Editor’s Note: Roberto de Mattei, founder of the Lepanto Institute at Rome — which strangely has nothing to do with Lepanto, but with defending the Bergoglian papacy — has accused Archbishop Vigano of a new form of sedevacantism. This article presents a good short history of the variant of sedevacantism, the Casicanum Thesis, which asserts that one can de fact lose the authority of the papacy, while materially remaining the pope, if one has the intention of harming the Church.

While I have shown frequently that Roberto de Mattei is often wrong, if not a total liar, there is some substance to this article, because it is true that one cannot simply hold that the pope is not the pope and then go off and start a non-canonical church. This is what he calls, “anarcho-vacantism”. Indeed, de Mattei accuses the Archbishop of having already ordained priests and possibly Bishops!

He does not say it, but I will: the Catholic and human solution must be to confront the problem in a provincial council. There is also a Catholic and divine solution: but only the Lord who determines the hour and place of the death of the Roman Pontiff can enact that.

And until there is a solution, the avoidance of the Catholic and human solution is going to promote schism and apostasy in the Church. And that is why all who truly love God and Holy Mother Church will not hesitate or fear to propose the Sutri Initiative, while praying also for the Divine solution.

Roberto de Mattei lives on the property of a Parish in the Diocese of Rome and in recent years has shown that his desire to keep his housing on earth is more important to him than his desire to merit housing in Heaven. And once you understand this, some of his errors are less shocking than they would be, considering his previous reputation for orthodoxy before 2013.