Pax, you are bending over backwards to normalize or naturalize, doubting of the popes validity. FYI, those who claim the position of sedeism admit they have very little to no doubt at all that the guy is not the pope - THIS is the normal or natural, even expected result of having serious doubts as regards the popes validity. It really is not so complicated.
It is absolutely complex. For example, give me 50 sedes and i'll give you probably 50 different answers on the papal question.
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1. Was John23 validly elected? If no, why not? Because of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ? Because of Siri? Because of the changes to the 62 missal? Because Pius XII wasn't valid? etc, etc
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2. If John23 was elected validly, when did he commit heresy and lose the papacy? (insert 20 possible heresies here...)
3. Same questions for Paul VI, JPII, Benedict, except some added confusion:
4. Was it due to new-order rites? Or Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ? V2? New Mass? etc, etc (insert 5,000 possible heresies here...)
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Even when sedes say "he's not the pope", they don't agree on why. Thus, the number of doubts is very great.
It's not just about a valid ɛƖɛctıon..
A lot of trads have no idea and couldn't care less if the pope is the pope, their main goal is to strive to maintain the faith in this mess, and for them, deciding the status of the pope or being the least bit concerned or curious as to his validity plays zero part in maintaining the faith.
I agree with Fr Wathen that the papal question is not the job of, or the responsibility of laity and simple clerics.
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Then there are trads like myself who have zero doubt that the pope is indeed the legitimate pope, and in striving to maintain the faith, adhere to the Highest Principle in the Church, namely: "We are first of all under obedience to God, and only then under obedience to man." (Fr. Hesse) and using that as the guide that it is, even if we are all completely wrong about the popes validity, so what?
As a layman, I agree you are allowed to take this stance, but...you also can't ignore the theological history and pretend that there are not questions to be answered. You can't debate that "it doesn't matter". If you choose to have a simple view of things, go for it. For those that want to research the issues (i.e. Fr Chazal's book), you should stay out of the debate. You can't enforce your simple view on others, just as they can't force their "doubts" on you. It's an open-ended debate.