Sedeprivationism

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Sedeprivationism is an ideological school or party of the traditionalist Roman Catholic movement that follows the principles of the late French theologian Michel Louis Guérard des Lauriers, O.P., as Lauriers set it out in his thesis published in the Cahiers du Cassiciacum and therefore called the "Cassiciacum thesis".

According to Laurier's thesis, Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI were or are defective popes in that, due to their espousal of the Modernist heresy, their consent to become pope was faulty or defective, so that they became potentially pope, but did not attain to the papacy.

This idea is also described in another manner by saying that they became pope materially but not formally (the formula, "papa materialiter non formaliter").

Two consequences flow out of this thesis:

There is no real sede vacante, since these men fill the role of potential popes;
If these potential popes recant from Modernism and return to Catholicism, they will complete the process and attain to the fullness of the papacy.

The Sedeprivationism and Sedeprivationist labels were coined by the late English Sedevacantist William J. Morgan.

Besides the late bishop Michel Guerard des Lauriers, O.P., those Traditionalists prominent for subscribing to this explanation are: Bishops Robert F. McKenna, O.P. and Donald Sanborn in the U.S.A. Bishop Geert Jan Stuyver in Flanders, Fr. Francesco Ricossa and his Instituto Mater Bonii Consilii (alternative name Sodalitium Pianum), to which Bishop Stuyver also belongs, in Flanders and in the cities of Turin and Rome in Italy. Mel Gibson, who is frequently described as a sedevacantist, actually seems to be a sedeprivationist.