What is Sedevacantism?

The constituents of the Catholic Resistance are caught in between attempts at reconciling the Doctrines of Indefectibility of the Church and of its Visibility.

How does one reconcile this?

In the history of the Church, we have had very many occasions when persons had separated themselves from the Church. When we consider the Doctrine of the Indefectibility of the Church, we realise that it does not teach the indefectibility of individuals. Quite on the contrary.

Individuals, therefore, can defect from the faith. It is also certainly possible (and predicted by our Lord to happen in the last times) that the vast majority of the members of the Community of the Faith should defect. The Doctrine of the Indefectibility of the Church then constitutes the inability of ALL members defecting, at any one given point of time, so that there will always be some remnant souls to constitute the Church.

Let us consider the further question: Can all bishops defect? Orders are fundamental to the existence of the Church - no bishops (and priests) means no Church.

The answer depends on the meaning of the Canon 2261, para 2, which states that "... the faithful may for ANY JUST REASON ask the sacraments and sacramentals from an excommunicate, ESPECIALLY if there is no other minister available and the excommunicate, at their request, may minister to them without any obligation to inquire the reason for their request."

If this means that Catholics may legitimately procure the Sacrament of Orders even from heretics and schismatics, then the answer is yes, all bishops can defect. If it does not mean this, then the answer is no, each and every bishop cannot defect from the faith, at a given point of time.

As regards to the question of visibility, it depends on the above question. If the Community of the Faith can lose all its bishops and yet have its members become new bishops legitimately procuring their orders from heretics and schismatics, then yes, such a deprived Community satisfies the requirement of visibility. But if orders cannot be imported then no, such a Community cannot fulfil the requirement of visibility.

This is a great difficulty which can be solved only by research. In the meantime, however, we must hold on to the certain faith in our Lord: that He has already triumphed, and that He will not abandon us, unless we abandon him first, however perilous our position may be.
© December 2001, Prakash Mascarenhas, Bombay, India.