Thank you SRC for posting this video of Bishop Roy. He seems to have wisdom beyond his years. At time 32:30 into the video he states: "There are problems in your family, problems in our country, problems in the Church, problems in our parishes. This our main problem, we don't have the voice of Peter."

Before the institution of the College of Cardinals, the election of the Roman Pontiff belonged to the clergy of Rome with the assent of the faithful, a fact universally acknowledged by historians and theologians. This historical reality is precisely what theologians such as Cajetan, Suarez, John of St. Thomas, and Billuart appeal to when they argue that, in a total collapse of the juridical order—where the papal law cannot be followed because electors are non‑existent, unknown, or doubtful in the strict sense—the Church retains, by natural law, the ability to supply a pope through the universal Church acting in extremis. In this framework, the clergy and laity of Rome (or the broader Church) do not act by right or juridical authority, but as the subject of devolution when the constituted order is physically impossible to use.

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                Election by Roman clergy
                + consent/acclamation of laity
                (primitive, organic structure)

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                │        EARLY PATRISTIC PERIOD            │
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                Roman presbyterate + deacons
                become structured electoral body
                (laity still involved)

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                Imperial confirmation customary
                (Byzantine emperors approve elections)
                — clergy still elect the pope —

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                │  CAROLINGIAN → PRE‑REFORM PERIOD        │
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                Roman nobility + secular rulers
                exert increasing influence
                (instability prompts reform)

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                *In Nomine Domini* (Nicholas II)
                Cardinal‑bishops designated primary electors
                (birth of the College of Cardinals)

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                All cardinals become electors
                Two‑thirds rule established
                (fully juridicalized system)

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                Multiple claimants → doubtful electors
                (foundation for later “imperfect council”
                natural‑law theories)

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                Election of Martin V
                with authorization of Gregory XII
                (used by Billot/Franzelin to show
                Christ preserves juridical order)

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                │    EARLY MODERN THEOLOGICAL DEBATE      │
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                Two schools emerge:
                1. Natural‑law devolution (Cajetan, Suarez)
                2. Providential preservation (Billot, Franzelin)

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                Cardinalate stabilized as exclusive electors
                Primitive election seen as non‑repeatable
                except in purely hypothetical collapse


The automatic‑loss school (Bellarmine, Wernz–Vidal) holds that a pope who becomes a manifest heretic loses office ipso facto by divine law, but that the Church must recognize the fact before acting. However, this school does not require a judicial sentence—only a public fact. If such public recognition is absent or impossible, the juridical continuity of the Church is not destroyed; rather, the electoral subject remains intact (the cardinals), because their authority derives from the last unquestionably true pope. Thus, even without a juridical declaration, the Church retains a functioning electoral body unless the cardinals themselves become physically non‑existent, unknowable, or doubtful in the strict sense.

The natural‑law devolution school (Cajetan, John of St. Thomas, Suarez) teaches that if the constituted electors become physically impossible to identify or utilize—whether through extinction, doubt, or total breakdown—then the Church reverts, by natural law, to the historically prior subject capable of preserving succession (Roman clergy → universal Church). This mechanism does not require public juridical recognition, because it is not a juridical act but a state‑of‑nature supply for the survival of the society. The providential‑preservation school (Billot, Franzelin, Journet) adds that Christ ordinarily prevents the Church from reaching such extremity, but does not deny the theoretical possibility. Thus, the unified synthesis is this: If there is no public juridical recognition and the constituted electors remain identifiable, they alone retain competence; but if they become physically unknowable or doubtful, natural law supplies a fallback subject, even without juridical declaration, because the Church cannot be left unable to elect a pope.

Major: 
Whatever is necessary for the indefectible continuation of the apostolic primacy must exist in the Church either by positive law (constituted electors) or by natural law (historically rooted subjects capable of supplying the election), even when no public juridical recognition is available.

Minor: 
If the constituted electors (the College of Cardinals) remain physically identifiable, they retain competence even without public juridical recognition; but if they become physically non‑existent, unknowable, or doubtful in the strict sense, natural law supplies a historically rooted fallback subject (Roman clergy → universal Church), which can act without juridical declaration because the act is one of survival, not jurisdiction.

Conclusion: 
Therefore, even without public juridical recognition, the Church always retains a determinate subject capable of electing the Roman Pontiff—ordinarily the College of Cardinals by positive law, and in extraordinary physical collapse the historically rooted subjects by natural law—so that the apostolic primacy cannot fail.