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To: ultima ratio
None of the Pope's prior warnings mattered if they did nothing whatsoever to remove the state of necessity.

Since the state of necessity was non-existent, it couldn't be removed. There is never a state of necessity to commit a schismatic act, such as the consecration of a bishop against the clearly expressed will of the Supreme Pontiff. The simple fact is that the Pope clearly taught in his Apostolic Letter "Ecclesia Dei" that:

In itself, this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. Hence such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act.

Quite simply, even if this teaching is wrong it is not permitted to publicly oppose this act of the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff:

When the grounds are clear and cogent, when they are shared by a number of serious and loyal theologians, then it is permitted to differ from the decree or at least to withdraw one's agreement for the present time. But it is not permissible, out of respect for the holy power of the Apostolic See, to take a public position against it; rather, one should undertake a respectful silence, or the difficulty may be presented to the Apostolic See. (F. Gallati, "Wenn die Papste Sprechen", Vienna: 1960, p. 175)

This is the unanimous teaching of the pre-conciliar approved authors, from which it is not permitted to differ:

But, since it is a matter of that subjection by which in conscience all those Catholics are bound who work in the speculative sciences, in order that they may bring new advantage to the Church by their writings, on that account, then, the men of that same convention should realize that it is not sufficient for learned Catholics to accept and revere the aforesaid dogmas of the Church, but that it is also necessary to subject themselves to the decisions pertaining to doctrine which are issued by the Pontifical Congregations, and also to those forms of doctrine which are held by the common and constant consent of Catholics as theological truths and conclusions, so certain that opinions opposed to these same forms of doctrine, although they cannot be called heretical, nevertheless deserve some theological censure. (Bl. Pius IX, Tuas Libenter)

As Derksen has pointed out, since the Pope had not allowed the consecration of a single traditional bishop in twenty years, that made the situation for the survival of Catholic tradition and the Catholic faith itself even more dire from the Archbishop's perspective.

It is only in your quite incorrect opinion that Catholic bishops were not being consecrated. Is this bishop non-Catholic?
Bishop John Adel Elya, Bishop of Newton (Melkite)
Bishop John Elya Answers

I have no problem at all with that.

But Bl. Pius IX does.

Nor can we pass over in silence the audacity of those who, not enduring sound doctrine, contend that "without sin and without any sacrifice of the Catholic profession assent and obedience may be refused to those judgments and decrees of the Apostolic See, whose object is declared to concern the Church's general good and her rights and discipline, so only it does not touch the dogmata of faith and morals." But no one can be found not clearly and distinctly to see and understand how grievously this is opposed to the Catholic dogma of the full power given from God by Christ our Lord Himself to the Roman Pontiff of feeding, ruling and guiding the Universal Church.

12 posted on 05/28/2004 5:15:48 PM PDT by gbcdoj (in mundo pressuram habetis, sed confidite, ego vici mundum)
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To: gbcdoj

The state of necessity would not be recognized by the Pope--since he himself had deepened it by his heterodoxy and hostility to Catholic Tradition. Even if the Archbishop was wrong, he was clearly inculpable since he sincerely believed he was right--that the Church was in jeopardy. But objectively--to anybody honest, unlike yourself who will make inane excuses for any violence done against the faith--there was an objective state of crisis. Even Paul VI recognized this, calling it an auto-demolition. It should not be surprising this Pope couldn't see it and still can't see it--since he supported the revolution and still supports it.


13 posted on 05/28/2004 7:56:28 PM PDT by ultima ratio
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