Tag: Pope

The Death Certificate for Sedevacantism?

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

Over at Twitter/X, the attack on the Church’s authority continues:

In many states, someone isn’t legally dead until they have been certified as such by a doctor. Many aspects of their estate can’t be dealt with until the death is registered with the state.

Get ready for some absurdity.

Let’s see what would happen if we applied this “humble” idea of not having authority to judge here.

We’re going to give the body the benefit of the doubt until doctor comes, and assume the person is still alive.

After all, we don’t have authority or training to declare a death.

If doctor is delayed, we need to treat an increasingly decomposed corpse as if it were alive, until that moment of officialdom arrives

What if doctor never arrives?

Well then, we will assume he isn’t dead. It’s the safer option. The opposite is just pride.

Let’s say doctor finally arrives. The body has now had the first step of the process. But it hasn’t been registered with the state which things the deceased is still alive. He is held liable for taxes, holds property, etc.

Getting ahead of process is rejecting the state’s authority and judging the deceased with private judgment.

This means that calling relatives to tell them your loved one is dead is incredible presumption, pride, and again, rebellion and treason.

Further, we must also acknowledge that there are many people who, despite being buried in the ground and being skeletons, are actually legally alive. After all,

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By what authority?

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

This is an excellent demonstration of the sede error. The authors do not understand the simple but important difference between human reason and human authority.

Catholics recognize a man as Pope because the College of Cardinals proclaim him. It is the humble submission by the Catholic to the Church that results in the acceptance of that fact as true.

Of course all men (well, not the sedes of course), understand that Bergoglio is the Pope, because the Church proclaims it. The protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, even the atheist recognizes this truth. They do not need to accept as a matter of faith-they simply recognize the authority of the Church.

We all (well, not the ‘sovereign citizens’) recognize human authority. In my town, there is a police chief, and his officers. There is also a judge. They have authority I do not. I might stand on the side of the road and proclaim, “That man is speeding”, and I might even be right, but I lack the authority to legally declare it. I also lack the authority to enforce it (that would be the judge).

It doesn’t matter that I believe the police chief is not really the chief, and that his officers are not really his deputies, and that the judge is not really a judge…I do not have the authority.

The sedes’ faulty ecclesiology, so similar to that of the Protestants, confuses the innate human ability to reason for the Church’s authority to bind and loose.

The sede, like … Read the rest

Dealing with a ‘Bad Dad’

Posted on by Jeff Cassman

A kid asked, “If a Pope is a bad Pope, but he’s still the Pope and there’s nothing we can do about it, how do we know when we can ignore him?”

Short answer: when he opens his mouth.

Long Pedantic Dad answer: whenever he says something a) novel, or b) contrary to what the Church teaches, or c) factually errant, or d) contrary to common sense.

P.S. No disrespect to the Orthodox (or Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, etc), but ideas have consequences, and either you’re right, or I’m right, or we’re both wrong, and pretending otherwise is false charity.

Not satire:  Pope says seeking to convert non-Catholics is a grave sin

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