Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Crisis in the Church => Topic started by: rowenwdse on January 21, 2024, 05:29:10 PM
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I just had to share with you this analogy I recently thought of:
Perpetual Succession of Popes:
- like a linked chain
- St. Peter being the first link
- some of the links are completely rusted like bad popes
- some of the links are of fine and various qualities of gold and silver representing good Popes
- but the chain is continuous
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Is there a weed smoking emoji?
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Actually the link is not continuous. History shows there are different periods when the pontiff has been Missing In Action, like no one on the chair. Like no one home in Rome. That, of course, doesn't factor in the Great Apostasy we're witnessing today. That was one of the factors that helped me into SSSSSSSedevacantism.
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Is there a weed smoking emoji?
Not an emoji but this might be the closest there is.
(https://i.imgur.com/nOY3iRI.jpg)
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The concept of "perpetual successors" as defined by the first Vatican Council means that Peter was not the only head of the Church, as the protestants say, but that he would have successors in that office until the end of the world. It says nothing about how much time would elapse between one pope and the next.
There is also the famous quote by Fr. Berry that the papacy can go even many years without a pope, and that likely in the end times the antichrist will set himself up as a false pope (https://novusordowatch.org/2018/07/father-berry-persecution-of-church-last-days3/).
As indicated by the resemblance to a lamb, the [false] prophet will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of antipope during the vacancy of the papal throne mentioned above. But the elect will not allow themselves to be deceived
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Yeah, clearly the notion of "Perpetual Succession" cannot mean that there will be an actual Pope at all times and every moment in history. That's the key to understanding what it actually DOES mean.
Also, if there's a time limit for an interregnum that would somehow disrupt this perpetual succession, please let us know what that time limit is. 3 years? 5? 7? 12? 15? 20 years 6 months 3 days 4 hours 15 minutes 25 seconds? So the maximum time for a lapse cannot be defined quantitatively, as coming up with an arbitrary limit would be absurd. It must therefore be understood qualitatively.
Now, one can debate what that means, and when the papal succession would have been disrupted/terminated in principle ... but this can be debated and it not entirely clear.
R&R like to throw out "60 years is absurd." Then please do tell us the exact limit, down to the second. I find it "absurd" that for >60 years we've had a hierarchy that can't be recognized as Catholic and from whom we must break to keep the faith and whose Magisterium and Mass we need to reject, etc.