Justifying an Extra-Ordinary Papal Election

1. On page 328 & 361: �... the safety of the Church becomes the supreme law, and the first duty of the abandoned flock is to find a new shepherd...� (J. Wilhelms, Councils, Catholic Encyclopedia)



2. On page 329, � ... when the provisions of canon law cannot be fulfilled, the right to elect will belong to certain members of the Church of Rome. In DEFAULT of the ROMAN clergy, the right will belong to the Church universal, of which the Pope is to be the bishop...� (Cardinal Cajetan, no reference cited)
   
   
3. On page 329, �... the power to elect the Pope, resides in his predecessors eminently, regularly, and principally... The Church, in her widowhood, (is) unable to determine a new mode of election, save �IN CASU�, unless forced by sheer necessity... During a vacancy of the Apostolic See, neither the Church nor the Council can contravene the provisions already laid down to determine the valid mode of election. However ... if the Pope has provided nothing against it, or in case of ambiguity (for example, if it is unknown who the true cardinals are, or who the true Pope is ...), the power of �applying the papacy to such and such a person� devolves on the Universal Church, the Church of God." (Cajetan, �De Comparata�, Chap. 13, no. 202- 204, & �Apologia�, Chap. 13, no. 736.)



4. On page 329, � In whom does the power to elect the Pope reside? The Pope can settle who the electors shall be, and change and limit in this way the mode of election. In a case where the settled conditions of validity have become inapplicable, the task of determining new ones falls to the Church by devolution, this last word being taken, not in the strict sense, but in the wide sense, signifying all transmission, even to an inferior.� (Charles Journet, from Cardinal Cajetan, in his �Apologia�, Chap. 13, no. 745 fl.)



5. On page 328, �For the Church without doubt has the authority of providing itself with a head, although it is not able without the head to decide about many things... as Cajetan rightly teaches... and the presbyters of the Roman Church (taught) in the Epistle to Cyprian.� (St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, �De Concilis�, Chap. 14, in the section entitled, �Certain Doubts Are Explained.�)



6. On page 315, �...if a baptized male should invalidly be elected pope, the Church could supply jurisdiction so that all his jurisdictional acts that do not presuppose the powers of orders would be valid since Divine law requires no more than that the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction be a baptized male.� (Sanchez or Miaskiewicz?)



7. On page 315, �If the whole Church once acknowledged anyone as its lawful head, thought the election may have been for some cause invalid, he thereby receives the sanction of the Church, which is equivalent to a second and valid election, whereupon, he succeeds to all that power vested in the head of the Church... Every defect in the election is removed by the ratification of the Church.� (W. Wilmers, �A Handbook of the Christian Religion,� page 65, Benziger Bros., New York, New York. 1891)



8. On page 312, �The Pope states: "... if a layman were elected pope ... the power to teach and govern, as well as the chrism of infallibility would be granted to him from the very moment of his acceptance, even before his ordination."� (Pope Pius 12, Address, �Lay Apostolate� given October 1957 to the World Congress for the Lay Apostolate. Reference not cited.)
   
   However, William H.W. Fanning informs us in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, (Papal Elections):
   
   

   Immediately on the canonical election of a candidate and his acceptance, he is true pope and can exercise full and absolute jurisdiction over the whole Church. A papal election, therefore, needs no confirmation, as the pontiff has no superior on earth.

Conclusions Drawn From The Above

1. The Ordinary Electors of the Pope are the Cardinals or failing them, the Roman Clergy; the power then proceeds to the Church Universal...



2. An Acephalous Council, in the precedent of Constance, or a lay election, is based on the Universal Church and the laity being EXTRA-ORDINARY ELECTORS.



3. The Extra-Ordinary Electors are the College of Bishops, and failing them, the �College� of the ordinary faithful, the laity � �GOD�S PROLETARIAT.�



4. Now, for one thing, there cannot be a miraculously or mystically appointed pope. Such a notion is to be excluded. But at the same time, since the Church is to have Popes in perpetuity (until the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ), therefore, the Church has always the ABILITY to supply itself with a Pope.



5. The right of the laity to elect their bishops and popes cannot be safely taught. The right, properly speaking belongs to the clergy, who may, and have permitted the laity to co-participate. But such co-participation did not and does not create the right for the laity, even more so, for a purely lay election. However, in emergencies, the normal law does not apply. In the circumstances, since the ordinary College of Electors have lapsed or failed to act, for whatever reason, and the CHURCH PLACES A BURDEN ON ALL ITS CHILDREN TO SUPPLY URGENTLY HER WITH HER HEAD, any body of faithful, and not only an Acephalous OEcumenical Council of Bishops, in the precedent of Constance, can so act.



6. Now, it is proper order that the inferiors yield to the superiors, and therefore, such an Acephalous Council has the first right to meet this need. But, again in the event they fail, or are unable to fulfill this need, for whatever reason, then, the inferiors — the laity — are no longer obliged to wait, given the urgency of the need to supply the want of the pope. And can proceed to elect and such and election, conducted properly, binds on all the faithful, participants and non-participants, superiors and inferiors, in sum all who would own the name of Christian.



7. Further, as already stated, any perfect Society has the INNATE though EXTRA-ORDINARY (in the sense that not usually provided for in the written law) means of ensuring its own PERPETUATION. Therefore, the Extraordinary Electors do not and cannot, ever, lose this ability to supply the Church this its own want.



8. Therefore, the Church is capaple of supplying to itself, its own want.