IN DEFENSE OF A FUTURE PAPAL ELECTION
A Primary Position Paper for The Catholic Conference of 1993
S. Bernadette Soubirous, OPN
Kenneth J. Mock
February 18, 1993; updates-February 1996
The vacancy of the Apostolic See is a fact that can no longer be questioned by any serious student of modern Church history. Irrefutable proofs have been given by various authors which make this conclusion unshakeable. This fact is therefore not part of what will be proven in this paper, but the fact constitutes the starting point for the following thesis, namely that a true pope can be returned to the See of St. Peter by lawful action on the part of the remnant members of the Universal Church.
As the fact of the vacancy of the See became obvious, certain individuals began to assume the supreme pontiff’s title, or various factions attempted to elect of appoint one of their own partisans to the supreme office of the Church. The vacuum of authority provided by a certain breed of ecclesiastical impostors with the opportunity of their lifetimes. By snatching Episcopal orders from some spurious source, and providing around themselves the trappings of a devout Catholic atmosphere, they were able to delude groups of pious and ingenuous followers into accepting them as the new leaders into accepting them as the new leaders of the Catholic Church.
As we write, those false popes who have added their own names to that of John-Paul II in Rome include: Hadrian VII (Francis Schuckardt), the two Gregory XVIIs – of St. Jovite in Canada and Palmar de Troya (now deceased), Emmanuel I in Italy, Peter II in Brussels, Leo XIV and Clement XV (deceased) in France. To this less-than-illustrious collection was added the name of David Bawden in July of 1990, Bawden assumed the name of Pope Michael I, who resigned upon the news that yet another false pope, Linus II, elected by one of the Thuc groups in June of 1994, was in the ascendant. God alone knows how many more have sprung up in various parts of the world, or have already gone on to meet their maker, whose vicars they were not.
The phenomenon of such a multiplicity of antipopes is a new one for the Catholic Church, unprecedented in Her history. It is in itself a proof that a great apostasy has taken place. Certainly, a study of these groups would be warranted on the grounds that they are a novelty in our times, but we entertain no hope that any of them have seriously captured the office of Supreme Pontiff, being as they all are sectarian claimants. (The election of Bawden being the one exception in which some effort was made (entirely inadequate, however), of marshalling electors.)
To begin this study, I propose to discuss the method of electing a pope, from the aspect first of all, of the prevailing ecclesiastical law of Pope Pius XII Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, which requires that a future pontiff be elected only by the Cardinals of the Roman Church, which law has been instrinsically cessated because of the apostasy of the Cardinals. Following this I will discuss the nature of the Church as a perfect society, and the rights and duties of its members unde the Natural Law to return to Her a visible Head. The means to do such have been discussed by a number of theologians, and I will give their views on this eventuality, discussing the use of the principle of devolution as the proxiamate means to accomplish such. The practical means of effecting the election of a pope will be the subject of another study.
This is the only page I currently have, I remember their being more to this document.
In a 1999 letter Mock wrote: Had they been willing to hold off and discuss the legal and doctrinal ramifications with all the fine minds who had given the problem attention, they would have seen the stupidity of what they proposed.
Michael Fighting
