Overview
Supplied Jurisdiction in Current Times
of the Prolonged Vacancy of the Apostolic See
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Certainty
- Status Quaestionis
- The Plan
- The Matter of the Chapters
- Conclusion
- Introduction
Dear readers,
This study was requested of me by my superior, and holy obedience has thus set me to work.
But apart from that, I am very motivated in this project, because its subject determines my life and my eternity, and I imagine, that of many other people, true faithful of Our Lord Jesus Christ and sons of His Church. As small as it has become in these times of apostasy, we continue to believe in Him and in Her:
“I believe .. in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
I believe.. in the holy Catholic Church”
(Taken from the Apostles’ Creed, as it was and is universally recited in the Catholic Church)
Indeed, we are at war (“I will put enmities between you and the Woman” cf. Gn 3:15) and we are “an army arrayed in battle” (“the Church militant,” cf. Roman Catechism).
To defeat an enemy, who is not only the devils but also their minions on earth, it is necessary to have a good strategy and efficient tactics. One of the indispensable conditions for victory—and we are promised total victory over all our enemies: “the woman shall crush your head” (cf. Gn 3:15)—is to know one’s enemies and one’s friends. One’s friends, to coordinate our efforts, and one’s enemies, to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses: their strengths to organize sufficient resistance to stop and annihilate them, their weaknesses to know where to strike them successfully. All with the grace of God, without which we can do nothing (“without Me you can do nothing” cf. Gospel).
While being profoundly convinced that God permits evil for the sake of a greater good, we want to know evil sufficiently to neutralize it, and good to realize it, again with His grace.
This is the motive and the purpose of this study on the jurisdiction of the current Church. In doing this, we intend to do nothing other than His Holy Will, under the reign of the King and Queen of the heavenly armies.
- Certainty
In order to avoid falling into endless opinions that risk dividing us further, in a context of uncertainty and crisis with no apparent end, I strictly limit myself to what pertains to the faith, to the deposit of the faith, to the definitions of the infallible Magisterium, to dogmas, to the unanimity of the Fathers of the Church and to the common doctrine of weighty authors, in short to certainties, relying on the promise of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
“Seek and you shall find”
Gospel according to Saint Matthew 7:7 and Saint Luke 11:9
I will necessarily proceed step by step because the subject is very vast.
If it is inevitable to appeal to opinions due to a lack of certainty, I will clearly signal that they are only opinions.
- Status Quaestionis
The general itinerary will be as follows:
To establish the necessity of and the right to supplied jurisdiction, it is fitting to demonstrate the existence of a current situation making it impossible to have recourse to ordinary jurisdiction, which is nonexistent, as well as the necessity of having a jurisdiction, a government indispensable for this perfect, indefectible, and immortal society that is the Church.
This situation is none other than an unprecedented crisis in the history of the Church, provoked by the failure of the papacy due to the public heresies of Paul VI (and according to some, of John XXIII). The deep causes of this current crisis, from 1964 to our days, reside in a centuries-old infiltration by the worst enemies of the Church, who have succeeded in achieving a total usurpation of the highest power, secretly and carefully carried out within the Church. The latter have progressively replaced the Church with another that resembles it, but which is a masterful falsification.
Meanwhile, of course, the true Church, although composed of a small number of faithful, miraculously continues its existence and its necessary and useful functions, by the will of God to continue the redemption of men until the end of time. I write “miraculously,” in the sense that humanly speaking the Church is lost, because reduced to extremities, in which it cannot survive without the help of God.
- The Plan
The itinerary will follow a development according to clearly established truths or facts. Broadly speaking, the progression will go as follows:
4.1. The Church is a visible, perfect society and necessarily governed by legitimate authority.
The Church, founded by Christ, is a supernatural but real society, composed of souls and bodies, and consequently necessarily ruled by a visible and capable authority. Like every perfect society, it must have a government to subsist and fulfill its end by using its means: to lead souls to eternal salvation by the means of grace developed by its founder, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
4.2. The Roman Pontiff can lose his office by public and notorious heresy
Envisaged by several of the greatest doctors, the pope can fall into manifest heresy, and thereby ipso facto entail the cessation of his office. For he who is no longer a member of the Church cannot be its head. From then on, the ordinary jurisdiction attached to and transmitted by the papacy also ceases.
4.3. In the prolonged vacancy, Christ supplies the jurisdiction
The indefectibility promised to the Church forbids that it remain without government. Holy Providence watches over the execution of the divine promises. If the normal, visible, and official organs are neutralized by usurpation or apostasy, God supplies, by communicating in an extraordinary and immediate manner the jurisdiction necessary for the survival and functioning of the Church militant to the capable and worthy members, in a licit manner, of this charge. We will see the validity of the sacrament of orders and the licitness of the subjects of supplied jurisdiction.
4.4. Catholic bishops exercise supplied jurisdiction for the common good
This supplied jurisdiction is not a human invention, but an effect of the promise of Christ who remains with His Church until the consummation of the ages. It is exercised by the bishops who have remained faithful to the Catholic faith, assisted by their priests, so that the sacraments may be administered validly and licitly, and that the magisterium may continue to be exercised for the sanctification of souls.
4.5. The Papacy is a divine institution
Because the Church must have a visible head, according to weighty authors, the papacy being of divine institution, this supplied jurisdiction also confers the right and the duty, in due time and according to the required conditions, to proceed to the election of a true pope. Thus is realized the providential design to restore the visibility of unity and the plenitude of hierarchical authority.
4.6. The College of Apostles as organ of authority.
Meanwhile, the highest administrative organ in the Church during the vacancy of the Apostolic See is the College of Apostles. Practically, it is exercised by councils of all the bishops (of course: validly ordained and entirely Catholic).
As long as this college (and these councils) is not organized and therefore does not function, it is necessary to descend one level lower, that is, each individual bishop in his possibilities, or some bishops collaborating together. It is they who currently realize, in this prolonged time of vacancy of the papal see, the government of the Church with their priests.
- The Matter of the Chapters
Since the Church is indefectible by the promise and divine assistance, it continues to exist, but currently with few members. As a human society, it can only exist through a government, and since it is perfect because divine, this government must function with authority and force, effectively. This is called supplied or replacement jurisdiction.
Given that all the official organs and structures have been corrupted by infiltration of enemies and by heresies, this jurisdiction is of immediate, extraordinary, and divine origin and nature.
Our clergy, bishops and priests, need this jurisdiction to be able to function and take care as “good shepherds of their flock,” and we, true members of this clergy of the Church, must be able to prove to hesitant or perplexed confreres and to our faithful that it exists and that it is legitimate. Hence this study.
It will be necessary to demonstrate the heresies of a recent pope and establish that these have entailed the cessation of his office.
Then, it will be fitting to explain the functioning of this supplied jurisdiction and its extent.
Finally, it will be necessary to propose a solution to exit as quickly as possible from this crisis, for “there is no salvation outside the Church,” for the ten billion people who currently live on earth, and for whom Jesus shed His precious blood, and also for the innumerable souls in purgatory who urgently need our help.
To exit as quickly as possible from this crisis—that is the challenge and the most necessary work on the planet.
- Conclusion
Supplied jurisdiction is not an invention nor a human self-declaration but a true and necessary divine help, fruit of God’s fidelity to His promises. It guarantees the continuity of the Church as a hierarchically constituted society, despite modern apostasy and usurpation.
In the end, this jurisdiction has only one finality: the sanctification of souls and the glory of God. It manifests that, even in the most extreme trial, the Church could not disappear nor be reduced to impotence.
“I believe.. in the holy Catholic Church”!
Thus, confident in divine Providence, we await with hope the day when a true successor of Saint Peter will be given to the Church, rendering fully visible its unity and its strength, for the salvation of the greatest number of souls.
Let us pray without ceasing for the flourishing of the Church, Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eric Jacqmin+
Priest of the Catholic Church
In advance, I submit to the definitive judgment of the Church on all my writings.
“Roma locuta, causa finita”