Sedevacantism Isn’t Traditional. It’s a Heresy in Latin Clothing.
Sedevacantism sells itself as heroic fidelity: we are the last Catholics standing while Rome has fallen. It sounds dramatic. It sounds pure. It sounds—if you squint—like Athanasius contra mundum.
It’s none of those things.
Strip away the rhetoric, and sedevacantism collapses into something the Church has seen before, condemned before, and buried before: private judgment dressed up as tradition.
The Church Fathers would have recognized it instantly.
Start with the basic Catholic claim: Christ founded a visible Church, with a visible hierarchy, governed by a visible head. That’s not Vatican I spin. That’s Irenaeus, Cyprian, Augustine—men who fought real heresies, not imagined apocalypses.
St. Irenaeus didn’t say, “Check Rome’s doctrine against your personal theological spreadsheet.” He said you know the true Church by public succession from the Apostles, above all at Rome. Augustine didn’t say, “When things look bad …More
That Rome has fallen into the deluge of scandals against the Faith and is worth only a God given purge - it is an objective fact. Responses to this fact are different - assuming "sede vacante" in many various versions is one kind of the reaction. It might be an error regarding the fact (whether the see is vacant or not - the Church will judge it in the future if God permits it) but most sedevacantists are not heretical.
I don’t understand how a Catholic can hold ZERO doubt about the authenticity of the hierarchy. I don’t remember the last time I heard something Catholic from Rome.
I’m not convinced by sedevacantism per se I.e. I don’t think it can be held onto as something dogmatic.
But I certainly think Catholics can hold it as an opinion without being heretics. Any Sede would tell you the church needs the papacy and that they love and hold the office in the highest esteem.
I don’t buy all of the neo con arguments that an extended vacancy would necessarily mean the failure of the Church against the gates of hell. It’s Christs church, he told us there would be false shepherds whom the sheep would ignore. He will pull us through.
I hold no malice toward those who disagree with sedevacantists. I can see where they are coming from.
I think we live in a time where the devil has succeeded in pitting authority and dogma against each other to cause fierce infighting among the most faithful Catholics.
@Anthony November The devil has only apparently "pitted authority against dogma." He is the father of lies and author of confusion. Be at peace.
I think the part that destroys peace is when Catholics look at everything happening, a sincere question arises: Do I follow what the Church has always taught? Or do I follow a mostly modernist hierarchy because they appear to have the authority in the Church?
Then there are all of the subsequent questions which follow like… what does one choice look like compared to another? How can I “follow” Leo if I have to ignore/tune out nearly everything he says? Why is he appointing all these horrid people? Why do documents he approves all sound like they are 100% modernist takes on Catholic topics? What does adhering to traditional Catholicism really look like in such a context?
At some point one needs to abandon himself to Christ and put it in His hands.
Yes, provided abandoning oneself to Christ is not independent of submission to the Heirarchy ("Seats of Authority") of Holy Church (St. Matt. 23:1-3).