All your arguments prove that there is NO TRUE POPE, the Church ( and my definition of Church excludes Vatican II). The only victory of Vll is it successfully resulted in it being smaller. The Church began small and perhaps it will remain small in numbers as God told us.
Well, the Perpetual Successors argument is not about numbers. It is about the dogmatic impossibility of going generations without a living Successor of Peter. Without Successors to St. Peter, the Church will eventually lose Successors to the Apostles, when every Bishop appointed by the last Pope dies. Thus the Church will lose Her Apostolicity and Her Four Marks.
That's the argument. You said "nor does it [the mainstream Church] contain the four Marks of the Church". So where are the 4 Marks? Where is Apostolicity in particular which, according to the CE, "virtually contains the other three marks"?
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01648b.htmApostolicity, as Vatican I itself said, and theologians explain, requires the Power of Jurisdiction. Vatican I speaks of "that ordinary and immediate power of episcopal jurisdiction, by which bishops ... have succeeded to the place of the apostles"
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/first-vatican-council-1505Bishops with Ordinary Jurisdiction are exclusively present in the mainstream Church. Even those sedevacantists, who contrary to cuм Ex believe that false Popes can appoint Bishops to office, admit as much.
The sede bishops claim they were obliged to consecrate other bishops, because the "interregnum" was lasting too long. They would be even more obliged, if they really believed their theory, to elect a Pope so that he could appoint them to office.
Here is a Pope explaining, as Walter said, what the Council of Trent declared: "the right of ordaining [consecrating] bishops-
belongs only to the Apostolic See, as the Council of Trent declares ... this power of giving jurisdiction as a consequence of a new practice established now for several centuries and confirmed by general councils and even by concordats, has returned to its point of origin and does not belong in any way to metropolitans, but resides solely in the Apostolic See. So
today the Pope as a duty of his office appoints bishops for each of the churches, and no lawful consecration may take place in the entire Catholic Church without the order of the Apostolic See (
Trent, session 24, chap. 1, de Reformat.)" From:
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius06/p6charit.htmI accept what you quoted from Fr. Haydock, that few will have faith when Christ returns. Do you agree with what Pope Bl. Pius IX said?
"Moved by your voices and your false opinions, it [the Church] asked of God that He announce to it the length of its days and it found that God said ‘Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.’ Here you will say: He spoke about us; we are as we will be until the end of the world. Christ Himself is asked; He says ‘and this Gospel will be
preached in the whole world, in testimony to all nations, and then will come the end.’
Therefore the Church will be among all nations until the end of the world." From:
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius09/p9etsimu.htmSince you mentioned number, Pope Bl. Pius IX said "in their doctrine, novelty, and
number they show themselves in no way to be either old or Catholic"
The Church of Christ is Universal (Catholic). St. Augustine and St. Optatus point this out to the Donatists, who started a local schism.
Which sedevacantist sect represents the Universal Church? The SSPV or the CMRI? They hardly work together and even attack each other.
Meanwhile, there remains a Universal Church, visible to all, with 1.35 billion adherents, and over 5000 Bishops. There is the Church.
There are many problems in the Church today, as we experience the gravest crisis in history. Yet the Church is in all nations as the Pope said.
There were problems in the Donatists' time, and there were in Luther's time. But leaving the Apostolic Church has never been a solution.
I believe it is SVism that is NOT pleasing to God. SVism claims it keeps the Faith, but ends up denying various doctrines including Apostolicity.
It's SVism that requires us to become our own theologians, and declare Popes recognized by the Apostolic Church to not be Popes ...
God Bless.