The Siri Thesis

Message 1022 traditionalcatholicsclub
From: "shootist17" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu Mar 20, 2003 5:45 am
Subject: Biblical support for the Siri Thesis

I have heard recently of "the Siri Thesis," which proposes that Cardinal Siri was validly elected Pope, and was intimidated into refusing the papal crown. At this point John XXIII was invalidly elected and since then we have not had a valid pope. Moreover, Vatican II was an invalid council.

While I am not willing to afirm this as a concrete belief there seems to be evidence of it in Bible prophecy. If you look at Apocalypse 12, it speaks of the Virgin Mary (but in a figurative sense the Church) in the Apocalypse 12:1, and Apocalypse 12:2 speaks of a child she delivers who was to "rule with and iron rod." This could be speaking of Jesus Christ, but it also could speak of the "child of the Church" which certainly sounds like Cardinal Siri. He has already "gone to God and His throne."

The woman (the Church) fled into the desert (Apocalypse 12:14)and the serpent attacked by sending a flood out of his mouth (Apocalypse 12:15). Think of the "flood" of documents that followed the second Vatican Council, all those wishy-washy words that could be esily misinterpreted - the endless flood of encyclicals that seem to never say anything concrete, but contain numerous problemmatic statements.

Does anybody have any thoughts on my exegesis?
Dear Friend,

Giuseppe Cardinal Siri and Cardinal Ottaviani were among the most conservative churchmen at the time of the Great Modernist Schism which has resulted in the foundation of the Antichurch - the Roman Modernist sect.

Let us assume that it was true that Siri was elected in 1958. How do we know that? Some participant, unnamed and unverifiable, tells us so. But, precisely, what occurs at a Conclave is forbidden to be divulged under pain of excommunication (see Pope Pius XII's Apostolic Constitution Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis, governing Conclaves to elect the next popes). So, what is the ecclesial status of this anonymous source?

Again, if Siri was elected, he also did resign. And he remained in public and overt obedience to Roncalli. That makes him complicit in Roncalli's heresies, thus destroys any basis of claiming to be a faithful Catholic.

Now carry forward to 1962, at the conclave to elect a successor to Roncalli. The Siri-ists tell us that the same thing happened again: Siri was elected, but resigned in the face of threats. Same response.

In sum, the Siri Thesis does not have even one leg to stand up on. This thing ('Pope' Siri) has been invented by some busy minds who do not know how to differentiate fantasy and reality. However desperate our cause is, we can't have recourse to fables to supply us with a pope.

That would be a recipe for surefire disaster.

The real reason for this concoction being whipped up is because its manufacturers believe, mistakenly, that there is no other legitimate way to have a pope supplied to the Church in the present dire situation it faces. That is actually an idea born of ignorance.

In its history, the Church has had to face many similar situations, such as the Innocent II vs. Anacletus II imbroglio and the Great Western Schism that followed hard on the heels of the 'Babylonian Captivity' of the Popes in Avignon, which dire situation was finally solved only by the Council of Constance, after the Council of Pisa had only aggravated it.

The Church and its theologians and saints speculated on such a subject and delineated the possible means all along Church history. One method out is in the precedent of Constance. Another method out is an extraordinary lay or a mixed lay-clerical election. Such an election would be illegal in normal situations, but in a desperate situation, it would be a legitimate means, even in the precedent of Constance. (see article on Constance in the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1910)

Prax Maskaren