Pope, Not Inventor.

 

Preamble

Imagine watching a servant swat at a lamp because its light reveals the dirt on his master’s coat. That is the Modernist enthusiast — objecting to a perennial Catholic principle simply because it implicates his masters, whom he is bent on defending.

The Catholic principle is the lamp — steady, ancient, and unyielding. But the Modernist enthusiast, seeing its beam fall squarely upon the guilty hands that rewrote the sacraments, rushes to smash it. His quarrel is not with the logic of truth, but with the fact that it unmasks the ones he has vowed to defend.

So he bites the hand of doctrine to shield the hand of error, proving that loyalty to men over Christ makes one an enemy of both.

This was the case when I posted the following on “X” as a follow up on this article and this:

 Pope Pius XII declared:

“The Church has no power over the substance of the sacraments, that is, over what Christ the Lord Himself, as author of the sacraments, determined must be kept in the sacramental sign” (Sacramentum Ordinis, 1947).

How would a Catholic object to this?! Yet I received a string of responses from the chief of the avid Modernist enthusiasts — nominal Catholics, and the most frequent trolling elements on my timeline.

In this article, his errors will be exposed and his ignorance instructed.

1. When Quoting Becomes Distorting

The following are the comments posted in defense of Modernist Paul VI revised ordinal loaded with a series of errors to be unmasked.

Canon Law 841 Since the sacraments are the same for the whole Church and belong to the divine deposit, it is only for the supreme authority of the Church to approve or define the requirements for their validity

The Supreme Authority is the Pope

A pope possesses supreme authority within the Church but this power does not extend to dictating the actions or decisions of his successors, A pope's disciplinary authority ends with his death, and future popes are not bound by the disciplinary decrees of their predecessors

Same document. Forgot this part

Sacramentum Ordinis paragraph 3

 "every one knows that the Church has the power to change and abrogate what she herself has established". 

In plain terms he is essentially saying:

1.  Canon 841 (1983 Code) means that only the pope can decide the requirements for the validity of sacraments.
2. Since Paul VI was pope, he could validly change the form of the Sacrament of Holy Orders (the “ordinal”).
3. Sacramentum Ordinis paragraph 3 says the Church can change what she has established — therefore, Paul VI’s revisions are legitimate.

Or are we missing any point? 

2. First Error — Equating “Supreme Authority” with Unlimited Power

• Truth: A pope’s authority is supreme, but not absolute in the sense of being able to alter what Christ Himself instituted.

Pius XII explicitly teaches in Sacramentum Ordinis (Nov. 30, 1947), §3:

“The Church has no power over the substance of the sacraments, that is, over those things which, as Christ the Lord Himself has decreed, must be retained in the sign of the sacrament.”

Key point: The “requirements for validity” do not come from the pope’s will, but from Christ’s institution. The pope is custodian and guardian of sacramental validity, not its author.

• St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica III, q.64, a.2): The Church cannot change what is of divine institution.
• Council of Trent (Sess. 21, Ch. 2; Denz. 931): The Church cannot change the substance of the sacraments.

Thus, Canon 841 of the 1983 Code — itself a Modernist document — subtly reverses the relationship: in Catholic theology, validity flows from Christ’s command, not papal fiat. Quoting a Modernist document while posing to defend Catholic principle is a quite ridiculous, isn't it? 

You cannot defend the Catholic teaching that validity flows from Christ’s institution by citing a law that subtly presumes validity flows from papal definition.

That’s self-defeating.

3. Second Error — Misusing Sacramentum Ordinis to Justify Altering Essentials

The Modernist enthusiast quotes Sacramentum Ordinis §3 selectively.

Full context: Pius XII first says the Church can change what she has established (accidentals, ceremonies), but immediately limits this:

…but she has no power over the substance of the sacraments…

Paul VI’s new ordination rite altered essential form — especially for the episcopate — in a way that essentially similar to the Anglican ordinal resulting in the case that the words no longer express the conferral of the sacramental power to offer the sacrifice and ordain priests. This is not “changing ceremonies” but tampering with the sacramental sign itself.

4. Third Error — Ignoring the Law of Sacramental Certainty

According to the principle of Catholic Sacramental theology,  in the administration of the sacraments, any prudent doubt concerning validity imposes the obligation to avoid such doubt, ensuring the sacrament is certainly valid.

When the form is substantially changed, and the Church’s constant usage abandoned, there is a positive doubt about validity. This is why uncompromising Traditional Catholics reject the Paul VI ordination rite.

5. Fourth Error — Misunderstanding Papal Disciplinary Power

Yes, disciplinary decrees of a pope do not bind successors. But that applies to human regulations, not to sacramental form. A pope cannot “unbind” what Christ bound by His own institution.

The Council of Trent dogmatically declared:

 “If anyone says that the received and approved rites of the Catholic Church, accustomed to be used in the solemn administration of the sacraments, may be changed into other new ones by any pastor of the churches, whosoever, let him be anathema.” (Session 7, Canon 13; Denz. 856)

It must be noted that to claim that the pope is exempt from Trent’s anathema is to turn the Vicar of Christ into the rival of Christ. The Council’s phrase “any pastor of the churches, whosoever” admits no exception — quemcumque sweeps from the humblest curate to the Bishop of Rome himself. 

A pope is not above divine law; he is its servant. If he could alter the sacramental rites at will, Christ’s institution would hang on one man’s breath, and the keys would be wielded to remake, not guard, the treasures of grace — a blasphemous inversion the Church has always condemned.

6. Summing Up: Catholic Principle Summarized

The Catholic principle on sacramental validity is fixed and immovable: 

Validity rests on Christ’s institution; the Church is its guardian, not its inventor. The pope’s authority, though supreme in governing, is bound by divine law in all that touches the essence of the sacraments. 

To object to this truth is a clear sign that one is in no way Catholic. But if such insists on laying claims to the name, he is at best nominally Catholic. Objecting this principle is a sure sign that one has steered straight into the shipwreck of the Faith.

The moment one admits the possibility that the pope or the Church could alter the essence of a sacrament, one has crossed the threshold into heresy - because it denies a truth proposed as divinely revealed by the Church (immutability of sacramental essence). 

This is why Traditional Catholics, bound by the law of God and the perennial discipline of the Church, reject as absolutely null and utterly void the Paul VI Episcopal Consecration rite, which departs from the Church’s constant form and usage.

 Modernist appeals to papal power to justify doubtful or invalid rites are not acts of loyalty, but abuses of authority and distortions of Catholic theology — errors that trade the gold of Christ's unchangeable form for the clay of man’s innovation.

In the midst of these controversies, the Catholic’s refuge is not in the shifting decrees of men but in the sure, serene rock of Christ’s own institution. 

The sacraments He gave us are not ours to tamper with; they are heaven’s channels, guaranteed by the divine Word and sealed by the constant practice of the Church through the ages. 

To hold fast to them is not stubbornness, but safety; not nostalgia, but fidelity. Here, in what Christ fixed and His Church faithfully handed down, the soul finds peace — for here we touch what cannot be shaken.

Think on it!