Over the transom just now. I did not write this. The author desires to remain anonymous. This proves that any individual bishop could depose an heretical superior, and therefore CERTAINLY an Antipope. The highest ecclesiastical rank Antipope Jorge Bergoglio has ever achieved is Cardinal. As I have been saying for years, this Antipapacy is incredibly easy to solve: all that has to be done is to call a press conference and SAY IT. As it turns out, the infiltrators such as Tucho Fernandez can also be very easily deposed, by ANY bishop, including auxiliary bishops and/or bishops “emeriti”. –AB
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,
