Tag: Aquinas

Cajetan Rebukes the Sedes (again)

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Sedes are fond of citing Bellarmine and occasionally, Cajetan, to support their novel theories.  Phillip Campbell has a good article here explaining why this is a problem.

The article argues that sedevacantists misinterpret Cajetan’s views on removing a pope and can’t use his arguments to justify their stance. Cajetan, a 16th-century theologian, indeed discussed the removal of a pope but strictly under the context of heresy, seeing the pope’s authority as directly instituted by Christ, not delegated by the Church. His unique stance was that in cases other than heresy, the faithful should resort to prayer for divine intervention rather than seek human legal mechanisms for removal.

The Conciliarists of his time mocked Cajetan for believing in prayer just as the sedes today mock Catholics for begging God for mercy from evil prelates. This was his response:

It does not follow from the fact that the Church has not been granted the power to depose by human provision that it has not been granted [any] power to depose a pope; for it does so unfailingly by another means, namely, by persevering in prayer.

…Each polity, whether civil or ecclesiastical, can depose one who rules it tyrannically, but in different ways—thr civil one, being perfect and free, by means of power and by human provision, the ecclesiastical, however, by means of the Father’s own power, by perseverance in prayer when it is truly necessary. This mode, more excellent and unable to err as the former can, is better, and, therefore, the

… Read the rest

Here’s What the Catholic Church REALLY Teaches About Capital Punishment

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Father X shares the traditional doctrine:

“Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered. Let them that hate Him flee from before His face,” words taken from the Introit for this eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

The great South American Jesuit missionary, Saint Peter Claver (he died in 1654)- he often spent some five consecutive hours in prayer before going out to fulfill his duties. His basic schedule, for something like forty-five years of his life, ran like this: As night fell, he slept for a short while, often three hours or so. Then from midnight to 1:00 he got up to enjoy, so he said, “the silence and peace which God granted him when all slept”.

Then either kneeling or prostrate on the ground, often with the symbols of the Passion on him- like the crown of thorns or a rope around his neck or crucifix in hand- he prayed until 6:00 in the morning. Then he went out to work.

Not surprising, like many of the saints, he had a special gift for bringing souls to God- especially those who seemed farthest away. Among them were those condemned to death by the state; those under the death penalty, the capital punishment. They became his friends, and the officials always called him in shortly before their execution. He would hear their confessions and offer Mass for them in prison. He often instructed them … Read the rest