I shall not go into details at the moment, but my take on things is this:

The present crisis is like unto the death of Christ; i.e., we are now living, in a mystical manner, through the stage of the life of the Church that is analogous to the time Christ spent in the tomb.  

He died -- i.e., His Body was separated from His Soul.

Those who wish to safeguard their Faith in these trying days must "break" the law in order to do so.  The body (external framework, etc) of the Church has, in a manner, been separated from the soul (the Faith).

To me, anyway, this makes the most sense -- and it is why I do not and cannot act as if all in the Novus are non-Catholic, and is also a big part of why I think the 'anti-una cuм' stance is untenable.  Men on all sides of this debate LOVE to throw out entire groups of people, despite the fact that no legal declaration has been made about the present state of things.  It is precisely the lack of such a legal, binding declaration which gives rise to the disputes.  If/when we have such a declaration, all men of good will shall happily accept it -- and there will be an end to the disputes.  

Godspeed :)

I think in this crisis it is fair to assume that the institution of the church has died, but the faith lives on.  Now we have to wait for the resurrection.

Interesting. I had heard the term but had not heard it fully explained. Thank you Eamon.

gladius:

Men on all sides of this debate LOVE to throw out entire groups of,(Catholic?) people, despite the fact that no legal declaration has been made about the present state of things. It is precisely the lack of such a legal, binding declaration which gives rise to the disputes.

A lot of wisdom in what you say.  None of us have the knowledge, right or authority to throw anyone else out.

Interesting. I had heard the term but had not heard it fully explained. Thank you Eamon.

My pleasure, although I barely touched upon any of the technical details (not that I am even qualified to do so).

Some sede-vacantists have more or less mocked the thesis, which was originally "formulated" by then-Father, later-Bishop Guérard des Lauriers, O.P.  FWIW, he held three doctorates (in philosophy, theology, and mathematics), more or less wrote The Ottaviani Intervention, and assisted in some manner with the formulation of the dogma of the Assumption.  While some might argue his thesis is incorrect, it is nonsense to act as if he was a slouch, didn't properly understand (as some have argued) the distinction between matter and form, etc.  You may read about him more elsewhere, should you choose, but he was a veritable genius and a truly decent and edifying man.

This is seems to be a failed theme,"now we have to wait".

That is one way to look at it, but I think it is an incorrect one.

Wisdom includes knowledge of limitations.  When I first came around 11 and 1/2 years ago, I could not fathom why no one had responded to this crisis as the Maccabees had responded during similarly dark days in Israel.  If ever someone should have been impaled/disembowled at an altar/table, it was Paul VI -- yet no one did so.  God saw fit to allow the abomination, years before I was even born.  

When Jesus was in the tomb, Our Lady could have responded any number of ways.  She chose retired prayer, and those among the Apostles that had sense joined her.

Sometimes the wisest thing is to wage war, etc., sometimes it is wiser to abide in peace.  Each circuмstance is different, as is each man.  Even in a time of war, it is NOT good for every man to act the same.  Some MUST fight, others should not.

As Jesus' resurrection could not have been aided by ANY human agency, so this crisis, IMO, cannot be resolved by merely human agency.  We have helped create the wound; healing it is beyond our power.

NOT the final word...just my two cents at the moment...

Godspeed :)

Thank you for the quotes, Bazz.  Welcome to the forum :)

does anyone here beleive that thesis is opposed to Sedevacantism?

It is, and on some fundamental points -- although I have not yet gone into sufficient detail for that to be readily apparent.