Tuesday, June 05, 2007

CMRI Meltdown?

One of the leading sedevacantist groups in the U.S. is starting to come apart at the seams. Some of the CMRI sisters who do not hold to the sede position are "forcibly resigning" (my term) from the Congregation.

A representative of the Spokane Diocese recently forwarded to them the attached letter. In it, Fr. Barnett addresses the issue of sede vacantism and the impossibility of its resolution:

First, there is no mechanism for the valid election of a successor to Peter. I [Fr. Barnett] was told by Fr. Casimir that, as the Church has always advanced throughout the world by means of miracles (cf. St. Augustine), we must pray for a miracle by which a Pope would be made known to us. In other words, we are to pray that the visible structure of the Church be restored by means of a miracle which requires circumventing those very structures. Thus, an invisible, extra-sacramental miracle is required to restore the visible, sacramental structure of the Church! It is a supreme irony that the possibility and desirability of such an invisible Church is the very position of the Protestants against which St. Charles Borromeo argued so strongly in the Catholic Reformation. Yet that is the basis of the theological position to which you [the Sisters of the CMRI] are asked to subscribe
...
But there is a deeper and more dangerous reason the the Apostolic See will remain vacant if you profess the sede vacantist position: no Pope is possible because no Pope will be accepted. In reality, the Apostolic See will and must remain vacant until Bishop Pivarunas decides that it is occupied. Without a Pope, he is autocephalous, and remains the highest authority in the Church.
...
Third, no Pope is possible for the CMRI because sede vacantism is based upon a fundamentally Protestant premise. It is based upon the false notion that an individual person has the power of the Magisterium to decide how to interpret Scripture and Tradition. This is the exact position taken by most Protestants, who retain the "right" to interpret Scripture according to their own standards. Such a premise is also an inherent component of the secular and modernist thinking so rampant today.

Even Bishop Terence Fulham agrees.

A defining quote from Bishop Mark Pivarunas:
Our Congregation's very existence is based on the vacancy of the Apostolic See.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I count this as very good news. If sedevacantism were eliminated, the Traditionalist movement would be stronger than ever before.

Anonymous said...

does anyone know or have any information on this group that is now in the boston area? Any help would be appreciated

James said...

Of which group in Boston are you speaking?