0

In The Same Sense
In The Same Sense

BRIEFS

I have surveyed all things with my mind, to know, and consider, and seek out wisdom and reason: and to know the wickedness of the fool, and the error of the imprudent:

~ Solomon [Ecclesiastes 7:26]

Briefs

This page presents a series of briefs defending each of the four principal positions taken by professed Catholics with regard to the nature and scope of the catastrophe that has befallen the Catholic world since the death of Pope Pius XII. It will also include a small collection of links websites which adhere to each position after each brief.

Super-maximalism: A Brief Defense

In what follows, we offer what we believe to be an accurate outline of the internal logic of Super-maximalism.
  1. Officially-sanctioned Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws sought to recast Catholic teaching in a distinctive manner, more accessible to modern man.
  2. However, the Church has been granted significant latitude by Christ to annul, modify or change her doctrines, liturgies, sacramental forms, and universal laws.
  3. Since Christ has granted the Church such latitude, contradictions between Vatican II's and post-Vatican II's doctrine, liturgies, sacraments and universal laws and the Catholic Church's previous authoritative teaching, liturgical forms, sacramental forms and universal laws should neither surprise nor concern Catholic Christians.
  4. Therefore, contemporary Catholic Christians should seek to know and give assent to the current doctrine of the Catholic Church, order their spiritual lives around its current liturgical and sacramental forms, and obey the moral and ecclesiastical laws that are currently approved by the Church.
  5. Also, Catholic Christians should anticipate future contradictions with current Catholic norms with a confident joy since they represent the Church's deepening conformity to the mind of Christ as it follows the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Super-maximalism: Important Sites

The following three websites presume, propose and/or defend the view of the current crisis within the Catholic world which we have dubbed Super-maximalism:
Important: It should be noted that specific proponents of the Super-maximalist and Continuitist understandings of the crisis often vacillate between the two points of view.

Continuitism: A Brief Defense

In what follows, we offer what we believe to be an accurate outline of the internal logic of Continuitism.
  1. Officially-sanctioned Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws sought to recast Catholic teaching in a distinctive manner, more accessible to modern man.
  2. Because the Church is indefectible, her teaching cannot change, and because she is infallible, her laws cannot give evil.
  3. It is therefore impossible that Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws — despite their distinctive cast — could embody contradictions to the previous authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church.
  4. As a result, when Vatican II's distinctively cast doctrines give the appearance of contradiction with previous authoritative Church teaching, Catholic Christians — in fidelity to Christ and the Church — must read the Vatican II doctrines in light of Tradition.
  5. Should a Catholic Christian find it personally impossible to read any of the distinctively cast doctrines of Vatican II in the light of Tradition, they ought to presume — in a spirit of docility to legitimately established ecclesiastical authority — that the fault lies with their intellect and not with the teaching of Vatican II.

Continuitism: Important Sites

The following three important websites which presume, propose and/or defend the Continuitist understanding of the current crisis within the Catholic world:
Important: It should be noted that specific proponents of the Continuitist and the Super-maximalist understandings of the crisis often vacillate between the two points of view.

Sedevacantism: A Brief Defense

Remember you not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what withholdeth, that he may be revealed in his time.

~ Saint Paul [2 Thessalonians 2:5-6]

For the mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way. And then that wicked one shall be revealed …

~ Saint Paul [2 Thessalonians 2:7-8]

We believe we can affirm, purely by internal and external criticism of Vatican II, i.e. by analysing the texts and studying the Council’s ins and outs, that by turning its back on tradition and breaking with the Church of the past, it is a schismatic council.

~ Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Le Figaro, August 4, 1976

This Council represents, in our view and in the view of the Roman authorities, a new Church which they call the Conciliar Church.

~ Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Le Figaro, August 4, 1976

You know, for some time, many people, the sedevacantists, have been saying, ‘there is no more pope’. But I think that for me it was not yet the time to say that, because it was not sure, it was not evident…

~Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, The Angelus, July 1986

So we are [to be] excommunicated by Modernists, by people who have been condemned by previous popes. So what can that really do? We are condemned by men who are themselves condemned…

~ Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Press conference, Ecône, 15 June 1988

...it is not in spite of our belief in the Papacy that we reject these promoters of a new religion, but it is because of our belief in the Papacy that we must reject those who have rejected the work of all the Popes before them.

~ Rev. Fr. Benedict Hughes, CMRI, Pope Pius XII: After 50 Years

He [Ratzinger] was smart enough and he knew enough theology to realise that continuity is everything. And if you admit discontinuity, you completely destroy the whole legitimacy of the Novus Ordo, and Vatican II...

~ Bishop Donald Sanborn, Francis Watch, Episode 47, Traditiones Custodes (Transcript), p. 25

And he [Ratzinger] was concerned about that, because he knows enough Church History to know that if continuity fails, Vatican II goes into the garbage.

~ Bishop Donald Sanborn, Francis Watch, Episode 47, Traditiones Custodes (Transcript), p. 26

In the article Traditionalists, Infallibility and the Pope (1995, rev. 2006), Rev. Anthony Cekada provides the following outline of the principles and facts that give rise to the Sedevacantist position:
  1. Officially-sanctioned Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws embody errors and/or promote evil.
  2. Because the Church is indefectible, her teaching cannot change, and because she is infallible, her laws cannot give evil.
  3. It is therefore impossible that the errors and evils officially sanctioned in Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws could have proceeded from the authority of the Church.
  4. Those who promulgate such errors and evils must somehow lack real authority in the Church.
  5. Canonists and theologians teach that defection from the faith, once it becomes manifest, brings with it automatic loss of ecclesiastical office (authority). They apply this principle even to a pope who, in his personal capacity, somehow becomes a heretic.
  6. Canonists and theologians also teach that a public heretic, by divine law, is incapable of being validly elected pope or obtaining papal authority.
  7. Even popes have acknowledged the possibility that a heretic could one day end up on the throne of Peter. In 1559 Pope Paul IV decreed that the election of a heretic to the papacy would be invalid, and that the man elected would lack all authority.
  8. Since the Church cannot defect, the best explanation for the post-Vatican II errors and evils we repeatedly encounter is that they proceed from individuals who, despite their occupation of the Vatican and of various diocesan cathedrals, publicly defected from the faith, and therefore do not objectively possess canonical authority.

Sedevacantism: Important Sites

The following three important websites which presume, propose and/or defend the Sedevacantist understanding of the current crisis within the Catholic world:

Recognize & Resist: A Brief Defense

In what follows, we offer what we believe to be an accurate outline of the internal logic of the position proposed by Catholics who affirm that a Catholic can simultaneously recognize and resist a legitimate pope.
  1. Officially-sanctioned Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws embody errors and/or promote evil.
  2. Because of the promises of Christ, the Church is indefectible, her teaching cannot change, and because Christ's promises secure her infallibility, the Church's laws cannot give evil.
  3. Therefore, it is impossible that the errors and evils officially sanctioned in Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws could have proceeded from the authority of the Church.
  4. However, since the errors and evils officially sanctioned in Vatican II and post-Vatican II teachings and laws have proceeded from a validly convened ecumenical council, and a series of true popes, then it follows that the charisms of indefectibility and infallibility are not always operative in the Church when she exercises her solemn extraordinary magisterium.
  5. Since errors and evils can be officially sanctioned by validly convened ecumenical councils and true popes, then Catholic Christians must possess a right of resistance similar to that exercised by the Apostle Paul against Saint Peter.
  6. This right and duty to resist legitimate ecclesiastical authorities necessarily encompasses all areas of Catholic life that impact the salvation of souls, including the rejection of officially promulgated doctrines, liturgies, moral norms and ecclesiastical laws whenever these deviate from Tradition.

Recognize & Resist: Important Sites

The following is a list of website we believe presume, propose and/or defend the Recognize & Resist understanding of the current crisis within the Catholic world:

Support In The Same Sense

Inthesamesense.org was made possible by the generous donations of our friends. If you have benefited from this effort, please consider making a donation through our support page.

This "A Safe Way Forward" project is not intended to directly support public discussion of the data presented on this website. However, we are open to receiving input, additional data and other information relevant to the project's mission. If you would like to submit items that you think should be included, please send your submissions to ObscureMyEmail.