Recklessness is the vice of making a decision without sufficient care about the correctness or consequences of the decision.

 

 

The sedevacantists are reckless.

 

Virtually all sedevacantists have these three reckless positions in common:

 

1.    Sedevacantists rashly judge the interior, subjective culpability of the pope and of conciliar Catholics, which leads the sedevacantists to declare that the pope and conciliar Catholics are not “real” Catholics and that we “know” that they are not part of the Catholic Church.[1]

 

2.    After having rashly judged that the pope is not a “real” Catholic, sedevacantists then recklessly conclude that he is not really the pope – based on their rash judgment of his interior, subjective culpability.[2] 

 

3.    Having recklessly concluded that we have no pope, they take upon themselves the pope’s authority to declare that the doubtful new conciliar rites of ordination and consecration are definitely invalid. 

By contrast, faithful and informed Catholics do not declare that they are certain that those rites are invalid. Instead, faithful and informed Catholics see enough doubt about those new rites that they exercise Catholic prudence and caution and simply stay away from them. They treat those rites as invalid because they are doubtful.[3]

 

 

A further recklessness of some sedevacantists:  They claim there are no good priests, Masses, or sacraments left.

 

After having recklessly concluded that we have no pope, and that the conciliar rites are definitely invalid, some sedevacantists then add a fourth reckless position: they declare that there are no good priests and no good Masses offered anywhere in the world.

 

It seems rash to say that there are no true Masses offered anywhere.  How could we be sure of that?  It seems better and more prudent to say that we know of no faithful priests who are willing and able to help us (although, of course, we know of many compromising priests).

 

We know of some priests who have not responded to our attempts to contact them.  These priests might well know why we are contacting them and they do not answer.  Plainly they are either unwilling or unable to help us. 

 

But does that mean we know with certitude they are unfaithful?  No.  We don’t know their circumstances.  Perhaps they are too sick to come to the aid of uncompromising Catholics.  God will judge that.  We should withhold judgment on their subjective, interior culpability for what they are doing and not doing.

 

Does that mean we know that they are not offering a true, uncompromising Mass?  No.  Are we sure we know all possibly-faithful priests in the world?  No.

 

Again, it seems rash to conclude we know every priest in the world (and his particular situation) so that we could conclude there are certainly no true, uncompromising Masses offered anywhere.

 

 

How should we act given that we know of no good, uncompromising priests?

 

We (at Catholic Candle) have no knowledge of (or access to) uncompromising Masses, priests and sacraments (except Baptism and Holy Matrimony).  For how long?  For as long as God Wills.  We are content with that.[4]  We place our trust in God, because He desires our salvation more than we do.[5]

 

But our lack of a faithful priest could change this month … or perhaps not for years – whatever God prefers.  We don’t know God’s plan for this.  Nor are we desperate to find out anything.  We trust in our dear Lord and with that, we are content.  Of course, however, we do our best to find an uncompromising priest whenever we hear of the “rumor” of one.  We try to follow St. Augustine’s sound advice: work as if everything depended on you and pray as if everything depended on God.

 

Meanwhile, we must pray the Mass prayers, unite ourselves to whatever uncompromising Masses there might be offered anywhere in the world, and pray for priests.  Let’s persevere!

 

It is our supposition that there will be priests and Masses until the Second Coming of our Lord.  But that will not necessarily mean that we know who those priests are and where they are offering the Mass – much less, that we can attend their Mass.  For all we know, they are in a gulag somewhere.

 

Instead, let us focus on God’s Plan for us and the means of salvation He is currently giving us.  Let us pray the rosary.  We are in the time of the greater efficacy of the Holy Rosary.  Our Lady of Fatima told us that time is now:

 

God is giving two last remedies to the world: the Holy Rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  …  Prayer and sacrifice are the two means to save the world.  As for the Holy Rosary, Father [Fuentes], in these last times in which we are living, the Blessed Virgin has given a new efficacy to the praying of the Holy Rosary.  This in such a way that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by praying the Rosary, no matter how difficult it is – be it temporal or above all spiritual ….[6]

 

Dear Readers, we are “in this” together!  Be assured that we (at Catholic Candle) are not only “looking out” for ourselves.  If/when we learn about an uncompromising priest, we will do our best to spread this information worldwide.  We will also do our best to help him make himself available worldwide, to all who need him.  Of course, we ask the same of you – should you know of any priests that do not suffer from the very problems we document on this website, please let us know.

 

Meanwhile, keep standing strong, Oh Soldiers of Christ!  May God shower you with His choicest blessings!