Return to Tradition's Anthony Stine - Single Bishop Could Solve The Francis Problem: An Open Letter To Courageous Bishops: "Aquinas... explicitly taught from the deposit of Faith a single Bishop has the power to expel anyone if certain condition is met even a superior"
OPEN LETTER TO A COURAGOUS BISHOP
Your Excellency:
I’m writing to share an “obscure” teaching from the Deposit of Faith which affords a bishop to expel a superior to himself from the Church. This provision comes from St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Galatians. Since the Magisterium formally teaches that Thomas possesses the true understanding of the Faith, the implications of this “obscure” teaching is very significant because the Deposit of the Faith is the highest authority on earth.
Even Vatican II reiterated the perennial teaching that the Magisterium is underneath (See CCC 86) and bound to Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition which, hence forward, will be referred to as the Deposit of Faith . The CCC teaches that the “Magisterium draws ALL [emphasis added] that it proposes for belief [from the Deposit of Faith] as being divinely revealed. Since the Pope is part of the Magisterium, the Church teaches he too is underneath the Deposit of Faith.
The next logical question to ask is; does the Deposit of Faith afford the possibility for a bishop to expel a superior to himself? This is a high bar to cross because one would have to establish that the correct Magisterial understanding of the Deposit of Faith supports such a thesis. Any argument less, would be to fall short of this goal.
St. Pius X begins Pascendi Dominici Gregis with the reason for his famous encyclical to “… guard with the greatest vigilance the deposit of the faith [which was being attacked]…”. Toward the end of the said Encyclical, he reveals how one finds the correct understanding of the Faith. He then explicitly directs the Church to embrace the “Angelic Doctor” for the correct understanding of the Faith. Pius further writes that one “cannot set St. Thomas aside … without grave detriment ”.
So, here we have a magisterial document, exhorting the Church to trust St. Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of the Deposit of Faith. So, if Thomas explicitly taught, from the Deposit of Faith, a single bishop has the power to expel anyone (if a certain condition is met), even a superior, then this would have the power to supersede the Magisterium.
St. Paul wrote “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema ”. St. Thomas comments on this biblical passage,
“Now, a teaching passed on by a man can be changed and revoked by another man who knows better, … Even a teaching handed down by one angel could be supplanted by that of a higher angel or by God. But a teaching that comes directly from God can be nullified neither by man nor angel…. Hence the Apostle says the dignity of the Gospel teaching which comes directly from God, is so great that if a man or even an angel preach another gospel …he is anathema, i.e., must be rejected and expelled.”
… “[W]e must solve the objections which arise on this point. The first is that, since an equal has no authority over his peers and much less over his superiors, it seems that the Apostle has no power to excommunicate the apostles, who are his peers, and less so, angels who are superior… Therefore the anathema is invalid .” “The answer to this is that the Apostle passed this sentence not on their own authority, but on the authority of the Gospel teaching [Deposit of Faith], of which he was the minister, and the authority of which teaches that whoever says anything contrary to it must [emphasis added] be expelled and cast out. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” [John 12:48]
St. Thomas just stated that bishops (whom he refers to as a minister) are given an authority, not from their office as Bishop, but from the Deposit of Faith to expel, an equal or a superior, if a different gospel is preached than what was handed down.
In summary, the Deposit of Faith, which is above the Magisterium, empowers every Bishop to guard the “Gospel” with the power to expel anyone, even a superior, if a different Gospel is being preached. This power to expel is not from the office of bishop which would be subjected to a superior, but rather from the highest authority of the Church on earth, the Deposit of Faith.
Since the Magisterium is the teaching authority which Our Lord empowered to authoritatively teach, the Magisterium would have to endorse St. Thomas as being the guide to use in correctly understanding the faith for this thesis to be valid, which it does.
One might object saying the Magisterium in Canon Law outlines how to deal with heretical bishops, which would supersede Thomas. This response is false at the core. Regardless of what Canon Law instructs, it incapable to change a teaching from the Deposit. The Magisterium, which is the highest authority to interpret the Deposit of Faith, endorses one to follow Thomas in this regard. Think of it this way; you have two correct ways to address a heretic in the Church; one from the Deposit of Faith, and another from the Magisterium, with both being valid. Canon Law does not supersede the Deposit of Faith, nor can it nullify any part of it.
In Conclusion, it appears that Thomas’s Bible commentary , which was just translated into English in 2012, offers a mechanism for any bishop to defend the Faith against any heretic, whoever that may be, “Per Auctoritatem Evangelii” (By the Authority of the Gospel) a power vested to him as a successor to the Apostles. If this premise holds, this obscure teaching might have been providentially provided by Our Lord as the provision to save Holy Mother Church from the general Apostasy which was foretold would happen.
Respectfully yours in Christ,
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.
Francis Notes:
– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:
“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html
– LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”
– On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”
– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1
– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]
Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.
Pray an Our Father now for America.
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Comments
None of the bishops, none of the cardinals, are going to do anything at all. None of them. They are all going to carry on just sitting there shrugging their shoulders and gawking at each other.
Rosaries to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the only solution. Only She can help us.