And if Francis should come along and declare an “ex cathedra” statement that y'all don't like or agree with, claiming that God has given him new revelation, then just what are y'all going to do?
He was elected in a papal conclave in 2013.
"And why has he been allowed to continue in that position?"
As far as I know (and this is a hot topic for debate within Catholicism just now) a "pope" can be deposed under one circumstance only: if there was an irregularity in his election. Thus he'd be ousted on the principle that he was never "pope" to begin with."God gives us clear directions in the qualifications for church leaders."If several of the votes turned out to be invalid, e.g. if some of the cardinal-electors were actually ineligible to vote, then the papal election would be invalid.
Another possibility: if the man elected pope were actually disqualified beforehand, for instance if he had been excommunicated latae sentenctae before he was elected pope.
I'm not sure what all the grounds for such an excommunication would be, but some examples are: being a formal accomplice in an abortion, being an enrolled member of an anti-Catholic organization; obtaining ecclesiastical office through the sin of simony (payment of money). I'm sure there are more.
Canon Law states: Can. 1331 §1. An excommunicated person is forbidden.... to exercise any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, functions, or acts of governance.
Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't give us procedure for *deposing* church leaders. They'd have to be explicit and exacting; otherwise, any upright but unpopular pastor or bishop could be deposed by the Bad Guys ---the sensus infidelium --- and we'd all be Aryans or Donatists now."It's an affront to the good name of Christ to call any man who claims to be a representative of Him on earth to continue in such unbridled foolishness"
It's an indisputably bad situation. Historically, Our Lord has always dealt with such bad situations by raising up Saints to deal with it.BTW, the Pope would be brought down by cardiac arrest before he would be able to make an ex cathedra statement embodying a heresy.I've got my eye on Cardinals Raymond Burke (Knights of Malta), Robert Sarah (a Guinean cardinal,in charge of the Discipline of the Sacraments), and Athanasius Schneider (auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan--- talk about "going to the peripheries!") -- praying for them, and for whichever other saints, unknown to me, the Lord is raising up "for such a time as this."
Here's a worthwhile 2 minutes of brilliant succinctness and clarity to click on and enjoy:
Call SLC for confirmation?
Just say that ol Pete was WRONG when he wrote:
2 Peter 1:3
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
He has to be in union with all the bishops and has to proclaim a truth believed from the beginning by the faithful. He is not free to proclaim “ex cathedra” whatever pops into his head that will sound nice.