[Arthur McGowan]

There are a number of automatic penalties in canon law, and there are Popes who have issued decrees imposing automatic penalties.

I am pointing out the simple fact that these are MEANINGLESS. The very fact that the penalties are “automatic” means that that the so-called penalty is imposed by—NOBODY.

The same is true in the case of a heretic who is “automatically” not Pope.

Go to Rome. Snatch Bergoglio’s beanie off his head, and proclaim to the crowd that he is not Pope.

SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

[piusv]

The same is true in the case of a heretic who is “automatically” not Pope.

Except that is not true. A manifest heretic ceases to be pope ipso facto not because of a penalty incurred via canon law, but because of the penalty incurred via divine law.