The Pope, Supreme Shepherd of Souls, holds universal authority over the entire Church. Collegiality divides that authority into warring, democratic factions of Bishops, each with their own interpretation of the nature and mission of the Catholic Church. The Authority of the Pope is of no special significance. The collegial spirit is responsible for the Conciliar Popes failure to take up the rod of authority in all the matters pertaining to the salvation of souls. A glaring admission of this attack of Papal Authority was given by Pope Benedict to Bishop Bernard Fellay when he said, "my authority stops at that door." The Pope needs to use his authority to reform the Church. We pray for a Pope who will do this. The evils of collegiality increase by the day as we see Bishops advocating sacrilege and heresy, as the German Bishops are currently doing in allowing adulterers to receive the Blessed Sacrament. Abuse of authority is allowing the Crucifixion of the Holy Eucharist.
Read the following condemnations of Collegiaity and pray that we will soon see the destruction of this error.
“It is an article of faith that the Roman Pontiff, successor of Blessed Peter the prince of Apostles, not only has a primacy and honour, but also of authority and jurisdiction over the universal Church, and that, consequently, the bishops, too, are under his authority. That is why, as St. Leo goes on to say, it is necessary for the whole Church throughout the entire world, to be united to the Holy See of Peter, that is to say, to the Roman Church, and to have recourse to it as to the centre of Catholic unity and ecclesiastical communion…” – Pope Gregory XVI, Commissum Divinitus #10
“If anyone thus speaks, that the Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power…let him be anathema.”- Vatican Council 1, Session 4, Chapter, 3, Canon 9, July 18, 1870.
But it is opposed to the truth, and in evident contradiction with the divine constitution of the Church, to hold that while each Bishop is individually bound to obey the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, taken collectively the Bishops are not so bound. For it is the nature and object of a foundation to support the unity of the whole edifice and to give stability to it, rather than to each component part; and in the present case this is much more applicable, since Christ the Lord wished that by the strength and solidity of the foundation the gates of hell should be prevented from prevailing against the Church. All are agreed that the divine promise must be understood of the Church as a whole, and not of any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by the assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen some of them. Moreover, he who is set over the whole flock must have authority, not only over the sheep dispersed throughout the Church, but also when they are assembled together. Do the sheep when they are all assembled together rule and guide the shepherd? Do the successors of the Apostles assembled together constitute the foundation on which the successor of St. Peter rests in order to derive therefrom strength and stability? Surely jurisdiction and authority belong to him in whose power have been placed the keys of the Kingdom taken collectively. And as the Bishops, each in his own district, command with real power not only individuals but the whole community, so the Roman pontiffs, whose jurisdiction extends to the whole Christian commonwealth, must have all its parts, even taken collectively, subject and obedient to their authority. Christ the Lord, as we have quite sufficiently shown, made Peter and his successors His vicars, to exercise for ever in the Church the power which He exercised during His mortal life. Can the Apostolic College be said to have been above its master in authority? ~Pope Pius XI, "Satis Cognitum"
Using virtue and the love of God, and the abolition, in the name of virtue, of the indispensable means of formation and conservation, to blackmail the faithful into bending – that’s modernism at its most basic. Modernism controls its victims in the name of obedience, thanks to the suspicion of pride which is cast on any criticism of their reforms, in the name of respect for the Pope, in the name of missionary zeal, of charity, and of unity.”
(Fr. Roger Calmel OP, Letter of 8th August, 1973
The following quotations are taken from Atila Guimaraes’ highly informative book Animus Delendi I (p. 164-165). Hans Kung predicted the stripping of Papal power and authority, what we currently see happening more than ever under the Pontificate of Pope Francis.
“…This reform has already begun and it will suffice here to present an outline (of what the Pope ought to do):
“1. Evangelical humility: to renounce the non-biblical honorific titles befitting only to God or Christ (Sanctissimus Dominus, Beatissimus Pater, His Holiness, Holy Father, Head of the Church) or to all Christians or all Bishops (representative of Christ, etc.)…These are some appropriate titles: Bishop of Rome, Servant of the servants of God, Supreme Shepherd…
“2. Evangelical simplicity: not to yield to a romantic idealism in matters of poverty; to renounce the pomp and luxury from bygone eras of pontifical power above all in relation to dress, domestic servants, the (papal) court, guards of honour, and even more so with regard to the liturgy.
“3. Evangelical fraternity: to fully renounce the absolutist style of government, the baroque Byzantine imperial style in speeches and letters, secret legal process, private decisions without Church collaboration or her representation (collegiality, the Episcopate, episcopal and lay councils)…
“4. Evangelical liberty: to foment the autonomy of the (local) churches and their pastoral services according to the principality of subsidiarity; the internalization and dismantling of the Curia’s power apparatus….”
“The establishment of the Church was a work of dogmatic intolerance, the whole history of the Church is likewise only the history of this intolerance. What are the martyrs?- People intolerant in the matters of the faith, who preferred torture than to profess error. What is the Creed?- Formulas of intolerance which regulate what it is necessary to believe and which impose on the reason necessary mysteries. What is the Papacy?- An institution of doctrinal intolerance, which through hierarchical unity maintains the unity of the faith. Why the Councils?- To stop deviations of thought, to condemn false interpretations of dogma, to anathematize propositions contrary to the Faith.” ~Cardinal Pie
Collegiality ultimately breaks the chain of authority in the hierarchy and transforms the Pope into just another Bishop, not superior of all but equal to all.
~Damsel of the Faith
