The fact is that, during the present crisis, clergymen have to be evaluated on an individual basis.
Yes!
It is true that some sedevacantist clergy will withhold the sacraments from the faithful who do not adhere to their prudential decisions in all things (essentially excommunicating them); I actually think these are the more dangerous clergy.
Yes!
As I have said time and time again, those Priests and Bishops who have attained to Holy Orders without the consent of the Roman Pontiff are bereft of jurisdiction in the external forum and therefore cannot publicly bind individual consciences to their private theological opinions or decisions, except insofar as these are in accord with the teachings of Holy Mother Church and her customs and laws (but in such cases it is the latter that urges the individual Catholic conscience, and not some inherent public authority possessed by these clerics, as they have none). Otherwise (for example, in categorically pronouncing that it is a mortal sin to attend an SSPX Mass) they commit an aberration insofar as they pretend to go beyond their competence, and stand in danger of losing their credibility before the faithful and of being bereaved of the opportunity of exercising the supplied jurisdiction that they do have. For without the laity to whom to administer the Sacraments, what reason is there for the "independent" clerics to exist at all? The clerics are to draw to themselves the layfolk and demonstrate their competence to work as Pastors of souls with the perfection of their interior lives as manifested in good works and comportment that shews a sanctity and supernatural charity that rightly becomes the clerical state, and their learning in the sacred sciences.
This is most especially true regarding the sedevacantist Bishops, who attained to the sacred episcopacy with the claim that it is the exigencies of present circuмstance that have compelled them to do so, for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls, during the vacancy of the Apostolic See. If they are earnest and of good will in their intentions, then it follows that they ought to recognize the perilous position wherein they find themselves as
episcopi vagantes in the eyes of Canon Law and are to comport themselves with all humility and self-abnegation, applying to themselves
with a very salutary and strict scrupulosity the words of Our Lord, "You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many" (St. Matt., ch. xx., 25-28).
If these Bishops fail to comport themselves thusly, they run the risk of being criticized as cultists, and rightly so.
The sedevacantist Bishops are the only Catholics to whom I can say, "There is no such thing as excessive scruples." At least this is my personal opinion. Would to God that all sedevacantist clerics work out their salvation seized with devout terror and trembling (Phil., ch. ii., 2), that they may be endued with greater light and grace and thereby lead the layfolk over whom they presume to exercise pastoral care to Christ all the more efficiently, instead of lording over them as if they had the competence and jurisdiction of the clergy who ruled and shepherded the faithful by authority of the Apostolic See and the local Ordinaries in times past.
Topic: question for fellow sedevacantists (Read 3047 times)