Sedis vacantism

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Coat of arms timbration in case of sedis vacancy

The Sedevacantism (from Latin sedes , seat 'and Vacans , empty'), as Sedisvakanzthese referred to is of the opinion that there is currently no legitimate Pope give. In contrast to a natural sedis vacancy of the Holy See through the death or resignation of a Pope, sedis vacantists assume an extraordinary sedis vacancy by claiming that the pope currently in office is not a valid official.

General

prehistory

Schisms appeared repeatedly in church history . In church history, for example, there have repeatedly been groups that recognized the papacy, but rejected a particular pope and therefore split off, mostly for theological, but often also for political or canonical reasons. This led several times to the establishment of anti-popes . However, the term sedevacantism is of more recent origin.

Canon Law Aspects

In the opinion of the Roman Catholic Church, the vacancy of the chair of Peter is a serious emergency, since the Church cannot exercise its final power to bind and redeem during this time. Therefore, a vacancy must be closed as soon as possible. Anyone who claims an extraordinary vacancy (despite an existing holder of the Petrine office) on the basis of theological, not canonical, criteria, faces the great difficulty of having to put his own judgment over that of the legitimate Pope.

Content views

Sedevacantism at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries is largely widespread in traditionalist circles who consider the last popes, including the present, to be heretics . There are different opinions regarding the beginning of the Sedis vacancy, for example the beginning of the pontificate of Paul VI. in 1963. Mostly, however, Pope Pius XII is represented. († 1958) was the last legitimate Pope. In terms of content, the view is usually justified by the fact that the teaching of the Second Vatican Council contains numerous heresies and therefore ipso facto a loss of office of the popes who represent these teachings occurs. In particular, this includes the dogma Extra ecclesiam nulla salus . John Paul II , according to this view, is considered an illegitimate incumbent because he initiated the world prayer meetings, which are considered heretical. Benedict XVI. again excommunicated himself through the beatification of John Paul II.

Theoretical foundations

Some of the sedis vacantists refer to the theory of Papa haereticus by Robert Bellarmin and the absolute temerity of the teaching post, a thesis of neo-scholasticism . The theologian Johannes Rothkranz presented the first detailed justification for the thesis of a post-conciliar vacancy in his two-volume work The Council Declaration on Religious Freedom (1995). Father Manfred Adler's work The general right to religious freedom. Comments on a book by Johannes Rothkranz attempts a theological alternative.

Differentiation from sedisprivationism

In contrast to sedisprivationism, which sees the Holy See merely as de jure (formaliter) vacant, sedisvakantism also regards it as de facto (materialiter) vacant, which is why some sedisvakantists such as Johannes Rothkranz, Árpád Kovács and Rolf Hermann Lingen the Roman Catholic Church as a “ sect ” led by a “pseudo- pope”, while their own followers call it a “Catholic Church” without the pope (who “take note of the vacancy”), which leads to terminology in relevant publications that is often confusing for outsiders .

Groups and people

Soon after the Second Vatican Council, sedevacantist groups also formed in German-speaking countries; not many of them exist today:

  • The St. Pius X cultural association still conducts a church service in Karlsruhe and Heilbronn. In terms of personnel, she was involved in the Movement for Pope and Church, which was dissolved in 2012 . V. intertwined. It is not, moreover, with the Society of St. Pius X. confuse.
  • The sedisvakantist priest Juan María Fernández y Krohn committed an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II on May 12, 1982 ; This survived the attempted murder slightly injured, the priest became a six and a half years imprisonment convicted.
  • Günther Storck and Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục were sedisvakantist bishops .
  • The sociologist Wigand Siebel directed the oratorio from Divine Truth until his death in late August 2014 .
  • An avowed Sedis vacantist was also the Munich philosophy professor Reinhard Lauth , who died in 2007 , a representative of transcendental philosophy in the German-speaking world and editor of the Fichte complete edition.
  • The collection of faithful Catholics (Saka) now only exists in Basel after the Saka information was discontinued in the dispute with Siebel.
  • In Belgium , especially the German-speaking part, Paul Schoonbroodt was the best-known exponent of sedevacantism; he was president of SAKA for two years after the separation from Siebel.
  • The sedisprivationist Bishop Geert Stuyver cares for Belgian believers and carries out ordinations for the Institut Mater Boni Consilii (alias Sodalitium Pianum).
  • The Sedisvakantist Markus Martin Ramolla, who has referred to himself as a Roman Catholic bishop since 2013, blessed the cross at a demonstration by Pegida in Munich in 2017 . The Archdiocese of Cologne warned against Romalla.

In the USA , Catholics of sedevacantist currents are more widespread than in Europe. In the early 1980s, former members of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X founded the Sedisvakantist Priestly Society of St. Pius V. Some of these priests have since been ordained bishops, namely Daniel Dolan , Clarence Kelly and Donald J. Sanborn . Others left the brotherhood. In addition, the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen is an important group of sedevacantism in the USA .

A few small groups proclaimed several antipopes to end the presumed sedis vacancy of the Holy See. These groups, which are also known as "Conclavists" in English, include the Palmarian Catholic Church , which goes back to alleged apparitions of Mary and visions of the Spaniard Clemente Domínguez y Gómez , who after the death of Pope Paul VI. after such a vision as "Gregory XVII." was crowned Pope. Other antipopes are Viktor von Pentz ("Linus II."), David Allen Bawden ("Michael I") and Lucian Pulvermacher ("Pius XIII."; † 2009). Another group is the Apostles of Infinite Love community .

Priest training

At the beginning of the 1980s , Günther Storck founded his own seminary in Munich , the St. Athanasius Seminary Heilig Blut, which was operated by the Förderverein St. Athanasius e. V. was worn. After Storck's death in 1993, teaching came to a standstill due to a lack of seminarians and lecturers. Efforts to resume teaching failed.

Journalism

The periodical with the highest circulation from the ranks of the Sedisvakantisten was originally the monthly Saka information , which was edited by Alfons Eisele and published from 1976 by the collection of faithful Catholics (Saka) in Basel. After Eisele's death, Wigand Siebel took over the editing and chairmanship of the Saka. A few months later, however, he was voted out and the Saka information was discontinued due to a lack of staff, because Siebel wanted to make known and disseminate a homeopathic medicine ( oratory water ) at an annual conference .

The League of Catholic Traditionalists founded by Elisabeth Gerstner V. published magazine Kyrie eléison. Organ of the League of Catholic Traditionalists appeared quarterly from 1.1971 / 72 (1971) to 32.2003.4 in the format A 5. After the death of the editor-in-chief Manfred Böker its publication was discontinued.

Around 2001 the magazine "Athanasius" (formerly ISSN  0949-6165 ) , founded in 1992, was discontinued. It was sponsored by the St. Athanasius e. V. of the Holy Blood Seminary in Munich and published by Dr. Josef Filser edits.

Today there is still the "insight" of the Friends of the Una Voce Group in Munich , not to be confused with the International Federation of Una Voce . The editor-in-chief is Eberhard Heller , who has a doctorate in philosophy and lecturer . He belonged to the circle around Reinhard Lauth. The insight is currently the most widespread periodical, but from the point of view of some Sedis vacantists (e.g. Johannes Rothkranz, Rolf Hermann Lingen, P. Seraphin) it is counterproductive.

The bimonthly contributions to spiritual renewal from the Catholic faith are more spiritual and theologically moderate . The Catholic Faith Working Group publishes the booklet.

In Germany, the publisher Anton A. Schmid from Durach , u. a. with its Pro Fide Catholica publishing program , writings critical of the church from a traditionalist point of view (including anti-Semitic , anti-Zionist , anti-Muslim , conspiracy-theoretical and historical revisionist publications), but also edifying literature and devotional items . For example, writings were published by Johannes Maria Bauer , co-founder of the Marienkinder , and by Johannes Rothkranz , but also by the priest Manfred Adler , who was critical of sedis vacantism and who died in 2005 (who in 1978 because of the writing Sons of Darkness about a supposed threat from a Jewish- Masonic world conspiracy was suspended as a religion teacher ). In a lawsuit brought against the publisher by the diocese of Augsburg, the publisher was able to continue to call himself and his book program “Catholic” in the third instance.

The small Verax publishing house in Müstair ( Switzerland ) was originally related to the Society of St. Pius X. until the owner Andreas Pitsch assumed a sedevacantist position. Beyond the general sedisvakantist view that the episcopal and priestly ordinations of the “Council Church” are no longer validly donated since the introduction of the new rite in 1969, he takes the view that the episcopal ordinations by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre were valid, but not allowed even the sacraments are unlawfully administered by clergymen of the Pius Brotherhood or the Sedisvakantismus. The practice of the Catholic faith must therefore be limited to prayer in the current emergency of the Catholic Church. Verax publishes traditional Catholic books, including a. the literature of Robert Mäder , and became known for his critical publications on the ecclesiastically unrecognized apparitions of Međugorje .

On August 6, 2008, Andreas Pitsch, together with the first signatories Armin Benedikter from Girlan (Italy) and Hans-Jürgen Krug from Bad Säckingen (Germany), published a declaration (public declaration of faith of August 6, 2008) in which the authors announce that she of a vacancy of the papal see since the death of Pius XI. (February 10, 1939). This vacancy is justified, among other things, with the following in the Syllabus errorum of Pope Pius IX. of 8 December 1864 condemned sentence: "The Roman popes and the general councils have exceeded the limits of their power, usurped the rights of the princes and erred in establishing the doctrine of faith and ethics." The contrast that reproduces the doctrine of the faith is therefore: " The Roman popes and the general councils have not exceeded the limits of their power, have not usurped any rights of the princes and have not erred in establishing the doctrines of faith and morals. ”The conclusion of this, in the opinion of the first signatories, is that there is a true Pope and a true one Council in our time and in the future also cannot err in the establishment of religious and moral doctrine, which, however, does not apply to the dummy popes since and including "Pius XII." (The latter, for example, has the so-called historical-critical method in the Bible exegesis approved and liturgy changes made) apply. In the declaration they state what they consider to be objective conditions that a member of the Catholic Church must meet under these circumstances. Andreas Pitsch also published a critical study of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's ecclesiology , which was also published by Verax Verlag in August 2008 and makes critical reference to what he believes to be heretical ecclesiology.

The small scientific publishing house Christian Jerrentrup has been bringing out the publications of the transcendental philosopher Reinhard Lauth for several years (in several languages).

literature

Primary literature:

  • Anonymous (Christ the King friends): The eclipse of the church . Anton Schmid, Durach 2004, ISBN 3-929170-42-6 , original title: L'Église éclipsée? Realization du complot maçonnique contre l'Église . Editions Delacroix, o. O. (Châteauneuf) 1999.
  • José Franklin Urbina Aznar: Declaration of principle for the election of a Pope due to the current vacancy of the Apostolic See . Translated from Spanish and provided with an afterword by Johannes Rothkranz, Anton Schmid, Durach 2000, ISBN 3-932352-49-1 .
  • Anton Holzer: Vatican II reform council or constituent assembly of a new church . Saka, Basel 1977.
  • Reinhard Lauth : The rejected church. Documents on the church struggle . Christian Jerrentrup, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-935990-03-0 (Volume I), ISBN 3-935990-04-9 (Volume II).
  • Oratorio of the Divine Truth (Ed.): Catechism of the Oratorio. Roman Catholic Catechism and Instruction of the Faithful for Today . 2nd edition, Saka, Saarbrücken 1990, ISBN 3-928198-00-9 .
  • Johannes Rothkranz: Wrong Brothers. How Marranas and Other Judaizers Sabotage the Rest of the True Catholic Church , Anton Schmid, Durach 2006, ISBN 3-932352-89-0 .
  • Johannes Rothkranz: The Council Declaration on Religious Freedom. A Vatican II document and its consequences . Anton Schmid, Durach 1995, complete ISBN 3-88096-898-5 .
  • Johannes Rothkranz: Loyalty to the Pope - sacred duty of every Catholic . Anton Schmid, Durach 1997, ISBN 3-932352-24-6 .
  • Johannes Rothkranz: The Sedis Vacancy Thesis Refuted ? Answer to an unsuitable criticism from Fr Gérard Mura . Anton Schmid, Durach 1999, ISBN 3-932352-38-6 .
  • Oskar Schmitt: A worthy administrator in the vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ: Bishop Pierre Martin Ngo-dinh-Thuc , Norderstedt 2006, Books on Demand, ISBN 3-8334-5385-0 .
  • Wigand Siebel : Catholic or conciliar? The Church's Crisis Today . Langen Müller, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7844-1706-X .
  • Wigand Siebel: Philosophy and Theology Karol Wojtylas . Saka, Basel 1986.
  • Hanno Zahnker-Jost (pseudonym for Johannes Rothkranz): How can we remain truly Catholic? A critical examination of the lecture by HHP Franz Schmidberger on September 4, 2005 in Fulda . Anton Schmid, Durach 2006, ISBN 3-938235-18-7 .
  • Andreas Pitsch: The ecclesiological false teachings of Marcel Lefebvre. History of origin, justification and effects , Müstair 2008, ISBN 978-3-909065-29-5 .

Criticism:

  • Manfred Adler: The general right to religious freedom. Notes on a book by Johannes Rothkranz . Eos, St. Ottilien 1999, ISBN 3-88096-898-5 .
  • Paul Natterer: What do we have to do with the Pope? (End) , in: Bulletin of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X., No. 161 (June 1992), pp. 30-37.
  • Franz Schmidberger : Die Sedisvakanz-Theory , in: St.-Athanasius-Bote (ed. By Initiative of Catholic Christians - Association St. Petrus Canisius e.V.), No. 27 (December 2015), pp. 8–9.

Web links

Wiktionary: Sedisvakantismus  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Letter to Benedict XVI. by bishops of the separatist Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church on February 12, 2011 on Marcel Lefebvre's internet platform
  2. ↑ See the article by Kurt Hutten on sedevacantism in the 1970s: Threatening splits in the Catholic Church? In: EZW Informations Nr. 42 Stuttgart III 1970 ( online ; PDF; 64 kB).
  3. ↑ Cf. the brief presentation by E. Steinhauer: Catholic traditionalism and democracy in Germany: Comments on a “pious” criticism of fundamental rights . In: Yearbook Extremism & Democracy, 14/2002, p. 128 f. ( online ( memento of November 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive )).
  4. ↑ Vatican: Big appetite . In: Der Spiegel . No. 20 , 1982, pp. 149-150 ( Online - May 17, 1982 ).
  5. ↑ Catholic is not always Catholic. Domradio from June 26th 2017
  6. ↑ Individual sources give the family name with Ramolla , according to Anuschka Schmid: Münchner Pegida and the alleged bishop. Bayerischer Rundfunk from June 25, 2017
  7. ^ Obscure groups and religious hardliners. ( Memento from September 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ORF .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Benz : The "Alternative for Germany" and anti-Semitism. www.bpb.de, July 26, 2016
  9. ↑ a b Bavarian Constitutional Protection Report 2019 , p. 142 f.
  10. ↑ Compare the information in the catalog of the German National Library
  11. ^ A b Franz Heiner: The Syllabus. Verlag Kirchheim & Co., Mainz 1905, p. 128.