Is sedevacantism the worst of all heresies?

[NorthernTrad]

I don't think you can call it a heresy because they don't deny a dogma.  It's a mistake, and even St. Vincent Ferrer was mistaken about who the pope was.  He didn't go to hell for being mistaken about the person of the office holder.

Modernism is far worse.  Once you deny that there is absolute truth and give in to "evolution of dogma", all hell breaks loose.  I think you could argue that sedevacantism is an indirect result of modernism.  If we didn't have modernist popes, sedes would most likely not have come into existence.

I think this is an accurate as well as charitable position.

Big dittos.

[loggats]

Don't any of you consider Benedict XVI our Pope?!? I do.

[AdoramusTeChriste]

Don't any of you consider Benedict XVI our Pope?!? I do.

Of course we do.

That doesn't mean the conclusions you drew about what constitutes a "real" Catholic are accurate.

[VetusOrdo]

Actually (most) sedevacantists (that is, those who do not elevate the opinion to some sort of twisted dogma) remain far more faithful to the Catholic faith that those who do heretical things like, oh, I don't know... kiss a Koran in reverance - a book which denies the divinity of Jesus our God, an action that cannot be pleasing to God.  Or let's say, give Holy Communion to a notorious Protestant heretic, forcing our Blessed Lord to commune with a heretic who denies his True Presence.  Alas, there are far more pressing issues destroying our Church than a group of poeple that make up only a fraction of one percent of the Church's population.  Even giving the benefit of the doubt (which I don't) that sedevacantism is a heresy, Modernism has taken far more of the Church's children into heresy than it ever has or will.

My sentiments, exactly.

It's just plain blindness to argue that sedevacantism is even near Modernism, for God's sake!

[loggats]

Don't any of you consider Benedict XVI our Pope?!? I do.

Of course we do.

That doesn't mean the conclusions you drew about what constitutes a "real" Catholic are accurate.

Well, that's alright then. I don't mind being on the wrong page, so long as we're reading the same book.

[NorthernTrad]

Don't any of you consider Benedict XVI our Pope?!? I do.

To be clear, I'm in no way arguing that he is not our Pope.  What bothers me, however, is that our Church is being destroyed by modernists and we have people making wild accusations of heresy against sedevacantists, who whether you are agree with their theological opinion (for that is all it is) or not, are trying their very best to preserve the true Faith.  What is even worse, is that the attacks by some are vicious and extremely uncharitable and at the same time are based on one-liners cut and pasted without any real scope or context.

[loggats]

Don't any of you consider Benedict XVI our Pope?!? I do.

To be clear, I'm in no way arguing that he is not our Pope.  What bothers me, however, is that our Church is being destroyed by modernists and we have people making wild accusations of heresy against sedevacantists, who whether you are agree with their theological opinion (for that is all it is) or not, are trying their very best to preserve the true Faith.  What is even worse, is that the attacks by some are vicious and extremely uncharitable and at the same time are based on one-liners cut and pasted without any real scope or context.

Well I really wasn't targeting you (or anybody else for that matter). I just felt a little surprised that nobody came to the Pope's 'defense' (so to speak). And in the process offered several opinions of my own, one of which, re what constitutes a real Catholic, seems to have been mistaken.

I don't dispute the good intentions of sedevacantists, who proceed from a place of concern for the Truth. But I do find abandoning the Church a little cowardly (that's just how I feel about it I guess). If things are that bad, it's our duty to pull together and fix them, not run off and create little communities of our own outside the orthodox hierarchy.

[Catholicmilkman]

What I don't get about it is why the bishops who are don't just take the logical step and elect their own pope. They schism from themselves over and over again. They're just wrong not heretics though. They only deny that the last five or so popes were the true popes but not one article of the faith. So is one a heretic just he denies his parish priest is his praish priest because he heard that his priest wasn't given jurisdiction from his bishop or that he might not have been validly ordained?

[VetusOrdo]

outside the orthodox hierarchy.

I'd say "outside the authentic hierarchy", because the current hierarchy is anything but orthodox.

[loggats]

outside the orthodox hierarchy.

I'd say "outside the authentic hierarchy", because the current hierarchy is anything but orthodox.

Good point. "Authentic hierarchy" it is then.