One of the perpetual complaints made by deceivers and ignorants alike, as well as people who apparently can’t do proper logic, concerning sedevacantism, is that they say the Church needs to have an unbroken line of Papal successors.
This is, of course, nonsense. It’s not true at all. The requirement is not that there is an unbroken line of Popes, because if that were the case, then the Church would have ended when Peter died. The requirement is that there is a perpetual line of Popes.
When one Pope dies and another is eventually elected, between the death of one Pope, and when the new Pope is elected, there is a period of time called an interregnum (Latin for in between realms).
Now, it is absolutely clear that nowhere has there ever been defined a limit for how long an interregnum can last. Read that again. There is no such rule. And in fact we have plenty of evidence that it does not matter how long it lasts. The Church has been officially without anyone on the Throne of Peter at all for almost three years at one point, and had up to three Popes claiming popehood for a period of some 40 years at other times, the resolution of which was only arrived at when Pope Gregory the XII agreed to resign too as long as it was accepted he had been the only legitimate Pope.
In short, the situation we are in today, of being in an interregnum since 9th October 1958 is perhaps unique in its detail, but is not unique in principle.
And all of this is readily understood if you simply are capable of understanding basic English; and namely, the word perpetual.
So, let’s go to the most complete dictionary of the English language ever put together, which my wife kindly gifted me for my 50th Birthday. The 13 volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary, and let’s look up the word perpetual.
Well… will you look at that… very first definition:
Lasting, or destined to last for ever; eternal, unceasing; permanent (during life).
Emphasis added. It is right there in the very first definition, that the word perpetual, while being an eternal continuation, is not necessarily an unbroken one.
What the deceivers do, and possibly those who don’t understand English very well, is confuse ONE of the possible definitions (usually relegated to the engineering field, which, ironically, also has never yet managed to actually create anything truly perpetual with the second definition found below) with the correct one. Namely definition 1 above, with definition labelled as 2. below.
Finally, there is a further, quite specific subtextual use, even in this second definition, under section C. 3.
Well, well, will you look at that.
A hereditary or heritable office.
Which is PRECISELY what the papacy is. And clearly, if it is hereditable, it means the people who inherit it replace someone who died and used to hold it. The people die, the office remains. In perpetuity. And remains empty until a VALID claimant fills it.
It really is not that difficult to understand.
