by Anura Guruge
on July 21, 2021
This is my take on it, but I did discuss at length with a couple of others who also happen to know there way around the Catholic Church, its ‘laws’, traditions & practices.
We don’t need to get too technical or pedantic here.
A pope, Francis (or otherwise), has absolute, unilateral, AUTOCRATIC POWER over the Catholic Church in all matters. Period.
It is well understood & acknowledged that a pope cannot be judged, corrected, censored,or disciplined on Earth. Only God has (any) sway over a pope. Period.
A pope cannot be impeached or removed from office.
There are NO councils, courts, parliaments or whatever to hold a pope accountable.
When it comes to matters of the Catholic Church, the pope is SUPREME & can do whatever, whenever. Period.
A pope does not have to have any of his decisions validated, voted upon, endorsed or whatever from anyone else. ‘Pope has spoken, the matter is settled‘. Period.
And all of this BEFORE we even broach upon the thorny issue of Papal Infallibility (above).
So, all I can say is that Burke must be smoking too much incense! His claim holds no water.
In the case of the Latin Mass the pope is NOT even trying to change doctrine. But, let’s say that he was. He can do that — worst case doing it (so called) ex-Cathedra (i.e., from his throne) so that he is infallible! It is good to be the pope. Period.
The pope can change liturgy. Trival. The pope can even do so on-the-fly. John XXIII did this when he removed the offensive phrase ‘Perfidious Jews‘ from the Mass. On-the-fly. John XXIII wanted it removed. Done & dusted. Period.
Burke might be trying to say that some MAY not buy that the pope has the authority.
Well, the pope, unilaterally, just by saying the words, can excommunicate Burke. Snap of his fingers. Poof. Burke becomes a berk. (Smile).
The pope can excommunicate a whole bunch of people.
But, he can’t prevent a schism. That he can’t. Other than that, he can do whatever.
So, maybe what Burke is trying to say, clumsily (as befits another old man), is that those that question the pope authority will have to be schismatic.
The pope has already ‘busted’ Burke at least once. The pope might decide to show him, once & for all, how much power a pope has over Catholics, even U.S. cardinals.
Popes have been deposed before,though this is reconciled with papal supremacy by saying they removed themselves by becoming heretics and thereby ceased to hold office.
I don’t think that Cardinal Burke is prepared to declare Francis a heretic and embrace sedevacantism but the fact remains that a pope who goes too far afield from what some Catholics believe will cease to be regarded as their Pope by those Catholics.
Louis,
Thanks for this. I was (& still am) laser focused on just ONE THINK said by Burke: i.e., ‘pope lacks authority’. That is all I am trying to focus upon.
As far as I can see that claim by Burke is false.
Pope has ALL the authority — whether Catholics like it or not. If they don’t we will get a schism — & I hear that we already have a major new one, the ‘German Schism’.
I went back & brushed up on ‘deposed’ popes vs. those that resigned. It usually took a strong Emperor & an army. Unlikely the Italian army would ever want to lay siege to the Vatican or storm it — though I heard that there might be some ‘crosswords’ soon re. ‘integration’ in schools (one of your FAVORITE hobby horses). But, let’s leave that aside for now, on this matter.
So, that is where I stand. Pope has all the authority. SMILE.