The issue will continue to come up, and that issue is this:
Is the current person claiming to be Pope at the See in Rome, the Pope?
If you believe he is, then you must following his orders for the church as they are binding, otherwise you place yourself outside of its gates.
Choosing to not choose is not actually a decision, ironically as that may be. You are just in between decisions. Pope or not Pope.
Pope or not Pope.
Again, Pope or not Pope.
**Just when everyone thought PIO was not talking anymore ha ha ..
Just when I stopped calling Sedevacantists "simplistic", you go and remind me that the epithet is indeed well-deserved in some cases!
So you think the Pope has absolute authority which must always be followed? What religion are you following? "Papolatry"?
In my religion (the Catholic Faith), the Pope only has authority to build up the Church -- never to start a new religion, or tear the old Church down. He has no authority whatsoever to remix or reconfigure the Church.
If and when he attempts to do so, he does so merely as a man and not as a pope -- God's authority is not with him for these activities.Christ gave to Simon Peter and his successors, the Keys to the Kingdom and the power of binding and loosing. To the Popes was given the authority to teach. To them, in this regard, was given the charism of infallibility. "Infallibility" is not "impeccability" -- the inability to sin. Catholics do not believe that Popes are sinless and never err. Infallibility is simply a gift that is expressed in very specific ways, limited by Sacred Deposit of Faith -- Tradition, Scripture, and the unanimous writings of the early Fathers. As put by Vatican I:
For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by His revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or Deposit of Faith transmitted by the Apostles.
For the sake of discussion, let's pretend you're 12 years old. Are you under your parents? Yes. Do they have authority over you? Yes.
One day your father tells you to commit a sin. What do you do?
Well, according to PartyIsOver we only have 2 choices:
1. Deny that your father is indeed your father, because "come on! what father would ever tell me to commit a sin." Besides, you can't be told to commit sin -- so he must not be your father, otherwise you'd be forced to obey him!
2A. Admit he is your father, and go ahead and commit the sin.
2B. Admit he is your father, refuse to commit the sin, and confess the sin of disobedience. (You disobeyed an authority you just recognized.)
Well, any rational individual would admit of a third option:
3. Admit he is your father and has authority over you, but realize that authority has its limits. When ordered to commit a sin, one can virtuously disobey, because you must always obey God rather than men (when the two are in conflict). In other words, parents have no authority to go against God. When they do, they step OUTSIDE their authority and do not have to be obeyed.
Likewise, the Pope has no authority to change the Church. When he does so, he does so ON HIS OWN and must be disobeyed.