Friday, December 12, 2008

Sede Vacante Temporis

I thought I was finished with this blog but something kept nagging at me. It was the concept of the Latin Mass in the R.C. church and Vatican II.

I thought that maybe if John XXIII was Pope and official head of the R.C. church (CEO) that he could have merely stated that a vernacular language Mass could have been used in any parish that asked permission of the local bishop to do so. The Pope of tradition is supposed to have power to do something like that. Ecumenical sentiments could have grown from local vines and worked its way up to major importance.

To most Protestants the Papacy ended in 1517 with Martin Luther and his 95 Theses. Not so. The priest Luther was petitioning, going through channels, with grievances against spiritual abuse. Rome was so corrupt that it went into bunker mode and has been in such ever since.

Luther was no saint and his Augsburg Confession is still half valid truth and in perspective it is half doubtful propaganda with time.

There is a movement in modern times that states that no Pope has in fact been a valid head of the church since 1958 and the death of Pius XII.

The Chair – the seat of Peter - is vacant to some.

A Latin term used by Catholics who think that the R.C. is in heretical freefall since the election of John XXIII and the calling for a church council Vatican II is sedevacantism – boy, what a mouth full.

This group of Catholics think that Vatican II was nothing more than a modernist Public Relations display and an invalid crutch to John XXIII to permit the vernacular language Mass or Common Service to flourish where it was wanted within the sacred body of Christ and or the church.

I do not think that on this point. I think that John XXIII was asking for an open council in which Protestant observers were invited to witness an opening of windows on faith to all Christians. He was asking for consensus from all his bishops.

John XXIII died at age 81 and the bureaucrats took over. Some think that this succeeding clique interpreted Vatican II and resulted in a cabalistic like bubble version of spirituality.

Alas, I am no longer in the R.C. Church but I think I am in grace to Christ and his message. I feel I can make these observations from a slight distance to the matter.

Sede Vancante Temporis.

The Chair is temporarily vacant.

I personally after much thought - think about the long drawn out death of John Paul II. I thought it vain and out of date. The man in ill health should have been able to retire to a cloistered environment and finish his days in privacy and with dignity. Instead he put his death and importance on display like a Rock Star/Modernist cultist personality.

What I say and I do not wish to sound fanatical is that if the R.C. Church elects bishops/cardinals past the age of 65, they are in fact admitting that this election is an honorary thing for some R.C. bureaucrats with good crony connections.

That if you use the modern realistic age bracket of 65 – 70 as an understood retirement age for most human beings – at 65, there has been 7 years of valid working aged years input to the bureaucratic job of pope since 1958.

That if you push the envelope of retirement age to the age of 70 – then in the fifty years since the death of Pope Pius XII, only sixteen odd years of able bodied adherence to a job description has been accomplished in the job description of Pope – Bishop of Rome.

Sede Vacante Temporis

The chair is a part time position for some (other than the totally honorary title guys).

The chair seems more like a honorary title and in a real sense – functioning like the out of touch, performing for the public, obsolete British Crown.

Once Vatican II came along and the Pope as a photograph came down off the wall or the Pope in your hand as a holy card disappeared - the whole office and concept of the centuries old function of the job changed forever. The office of pope no longer exists or functions in line with any true historic sense - it is now like a TV style illusion. It is a now primarily a modernist entity and function.

Interesting idea and or schism. Where does the R.C. church go from here on that one?