Ipso Facto Loss ............................ 28 by those who were not equal to the task of being the Supreme Shepherd. In Chapter 4: Third Opinion -- Pontificate Never Lost ................... 31 fact, as you will read in these pages, such discussions were more often than not real debates about the certainty of the issue rather than a scholastic Chapter 5: Fourth Opinion -- Only An Effective Loss ................. 37 exercise. As Da Silveira remarks, for the good of the Church in our times, we must resume these debates again. Chapter 6: Fifth Opinion -- Effects of Manifest Heresy............... 48 Absent a decision by the Church on a pope heretic, one cannot sit back idly and say that such a consideration is not important or impossible to arrive Chapter 7: Bellarmine’s Defense of Fifth Opinion ....................... 53 at. Heresy is triumphing today because those who say they are dedicated to Chapter 8: Schismatic Pope/Dubious Pope ................................. 60 the cause of restoring Tradition will not meet it for what it is. They take a position of compromise with error, adopting, for example, such a questionable Chapter 9: Can the Magisterium Err?.......................................... 76 line of thinking which makes it possible to call the man the Successor of Peter on his Chair, while not professing the faith of Peter in his heart and in Chater 10: Can the Magisterium Teach Heresy? ......................... 85 his public actions. The clergy say we can accept one writing that is in line with Tradition, but we must reject another. Who is the judge? The faithful Chapter 11: Public Resistance To Authority ................................ 95 are looking for leadership, and all they get are opinions that are dividing APPENDIX: Synoptic Outline of Opinions .............................. 110 them further. The clergy must take the lead, and begin this debate again, taking up where it was left off in the 17th Century. The reason for this is clear: what was considered only a theoretical possibility in times past, is a definite reality today. Perhaps if this book had been made more available 30 years ago, we would already have reached the common opinion which must guide men’s souls today. Let us pray that very little time will pass before we will deal honestly with this situation. Until that time comes, the Restoration of the Roman Mass and the Roman Faith will be terribly delayed. Fr. Kevin Vaillancourt Catholic Research Institute 5 6 little, to interest specialized circles.3 In spite of the relative frequency with which the question of a heretical Pope is being broached in our days, there has not been published to our knowledge in recent years an ample, systematic and up to date study of the matter. Because of this fault, in our opinion, the debates over this theme INTRODUCTION: are greatly impaired. From this it results for instance that - as we have THE THEOLOGICAL HYPOTHESIS OF been observing with more and more preoccupation - our contemporaries A HERETICAL POPE have in general studied the hypothesis of a heretical Pope with partial or even false notions of the state of the question. Various for this reason In divers troubled periods in the history of the Church, the have fallen into evident errors and simplifications, which are rendering theological question of the eventual fall of a Pope into heresy attracted more difficult a lucid and coherent management of the grave theoretical the greatest interest.1 In those periods theologians as well as moralists and practical problems involved in the matter. and canonists devoted themselves to the examination of this delicate problem, without ever arriving, however, at a uniform and definite There are some who, knowing only the position of a certain author consensus. and of those who follow him, analyze the contemporary events only in the light of the doctrine of that author - and thus they do not consider the When those difficult moments had passed, the debates about the fact that other theologians of great authority sustain different theses. possibility of a heretical Pope ceased to attract the attention of the studious. In general, the authors dedicate to them, then, only a few lines, as someone It is not enough to say, for instance, that, as Cajetan or Suarez who had recalled an academic and curious problem, which however would teach, the Cardinals and the bishops ought to declare the Pope deposed, never more become urgently interesting.