The purpose of this article is not to disparage the idea of a group of clerics meeting each other to have a discussion on theological issues. Rather, it is to attack the Unam Sanctam initiative; its methods, claims and organization.
Many people, like writer Trad Warrior, are so excited to have an "Imperfect general Council" that they forget some of the things we have learned from similar initiatives.
For example, we have the case of the storefront "pope". Wishing to "save the church", a group of delusional individuals made a conclave at a storefront in which a guy with dubious ordinations was elected. He took the name "Pope Michael", and his soul is currently burning in hell for usurping the power of the papacy.
They want to be seen as the ones that saved the church, but they don't pause and consider to see if they actually have the means to provide a solution to the apostasy.
We also have the possibility of people using the Vacant See as an excuse to create abusive cults.
This is my main objection to the Unam Sanctam Initiative: There is no reason to believe *they* will find a way of validly electing a Pope. There is no reason to believe *they* will find a way to gather lefebvrist "Trads" and make them sede-vacantists. And based on the language they use and the actions they do, there is reason to believe that their motivations are to be questioned and held accountable.
The Introductory Text
The Unam Sanctam initiative introduces their project in the following text:
What unites the Catholic Church is not opinion, personality or personal convictions. She is a visible society founded by Christ, and must therefore be governed visibly.
What does this mean? Who believes that the church is unified by personality? What does that even mean?
The Pope is not merely a matter of ceremony. He is the principle of unity established by God, the supreme judge who can settle disputes, safeguard doctrine and preserve the Church as one body.
Many Catholics today harbour at least some doubt regarding the legitimacy of the most recent claimants to the papacy.
At least some doubt? Unam Sanctam doesn't seem to understand that the conclusions of lefebvrist traditionalism are blasphemous. There is no "confusion": there are just people who don't want to see that all of their years of "traditional catholicism" were spent defending an apostate church.
Someone who merely doubts the papacy of Roncalli et al. is not a sedevacantist, but someone who thinks sedevacantism might be true. A doubter is not a believer.
And who are this "recent claimants to the papacy"? If I thought Ratzinger was the last pope, I would think this is referring to Frankie and Bob.
Yet, if this office is in practice absent, unity becomes obscured. Jurisdiction becomes contested, discipline collapses into improvisation, and Catholics slowly grow accustomed to living as though it were normal for the Church to exist without a visible head whom they can obey with straightforward simplicity.
If the office is absent in practice, does that mean that there is a "theoretical pope" hiding in the woods?. I would really like to meet this theoretical pope. Seems more realistic than the Thesis. In fact, this is probably a crumb directed at the followers of the Cassiciacum Thesis. This is weird because they are not going to participate in the "Imperfect General Council" anyways - they don't believe it's a plausible solution.
Unam Sanctam says that "jurisdiction becomes contested". Whose jurisdiction? The reason why many people believe the sedevacantist bishops can't claim any jurisdiction is based on arguments against the validity or the legitimacy of their ordinations. Organizing a conclave isn't going to vanish those questions.
I agree that it isn't normal for the church to be for so long without a pope. However, that doesn't automatically mean that the people who are organizing this initiative are trustful servants of God who just want the best for the church. Unam Sanctam uses strong vocabulary to manipulate believers into fearing they will find themselves outside of the church - with the mark of the theological anarchist - if they don't support the initiative.
But this is not normal. A vacancy of the Apostolic See, as recognised by numbers of Catholics who have remained faithful, especially if it becomes permanent, is not a stable solution, but a wound that continues to worsen.
How is it possible for the vacancy to become permanent? Do the Unam Sanctam people want us to believe that if we don't help them to elect a pope *now*, God will abandon us and we will never get one ever again?
Notice also the therm "numbers or Catholics". That implies not every believer is a sedevacantist. How will the Lefebvrists join the "Imperfect General Council" when they believe the See is currently occupied?
When there is no true successor of Saint Peter, the election of a Supreme Pontiff remains an important duty incumbent upon the Church. When the Church finds Herself without a Pope, as happens upon the death of the Pontiff, She is bound to provide Herself with another; that is to say, Her members must act to ensure that the Holy See is once again occupied.
Ok.
This shows how important it is for the Church to have a visible head, the true principle of unity.
This is true, but that doesn't mean the solution will come from the Unam Sanctam Initiative.
Again, many conclavist groups use the importance of the papacy to elect uneducated sociopaths who don't care about the church and just want a new little religion for themselves. A religion can't save itself by harming itself.
It is the aim of the Unam Sanctam organisation to work for the convocation of an Imperfect General Council to discuss this matter and to consider how the present crisis that affects the head of the Church might be resolved.
If the Unam Sanctam initiative wants to organize an Imperfect General Council, then they should get rid of those who merely "doubt" the validity of the conciliar popes, because they shouldn't have a say in such a Council.
If the Unam Sanctam initiative just wants to help organize an Imperfect General Council, they can just say: "we want to organize meetings to prepare the Imperfect General Council, and to see how to make it according to the doctrine of the church".
Yet, when they say "to discuss the matter and to consider how the present crisis that affects the head of the Church might be resolved", they are implying that they don't think the Imperfect General Council is necessarily the solution to the problem.
We humbly ask the Catholic faithful of the Church Militant to pray for this holy intention.
How can I pray for your intentions if I don't know what your intentions are?
I think some of the sede bishops are aware that they don't have ordinary jurisdiction and therefore they can't be valid electors. Other sede bishops might think they are; but haven't moved forward because they are comfortable where they are. If the Unam Sanctam initiative wants to elect a pope, they must first prove that their plans are defensible from a theological perspective.
In any case, we look for solutions with patience and fear of God, not with anxiety, trad-ecumenism, and the delusional desire to be seen as heroes of the church.
Conclusion
My objections to the Unam Sanctam are as follows:
+ Despite the asserted desire to organize a future Imperfect General Council, Unam Sanctam insists on admitting people who are not Sedevacantists and who have nothing to add to the search for a new pope.
+ Just like conclavist sects, Unam Sanctam reaffirms the teaching of the church about the Papacy, implying that if the reader disagrees with the means and motivations behind the organizers, he is rejecting catholic doctrine.
+ The vocabulary used by Unam Sanctam, has proven so far to be ambiguous and absurd. Like the modernists, Unam Sanctam speaks like a corporate office trying to avoid lawsuits.
I will continue to attack this initiative in the following months, until I see an increased negative reaction from the sede community.
