Sedevacantism

Sedevacantism is a traditionalist Catholic movement which holds that since the 1958 death of Pius XII the occupiers of the Holy See are not valid popes due to their espousal of one or more heresies and that, for lack of a valid pope, the See of Rome is vacant.^[1][2] Sedevacantists reject the theological and disciplinary changes implemented following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Many Catholics regard sedevacantism as a schismatic belief.^[3][4][5]

The emblem of the Holy See in sede vacante

The term sedevacantism is derived from the Latin phrase sede vacante, which means "the chair [of the Bishop of Rome] being vacant".^[2][6]

The number of sedevacantists is unknown and difficult to measure; estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.^[7] Various factions of conclavists among sedevacantists have proceeded to end the perceived vacancy in the Holy See by electing their own pope.^[8]

Sedevacantists reject the dictates of the Second Vatican Council, because they interpret its documents on ecumenism and religious liberty, among others, as heretical and contradicting the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church, and as denying the unique mission of Catholicism as the one true religion, outside of which there is no salvation.^[9] They also say that new disciplinary norms, such as the Mass of Paul VI promulgated on 3 April 1969, undermine or conflict with the historical Catholic faith and are blasphemous.^[10] They conclude that the popes involved in these developments must be false.^[1] Even amongst traditionalist Catholics,^[2][11] this is a quite divisive question.^[1][2]

Etymology

The term sedevacantism derives from the Latin term sede vacante, which means "with the chair being vacant".^[2] The "chair" being referred to is the chair of the Papacy.^[2] The name originated from a 1973 work, Sede Vacante: Paul VI is Not a Legitimate Pope, by Joaquín Sáenz Arriaga, an early proponent of the theory.

History

Early sedevacantism: origins in the 1960s

The Mexican Jesuit priest, Fr. Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, longtime associate of Los TECOS, was one of the pioneers of sedevacantism after the Second Vatican Council.

Sedevacantism arose from some people's rejection of theological and disciplinary changes implemented following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).^[12]

Sedevacantism, avant la lettre, is evidenced from the mid-1960s. The earliest example is from a group of traditionalist Catholics in Mexico associated with the radical right secret society Los TECOS based in Guadalajara, in particular their spiritual director, Fr. Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, a Jesuit priest.^[13] During the Second Vatican Council, Los TECOS had distributed a document entitled Il Complotto contro la Chiesa ("The Plot Against the Church") under the pseudonym of Maurice Pinay, warning Council fathers of a supposed “Judeo-Masonic-Communist” plot to infiltrate and destroy Christianity and the Catholic Church.^[14]

In 1965, at a private meeting in the house of Anacleto González Guerrero (son of the Cristero martyr Anacleto González Flores), Los TECOS leaders proposed the motion that Pope Paul VI was a crypto-Jew and an illegitimate Pope, and that this should be officially adopted as their position.^[15]

Another early expositor from Latin America was Carlos Alberto Disandro in Argentina, a personal associate of Juan Perón, belonging to the Catholic wing of orthodox Peronism, who argued for the idea in 1969 with his book Pontificado y Pontífice: una breve quaestio teológica.^[16][17]

In the United States, sedevacantist ideas had been raised privately as early as 1967 by Dr. Hugo Maria Kellner, a Bavarian-born American, in a letter to Cardinal Michael Browne.^{[citation needed]}

Post-1970 developments

In 1971, Joaquin Sáenz y Arriaga wrote a book called The New Montinian Church, which explicitly stated the sedevacantist thesis.^[13] Arriaga wrote: “My suspicions appear confirmed, Giovanni Battista Montini was invalidly elected to the Papacy and, thus, is not a true Pope. Because of this ritualistic symbol of Judaism and Masonry, I suspect that Paul VI was not only the most efficient instrument of the "Jewish Mafia," but an integral part of this Mafia.”

Public controversy ensued and the Vatican, acting through the local ordinary, Cardinal Miguel Darío Miranda y Gómez declared the suspension a divinis of Arriaga.^[13]

Arriaga then founded the publication Trento (in reference to the Council of Trent) in 1972 to promote sedevacantism, along with Mexican priests, Fr. Moisés Carmona and Fr. Adolfo Zamora.^[13]

This was followed up by a 1973 publication Sede Vacante: Paul VI is Not a Legitimate Pope, in which the theory was framed more comprehensively and from which the theory derives its name.^[13]

Francis Schuckardt was a major figure in American sedevacantism, founding what would eventually become the CMRI. His reception of religious orders from Old Catholic sources would remain a subject of contention.

The earliest American traditionalist organisation to take up Arriaga's ideas was the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement, founded in 1973 under Fr. Francis Fenton, a member of the National Council of the John Birch Society.^[18] The group also included Fr. Robert McKenna who would go on to become a significant figure in sedevacantism.^{[citation needed]}

The most numerically significant American group was founded by a Catholic layman, Francis Schuckardt.^[19] He had been a circuit speaker for the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima. He was dismissed from the group for rejecting Vatican II, and then in 1968 founded a sedevacantist group called the Fatima Crusaders at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, eventually called the Traditional Latin Rite Catholic Church (TLRCC).^[20] In 1971, he was ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop by Daniel Q. Brown, an Old Catholic and North American Old Roman Catholic Church bishop (defined as schismatic according to Roman Catholicism). From early years, Schuckhardt was criticised for nurturing a “cult of personality” among his followers.^[20]

In 1970, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the Society of St. Pius X as a "pious union" with the permission of Bishop François Charrière, the sitting Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland. It was a large traditionalist Catholic organisation which officially rejected sedevacantism,^{[21][22][23][19]} but which privately tolerated it as a "personal opinion" of some of its members, according to former members Fr. Noël Barbara and Fr. Francesco Ricossa (who later founded the sedevacantist IMBC in Italy).^[24] In 1976, Archbishop Lefebvre said to Cardinal Giovanni Benelli in 1976 after his suspension a divinis, "The post-Concillar Church is a schismatic Church, since it has broke with the Catholic Church that has always been", without explicitly saying that Paul VI was not the Pope.^[23] After the appointment of Pope John Paul II, Lefebvre softened his position, saying that "The Fraternity of St. Pius X cannot tolerate in its midst members who refuse to pray for the pope and who affirm that all masses in the novus ordo missæ are invalid."^[24]

Positions within sedevacantism

Traditionalist Catholics who are not sedevacantists recognize the line of popes leading to and including Pope Leo XIV as legitimate.^[25] Sedevacantists, however, claim that the infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church could not have decreed the changes made in the name of the Second Vatican Council, and conclude those who issued these changes could not have been acting with the authority of the Catholic Church.^[26] Accordingly, they hold that Pope John XXIII and his successors have left the true Catholic Church and thus lost legitimate authority. A notorious heretic, they say, cannot be the Catholic pope.^[27]

Most sedevacantists believe that this Great Apostasy started with the Second Vatican Council, although there are disagreements about whether the last legitimate Pope was John XXIII or Pius XII, with the latter position being held by those who believe the 1958 conclave results were illegitimate; this particular belief is usually associated with the Giuseppe Siri conspiracy theory. However, there are other sedevacantist positions^[28] that describe the Great Apostasy as having started with Benedict XV in 1914, meaning that Pope Pius XII and Pope Pius XI were also heretics and making the last legitimate Pope Saint Pius X.^[29]

Clergy, Mass, and sacraments

Some sedevacantists accept the consecrations and ordinations of sedevacantist bishops and priests, and the offering of Masses and the administration of sacraments by the said bishops and priests, to be licit because of epikea,^[30][31][32] i.e. "the interpretation of the mind and will of him who made the law".^[33] In this case, the ecclesiastical laws (e.g. prohibition of consecrations of bishops without papal mandate; prohibition of administration of sacraments without ecclesiastical authorization) are interpreted to cease when to follow them would be impossible, harmful, or unreasonable, or would mean transgressing divine laws (e.g. the church must have bishops and priests; Catholics must attend Mass and receive the sacraments), and because of a historical precedent for consecrating Catholic bishops during a long vacancy of the Holy See.^[30][31]

Liturgy

Anthony Cekada considers that a question among sedevacantists is whether it is permissible to go to "una cum" Masses. These are Traditional Latin Masses naming the man considered by the majority of Catholics as the Pope in the Roman Canon in the "Te igitur" prayer, specifically where the priest says "una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro N" (“together with Your Servant N., our Pope.”) Cekada argues that it is not, under any circumstances, permissible.^[34]

Relationship to sedeprivationism

In contrast to sedevacantists, sedeprivationists consider that John XXIII and his successors are popes materialiter sed non formaliter (“materially but not formally”), and that post-Vatican II popes will become legitimate once they recant their heresies.

This position is endorsed by the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii.^[35]

Believers and organisations

Because sedevacantists, particularly the laity, are not concentrated into one single organisation, it is difficult to ascertain exact numbers of sedevacantists in the world, however the number has been estimated at around 30,000 people worldwide.^[19] These are mostly concentrated in the United States, Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and the United Kingdom, but the actual size of the movement has never been accurately assessed. It remains extremely difficult to do so for a wide range of reasons, such as the fact that not all sedevacantists identify as such, nor do they necessarily belong to avowedly sedevacantist groups or societies.^[36]

Sedevacantist groups

Sedevacantist groups include:

• Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI), formed in 1967. It operates in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia and is based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its bishop is Mark Pivarunas.
• Most Holy Family Monastery (MHFM), a traditional Catholic monastery in Fillmore, New York, founded in 1967 and led by Michael and Peter Dimond.
• Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV), formed in 1983 when nine American priests split from the Society of Saint Pius X over a number of issues including using the liturgical books implemented under Pope John XXIII. It operates in North America from Oyster Bay Cove, New York, United States, and was headed by Bishop Clarence Kelly until his death in December 2023.^[37]
• Sociedad Sacerdotal Trento (Priestly Society of Trent; SST), formed in 1993 by priests of the deceased Bishop Moisés Carmona. Its bishop is Martín Dávila Gandara.
• Mary’s Little Remnant’s congregation, presided by Richard Ibranyi^[38] and William George Norris,^[39] who believes that the Catholic Church has been ruled by Antipopes for nearly 1,000 years, thus the Holy See being vacant since Pope Innocent II acceptance of Thomism.^[40]

Early proponents

Early proponents of sedevacantism include:

• Bishop Francis Schuckardt, an American who was illicitly consecrated a bishop by Daniel Q. Brown and founded the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI), from which he was expelled in 1984. He later established a new sect, the Traditional Latin Rite Catholic Church (TLRCC).
• Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga, a Mexican Jesuit priest and theologian who put forward sedevacantist ideas in his books The New Montinian Church (August 1971) and Sede Vacante (1973).
• Francis E. Fenton, an American priest inspired by Sáenz's writings and founded the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement as an American parallel to the Mexican Unión Católica Trento.
• Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers, a French Dominican priest and theologian who developed the Thesis of Cassiciacum in the 1970s. He was illicitly consecrated bishop in 1981 by Ngô Đình Thục.
• Several American priests of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX): Daniel Dolan, Anthony Cekada, and Donald Sanborn, reportedly sedevacantists in the 1970s, who were expelled with several other priests by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for holding this view. Nine of these priests later founded the Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV) in 1983. Dolan and Sanborn were later illicitly consecrated bishops.
• Oswald Baker, an English priest who was a known sedevacantist by at least 1982, and reportedly some time prior to that.
• Lucian Pulvermacher, an American missionary priest who left the Catholic Church in 1976 and in 1998 was elected pope of the conclavist "True Catholic Church" with the papal name “Pius XIII”.

Sedevacantist bishops

Consecrated before Vatican II

The only known Catholic bishop consecrated before the Second Vatican Council who publicly became sedevacantist was Vietnamese Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục (consecrated in 1938), former Vicar Apostolic of Vĩnh Long, Vietnam and former Archbishop of Huế, Vietnam.

Bishop Alfredo Méndez-Gonzalez (consecrated in 1960), former Bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, though not having publicly identified as a sedevacantist, associated himself with sedevacantist priests and consecrated a bishop for them.

Thục-line bishops

Many sedevacantist bishops derive their claims to holy orders and episcopacy from Archbishop Thục or bishops of his lineage.

Some bishops in the sedevacantist world dervive their lineage from the Palmarian Catholic Church (also known as the Carmelites of the Holy Face); this is due to Thục having consecrated as Bishop Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, later the Pope of the Palmarian Church and consequently the Palmarians making many more consecrations. An example of this from Spain is the case of sedevacantist bishop Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco of the Pía Unión de San Pablo Apóstol, who was consecrated a bishop by Ricardo Subirón Ferrandis, a former Palmarian bishop turned sedevacantist.^[41] De Rojas was at the centre of a significant controversy in 2024, as an entire monastery of nuns belonging to the Poor Clares from Belorado near Burgos, broke with the Vatican and came over to the sedevacantists under his protection.^[41][42][43]

On 7 May 1981, Thục consecrated the sedeprivationist French priest Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers as a bishop.^[44] Des Lauriers was a French Dominican theologian and a papal advisor.^[45]

On 17 October 1981, Thục consecrated the sedevacantist Mexican priests Moisés Carmona and Adolfo Zamora as bishops.^[44] Carmona and Zamora had been sedevacantist leaders and propagators in Mexico.^[46]

The Vatican declared Thục latae sententiae excommunicated for these consecrations and for his declaration of Sedevacantism.^[44]

Méndez-line bishops

On 19 October 1993, in Carlsbad, California, United States, Bishop Méndez-Gonzalez consecrated the sedevacantist Clarence Kelly of the Society of Saint Pius V (SSPV) to the episcopacy. By Méndez's wish, the consecration was kept secret until his death in 1995.^[47]

Whose lineages derive from earlier movements

A considerable number of sedevacantist bishops are thought to derive their holy orders from Bishop Carlos Duarte Costa, who in 1945 set up his own independent Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church.^{[48][page needed]} While Duarte Costa was not a sedevacantist, he instead questioned the papacy as an institution, denying papal infallibility and rejecting the pope's universal jurisdiction.^[49] In further contrast to most Catholic traditionalists, Duarte Costa was left-wing.^[50]

Benevacantism

Main article: Benevacantism

A separate minority position called Benevacantism (a portmanteau of "Benedict" and "sedevacantism") holds that Pope Benedict XVI continued as pope following his resignation, with Pope Francis ruling as a heretical antipope.^[51][52] Since Benedict's death, some Benevacantists now hold to sedevacantism, while others considered Francis to be the Pope until Francis' death in 2025.^[53] The Vatican for its part, rarely acknowledges or addresses the claims of sedevacantists at all, however after increased visibility during the time of Francis, in 2024 he compared sedevacantists to "mushrooms" and said "they carry sadness in their hearts, I have compassion for them".^[54][55]

See also

• Cum ex apostolatus officio
• Independent Catholicism
• Integralism
• List of movements that dispute the legitimacy of a reigning monarch