Why the Timing of the Munich Declaration?
It wasn't until 1981—that is, 19 years after his participation in Vatican II —that Monsignor Thuc began to privately attest to his acceptance of the conclusion regarding the vacancy of the Holy See. In December 2001, Mr. Ébhard Heller (who was present at all 3 of the 1981 consecrations) published an article in which he stated: "It should be noted that when Monsignor consecrated the first bishops without an explicit mandate—due to the vacancy of the Holy See—he did so explicitly in order to save the apostolic succession from the peril of extinction; the issues regarding the vacancy of the Holy See and the necessity of consecrating bishops without a papal mandate were discussed explicitly later on, in relation to the ecclesiastical situation of the time; nevertheless, Monsignor Thuc and the priest who received the episcopate from him were accused of having committed schismatic acts. It is the declaration regarding the vacancy of the Holy See dated February 25, 1982, that provides—from Monsignor Thuc himself—the true meaning of the absence of a papal mandate, the true justification for the absence of a papal mandate. Even today, objections are raised from various quarters that this declaration should have been published before the consecrations, because the latter could not be justified by the adoption of this position. Those who reason in this way assume that the Archbishop's position at the time of the first consecration differed from his position at the time the declaration was formulated; that is a position that cannot be accepted, because from our very first visit to Bishop Thuc—accompanied by the Reverend Dr. Kadzer, who had made himself available as the first candidate for consecration (though he passed away in the interim)—the discussion focused on the vacancy of the Holy See, the danger of losing the apostolic succession, and the falsification of the Holy Mass. A vote was taken on the positions adopted; it was only on this basis that the subsequent consecrations were performed. Furthermore, circuмstances at the time forced these consecrations to be carried out in secret. In this regard, one need only think of the Archbishop's hasty flight to Germany—for he rightly feared persecution after the consecrations had been leaked to the press by Father Barbara. Moreover, one must also consider the fact that, a few years later, he was actually kidnapped from the Rochester seminary in the United States and taken to an unknown destination."
Correction: the Mass where Apb. Thuc publicly read his declaration took place on March 21, 1982. He drafted it on February 25, 1982, but
officially proclaimed the vacancy of the Holy See during a Mass celebrated in the Chapel of St. Michael in Munich on March 21, 1982.
Topic: Autobiography of Archbishop Thuc (Read 638814 times)