Okay, so here I go into the shark tank...
Dear original poster,
You have chosen to remain anonymous understandably, probably due to the brow beating differentiates get in this forum in general. I too my biretta to Bumphrey and Bosco, as they make valid arguments on this particular question. Nevertheless, while acknowledging this, I do no argue this way regarding the formal vacancy of the Apostolic See. The Big question everyone has to answer is : is there continuity between pre-Vatican II Catholicism and post, i.e. Are they substantially different in the essential mission of the Church of teaching, governing and sanctifying? If the answer to this is 'Jo's then no one should be reacting, but should be submitting to the hierarchy as is DUE from the faithful
But if there is a substantial difference, voila! You've got a different religion! Ergo it is impossible for the Catholic Church to promulgate anything to the universal Church (i.e. To Catholics everywhere) that would be an obstacle to salvation. The fact that Montini, JP 1, JP2, Ratzinger, and. Bergoglio all have manifested intention to promulgate the Novus Ordo religion to the universal Church (which is a manifest sign to not intend the good of the Church) is a sign (not the cause) of them never being a true pope in the first place, though they were validly elected and thus were material successors to St. Peter. Note that I said "sign" and not "cause" because the latter argues they were formal popes, then lost the papacy (which the R&R folks happily point out the difficulties contained therein).
You mentioned in your original post that you essentially don't know who to believe. To that I say: read any Catholic catechism, any dogmatic theology manual, or any ecclesiology manual and you will see that it is precisely due to the divine assistance of Christ to the Church that prevents her from promulgating heresy and error. If you say otherwise, then the Catholic Church is just a human church,like the sects.