Principal claims Sedevacantism is based on rejection of theological and disciplinary changes implemented following the
Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Sedevacantists reject this council, on the basis of their interpretations of its documents on
ecumenism and
religious liberty, among others, which they see as 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. 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 deemed
blasphemous, while post-Vatican II teachings, particularly those related to ecumenism, are labelled
heresies. They conclude, on the basis of their rejection of the
revised Mass rite and of postconciliar church teaching as false, that the popes involved are also false. this is a quite divisive question. 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. 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. 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 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. While sedevacantist arguments often hinge on interpretations of
modernism as being a
heresy, this is also debated.
Authority to declare an Antipope , some sedevacantists argue that a heretical Pope automatically loses office and is no longer Pope by the very fact of consenting to heresy. An issue facing sedevacantists in attempting to justify their position, was how to deal with the question of who from a Catholic perspective has the legitimate authority to judge or declare a man, who the world at large considered the legitimate Pope (
Paul VI), to instead be a non-Catholic
Antipope and manifest, public and notorious heretic. The “Jesuit” faction, represented by Fr.
Joaquín Sáenz y Arriaga and his base within the Mexican sedevacantists and later American factions influenced by them such as the
CMRI, looked especially to Doctor of the Church,
Robert Bellarmine and
Francisco Suárez. That is to say, by becoming a public and notorious heretic, a reigning Pontiff tacitly resigns office automatically
by the very act of consenting to heresy itself, without any formal procedure being required. , the Dominican faction argued that a heretical Pope must be juridically deposed by procedure of a General Council. This led them to develop the
sedeprivationist thesis. Given that the sedevacantist movement during the time of Paul VI consisted of a very small number of lower clergymen who had been ordained by the Roman Catholic Church and laymen who had followed them (being without a single Bishop who publicly endorsed the sedevacantist position in public until
Ngô Đình Thục in the early 1980s), the likelihood that such juridical proceedings by a General Council would be initiated against Paul VI was incredibly marginal. After the death of Paul VI in 1978, the opportunity to do this had passed and Guérard des Lauriers was forced, by the logic of his own arguments, to adopt the position of
sedeprivationism in 1979 – breaking with sedevacantism proper or “totalism” as it is sometimes called – claiming instead that the Vatican-based, post-Conciliar claimants to the Papacy were indeed Popes “materially but not formally.”
Circumstances for a future Pope , Professor Tomás Tello Corraliza proposed that "faithful bishops" in a
General Council could theoretically elect a new Pope. Professor Tomás Tello Corraliza, a Spanish sedevacantist, authored a study in 1994 entitled “The Election of the Pope," exploring possibilities. This was subsequently published in the German journal
Einsicht (No. 1, February 2003), edited by Dr. Eberhard Heller, where he explores the opinions of influential Catholic theologians on this question, including
Thomas Cajetan,
Robert Bellarmine,
Francisco de Vitoria,
John of St. Thomas,
Dom Gréa,
Louis Billot and
Charles Journet.
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, i.e. "the interpretation of the mind and will of him who made the law".
"Una cum" liturgical controversy Anthony Cekada considers that a question among sedevacantists is whether it is permissible to go to Masses and whether or not it amounts to a
mortal sin. These masses are Traditional Latin Masses naming the man in the
Vatican City whom most of the world considers to be the Pope, in the
Roman Canon in the prayer, specifically where the priest says ("together with Your Servant N., our Pope."). Cekada argues that it is not, under any circumstances, permissible. ==Believers and organisations ==