Papal Indefectibility

Michael Dimond wrote the famous "Has Rome Become the Seat of the Antichrist?" When I first saw Jean Andre Perlant's article teaching Papal Indefectibility on David Bawden's website, I was reminded of the quotations in Dimond's article. I assembled these (post Vatican Council, 1870) quotations by date, and offer it to the reader.

My argument against Perlant is this: If what he teaches is true, that Vatican I taught Papal Indefectibility, then theologians would no longer be free to teach the old, contrary ideas. As a matter of fact they did, evidencing against Perlant's interpretation of Vatican I.

Not seeing Papal Indefectibility taught by Vatican I or any other time by the Magisterium, I follow Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy, that the Pope, after becoming Pope, still has his free will and so can not only sin but can even depart into heresy. To claim that the Pope is Indefectibile is to deny his free will - necessarily a heresy.
  1. 1913: J. Wilhelm, an eminent theologian, writing in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia stated: "The Pope himself, if notoriously guilty of heresy, would cease to be Pope because he would cease to be a member of the Church." Catholic Encyclopedia, New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1913, 7:261


  2. 1921: Theologian Cæsar Badii (1921) "Cessation of pontifical power. This power ceases . . . (d) Through notorious and openly divulged heresy. A publicly heretical pope would no longer be a member of the Church: for this reason, he could no longer be its head." Institutinones Iuris Canonici, Florence: Fiorentina 1921, 160, 165


  3. 1943: Wernz-Vidal's Ius Canonicum, an eight-volume work published in 1943, which is perhaps the most highly respected commentary on the 1917 Code of Canon Law, states: "Through notorious and openly divulged heresy, the Roman Pontiff should he fall into heresy, by that very fact (ipso facto) is deemed to be deprived of the power of jurisdiction even before any declaratory judgment by the Church . . . A Pope who falls into public heresy would cease ipso facto to be a member of the Church; therefore, he would also cease to be head of the Church."

    The same Wernz-Vidal Canon Law Commentary states: "A doubtful pope is no pope." (Fr. Anthony Cekada, Traditionalists, Infallibility, and the Pope, St. Gertrude the Great Church, 11144 Reading Rd., Cincinnati, OH, p. 57.) Wernz-Vidal: Jus Canonicum, lib. 2, n. 454.


  4. 1946: Theologian Udalricus Beste (1946) "Not a few canonists teach that, outside of death and abdication, the pontifical dignity can also be lost by falling into certain insanity, which is legally equivalent to death, as well as through manifest and notorious heresy. In the latter case, a pope would automatically fall from his power, and this indeed without the issuance of any sentence, for the first See (i.e., the See of Peter) is judged by no one . . . The reason is that, by falling into heresy, the pope ceases to be a member of the Church. He who is not a member of a society obviously cannot be its head." Intro in Codicem, 3rd ed., Collegeville: St. John's Abbey Press 1946, Canon 221.


  5. Finally, there is the Radio Replies of 1942: We have this excerpt from 'THE RADIO REPLIES' of Fathers Rumble & Carty, (1942; Vol. III, Question 338 on page 83):
    Q.: "Then the Primacy is bound to find sanctuary in Rome, or Christendom will be without its head. What if Italy were invaded and the Pope expelled?"

    A.: "The Primacy will always be attached to the episcopal See of Rome. The diocese of Rome, therefore, will never be destroyed nor suppressed. Despite any possible political changes, there will always be some faithful Christians in the diocese of Rome, and the Pope will be their bishop. The true "Eternal Rome," to use a popular expression, is not political Rome, but the Rome of Saint Peter and of his successors; in other words, perpetuity belongs to ecclesiastical Rome, whatever political changes the centuries may bring."
Therefore, we are forced to conclude, that if this article of the Bawdenites is right, then the Church has erred with its Ordinary Magisterial Infallibility having failed signally to detect these errors being published with its imprimaturs...

On the contrary, as shown in The Papal Indefectibility Controversy, I believe that the Vatican Council taught not Papal Indefectibility but the Indefectibility of the Roman Church.
Prakash J. Mascarenhas. November, 2000; Revised September 2002