Fr. Chazal asked to have this posted.
Dear Mr Chojnowski,
As the new Rome sinks to new lows, in this never ending crisis of the Church, sedevacantism is only an added confusion.
All of us agree those in Rome should not be there, but in the lack of courageous prelates to take them on, some say they lose office automatically (sedevacantists), and others, much to the exasperation of the former, leave it to God.
Yet some of the questions you raise are interesting. Are we going to hold indefinitely that there is a Pope over there in Rome? What degree of heretical depravity is it going to take until we finally admit that the pope is no pope?
You are contending that now, with Francis, the measure is full, and while others saw it in John Paul II, others in 1969, others in 1963, others in 1958, etc.
This is one of the big problem of the theory of automated loss of office, which is distinct from the case of implicit resignation. There is no way to ascertainwhen exactly the office was lost, because the assessment is left to our personal estimation of the gravity of the heresies of the accused. Filipinos here don t even know what a heresy is, let alone what Modernism is; whereas if you ask my opinion, i personally believe that Paul VI and John Paul II were heretics. So i should have become sedevacantist before even i was born and Filipinos will join Fr Soliman, our only sedevacantist priest here, in 2100AD.
Of course, if a monkey or the Antichrist himself ascends the throne, i will cease to pray for what s sitting over there at the Canon of the Mass.
As for Fr Kramer, a huge 1000 pages trilogy is coming and i have promised to read his first volume, but i am not completely sure he embraces the same position as Fr Cekada. Is Fr Kramer forcing people to hold his theory as Fr Cekada does, or does he hold it as an opinion still? I don't know. Last time we met he did not cut sacramental ties with us at least.
The doctrinal bloodbath with Mr Salza and Siscoe persuades me to talk directly with him rather than via internet, and i have learned a lot from him even if i can t agree with him on everything. Same with his two arch enemies. Same with you now alas.
***
Then there is the question of authority. The modern notion of it entails that as long as someone is in authority he must be followed, (to the exception of mass murder), more or less.
This false principle has enabled all the reforms of Vatican II to pass. The vast majority of Catholics simply obeyed, because Paul VI said "I am in charge".
This crisis of the Church would never have happened without this positivism, this voluntarism, this rampart for the cowardice of the masses.
Yet the History of the Church shows prelates, popes, even Peter himself who were resisted for their lack of conformity to the truth of the Gospel.
Famously, the Archbishop asked respectfully "Whom should we obey? Pius IX and his Syllabus or Paul VI?". He went to Rome, wrote his "Dubia" etc. Truth settled once and for all, (by a previous instrument), prevails over instruments betraying the truth today.
You are asking me, and quite repetitively, to heed to authority if Francis is the Pope. No, i won t, because authority is not the truth, but only an instrument. The instrument can fail, truth can t. The authority instituted by Christ is only there to declare the truth already there, already revealed, if it goes off track it can safely be not followed.
Perhaps i have not sufficiently expanded that notion in my book. There should be a second revised edition.
It remains also that the instrument Christ instituted should not be discarded prematurely, nay, for the sake of the truth who will use this instrument again, we should leave it to God to fix it, if there are not enough prelates to bring a bad Pope to bay.
***
And if we keep a bad Pope, (aside from the reight relation beteween truth and authority), it is also for the reason of keeping the Church from splintering in many pieces: this does not mean we confuse the conciliar church with the Catholic Church. I dealt with that point in the last part, and captain obvious is on my side. The two churches are very clearly distinguished by yours truly.
If i follow your advice, i would hold to conclavism, because i believe that Peter will have perpetual actual successors until the end of time. The Papacy is of Divine Right and part of the Divine Constitution of the Church, and is the basis for the note of Apostolicity. A big problem indeed. This is what held back the Archbishop, he stated it clearly.
What should it not hold us now? Is there a pope more destructive than Paul VI? Francis is trying hard, but the damage he is doing cannot compare, in proportion with the Robespierrian Montini Pope. Likewise, in my opinion, John Paul II is the best figure of the Antichrist... who shall be loved by all, and anyone who shall not love him shall be deemed a monster.
At the practical level i would have to separate from the four resistance bishops, whom i respect very much today. To which sedevacantist sect or group must i turn then? Can i trust the Thuc line altogether?
Can my faithful here in Asia, weak, scattered and ignorant as they are survive the forseeable infightings and divisions that sedevacantism is famous for? And how can i continue to extract souls from the novus ordo to make them safe if i tell them that there is no pope on earth any more?
Obviously, sedevacantism raises many more questions than answers.
What is necessary and sufficient is to separate the New Rome and all its errors, as they emerged since Vatican II.
You want us now to go beyond this well defined mission and attempt something much more complex, interminably debated, even among sedevacantists.
Therefore, if you could point where the precise arguments of the book are faulty, point by point; or at least refute one of the seven parts of the book, I would begrateful.
I am very sure bthat in the good old days of the Angelus you wrote something on Authority and truth, and that doctrine still stands today.
God bless you and thank you for your frankness and unconvoluted statements.
In Iesu et Maria,
Francois Chazal+