Sometimes they do. But not often enough.
Do the Bishops have a say in who becomes the next Pope?
Only the ones who are Cardinals.
Who knows what you will get if the modernists get to elect the next one.
The College of Cardinals isn't a nest of flaming liberals. My guess is that the next Pope will either be a conservative Italian or a Third World cardinal from Africa, South America, or the Philippines ... many of whom are very solidly orthodox. My personal favorite is Cdl. Tettamanzi of Genoa.
Here is a question that you may not want to entertain, what happens if a modernist Pope gets elected and starts making ex cathedra announcements like they were going out of style?
First of all, I absolutely trust Christ's promise in Matthew 28 "to be with you all days, even unto the end of the age". Hence, the Church is indefectible and will survive even a bad Pope.
The good news is that ex cathedra pronouncements cannot contradict earlier ex cathedra pronouncements, and the further good news is that modernists don't believe in ex cathedra pronouncements anyway. Too "authoritarian," you understand.
But if, God forbid, a new Pope attempted to do something absolutely beyond the pale, like attempting to ordain women ... the resulting schism would make the Reformation look like a beach party. A huge part of the Church would defect, declare the Pope to be a heretic and thereby automatically deposed, and proceed to elect his successor.
That won't happen. But if it did, it would be very, very nasty.
Well, if that ever happens I'll keep a seat open next to me at my church for you. ;^)
-ksen
That won't happen. But if it did, it would be very, very nasty.Last time those kinds of papal shenanigans went on with any force was during the Babylonian Capitivity of the Church. The good news is that God raises saints in times of distress -- like Catherine of Siena, who talked the pope in Avignon into returning to the papal seat in Rome. It just seems like, the worse things look for the Church, the more grace abounds.