Can We Consider the Possibility of an Anti-Pope? A Traditionalist Theological Response
The recent petition circulated by John-Henry Westen has brought into public view a question that many Catholics, especially those attached to the perennial magisterium and traditional liturgy, have quietly wrestled with for years: whether the pontificates of Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV represent not merely pastoral confusion, but an actual rupture in the Petrine succession.
To ask such a question is no small matter. The papacy is not an administrative office comparable to a modern executive role. It is, as the First Vatican Council defined, “the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity” in the Church¹. If that principle is called into doubt, the visible coherence of Catholic unity itself trembles.
Yet gravity demands sobriety. A traditionalist response must resist two equal and opposite temptations: uncritical hyperpapalism, which treats every papal utterance as irreformable dogma, and reactive sedevacantism, which declares the See vacant at the first sign of doctrinal strain.
The Nature of the Present Crisis
It would be dishonest to pretend that present anxieties are groundless. The promulgation of Amoris Laetitia in 2016 introduced language in Chapter VIII that led to divergent episcopal interpretations regarding the admission of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Holy Communion². When the Buenos Aires guidelines were later published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis with papal approval³, many perceived that what had previously been treated as universally excluded was now pastorally permitted under certain conditions. Whether this represents development or rupture remains contested; that it generated confusion is undeniable.
The 2018 revision of Catechism §2267, declaring the death penalty “inadmissible,” intensified these concerns⁴. The Church had long taught that civil authority possessed the right, in principle, to inflict capital punishment—a position articulated by Thomas Aquinas⁵ and reaffirmed in modern times by Pope Pius XII⁶. Critics argue that the new formulation appears to contradict this consistent witness; defenders maintain it reflects prudential development in light of modern penal conditions. The dispute is substantial, but it concerns continuity of application rather than an explicit dogmatic reversal⁷.
In 2021, Traditionis Custodes declared the reformed liturgical books to be the “unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite”⁸, sharply restricting celebration of the older Missal. For many traditional Catholics, this was experienced not merely as administrative reform but as a theological claim that appeared to marginalise what had been the normative liturgical expression of the Roman Church for centuries⁹.
More recently, Fiducia Supplicans permitted non-liturgical blessings of persons in irregular unions, including same-sex couples, while insisting that such blessings do not constitute approval of the unions themselves¹⁰. The practical reception of this document has varied widely across episcopal conferences¹¹, underscoring the fragility of ecclesial consensus in the present moment.
These developments have produced not casual irritation but profound alarm among many of the faithful. Yet alarm, however sincere, does not of itself establish anti-papacy.
What Is an Anti-Pope?
Historically, an anti-pope is not a morally compromised or pastorally controversial pope. He is a claimant whose election is canonically invalid in opposition to a legitimately elected pontiff. During the Western Schism, rival claimants arose from disputed conclaves; the crisis concerned canonical legitimacy and obedience, not doctrinal development¹². The Church’s official registers list figures such as Clement VII of Avignon as anti-popes precisely because their claim lacked canonical validity¹³.
Thus, the category “anti-pope” is fundamentally juridical. It concerns legitimacy of election before it concerns theology.
Heresy and the Loss of Office
Theologians such as Robert Bellarmine considered the theoretical possibility of a pope who becomes a manifest heretic¹⁴. Bellarmine argued that a pope who publicly and obstinately denies a defined dogma would cease to be pope. Yet the conditions he describes are stringent: the heresy must be public, notorious, and juridically recognisable.
Canon law defines heresy as “the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt… of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith”¹⁵. The 1917 Code expressed the same principle¹⁶. Three elements are essential: denial of defined dogma, obstinacy, and public manifestation. No competent ecclesiastical authority has declared that such criteria have been fulfilled in the present case.
This is not procedural fastidiousness. Catholic ecclesiology rests upon visible order. If papal legitimacy were reducible to perceived theological adequacy, unity would depend upon private judgment rather than ecclesial structure. The First Vatican Council explicitly rejected the notion that the Roman Pontiff’s authority depends upon the consent of the Church¹⁷.
Private Revelation and Eschatological Anxiety
Some have invoked the warnings associated with Our Lady of La Salette, particularly the statement that “Rome will lose the faith.” While La Salette received episcopal approval in 1851¹⁸, the Church teaches that private revelations do not belong to the deposit of faith and require a different kind of assent than public revelation¹⁹. They may exhort; they cannot legislate. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1978 norms on discernment of apparitions reinforce this distinction²⁰.
The Catechism itself speaks of a final trial involving religious deception and apostasy²¹. The possibility of grave confusion within the Church is not foreign to Catholic theology. Yet indefectibility means that the Church as such will not formally defect from the faith²².
The Path of Faithful Resistance
The classical paradigm for navigating ecclesial tension is found in Galatians 2:11, where St. Paul resisted St. Peter “to his face.” Paul did not deny Peter’s primacy; he appealed to the Gospel itself. Catholic tradition has always permitted respectful resistance to non-definitive papal acts judged inconsistent with prior magisterium. The theological principles governing such assent and possible difficulty are articulated in the CDF instruction Donum Veritatis (1990)²³.
One may critique ambiguous formulations. One may appeal to prior authoritative teaching. In limited cases, one may withhold assent from non-definitive statements that appear to conflict with established doctrine²⁴. But to declare a reigning pontiff an anti-pope requires demonstrable, manifest, and juridically recognised rupture with defined dogma.
That threshold is extraordinarily high.
An Oasis in the Storm: The Purpose of Traditional Apostolates
At this juncture, it is important to clarify the purpose of communities such as the Old Roman Apostolate and other traditional works within the Church. Their existence is sometimes misconstrued as a gesture of separation or quiet schism. In reality, their purpose is precisely the opposite.
They do not exist to foment rupture, nor to establish a parallel Church, nor to withdraw from communion. They exist to provide an oasis amid ecclesial confusion—an environment in which authentic Catholic doctrine, disciplined sacramental life, reverent liturgy, and moral clarity are preserved and lived without dilution.
An oasis is not an alternative desert. It is water in the desert.
Faithful Catholics who seek out traditional apostolates are not fleeing communion; they are seeking stability within it. They desire continuity with the perennial magisterium, clarity in moral theology, seriousness in ascetical life, and reverence in worship. They are not animated by factionalism but by hunger for coherence.
Yet this preservation necessarily involves a measured and principled distancing from elements within the hierarchy that perpetuate doctrinal ambiguity, tolerate moral confusion, or advance pastoral initiatives that unsettle the consciences of the faithful²⁵. When certain episcopal directions or institutional programs appear to threaten the integrity of the faith, traditional apostolates cannot simply mirror them for the sake of external harmony.
There are moments in ecclesial history when fidelity requires resistance.
Such resistance is not rebellion against the papal office nor a denial of hierarchical authority in principle. It is a refusal to internalise or propagate novelties judged inconsistent with the Church’s perennial teaching. It is an appeal to the higher norm of tradition when contemporary expressions appear unstable²⁶. It is, above all, a safeguarding of souls²⁷.
Communion is not sustained by acquiescence to confusion. Unity detached from truth becomes sentiment. Authentic communion is communion in the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
Thus, when traditional apostolates decline to promote ambiguous documents, refrain from adopting contested pastoral innovations, or limit cooperation with initiatives they judge harmful to faith and morals, they are not declaring schism. They are exercising theological prudence in order to protect the deposit entrusted to them (cf. 1 Tim 6:20).
An oasis does not curse the desert. It ensures that water remains.
A Further Tension: Can the Oasis Survive the Structure?
This leads to a more delicate question concerning particular traditional apostolates.
Communities such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest were founded precisely to preserve the traditional Roman liturgy while remaining in full canonical regularity within the present ecclesial structure. Their existence demonstrates that fidelity to tradition and juridical integration are not mutually exclusive.
Yet their situation raises a genuine tension. Because they remain dependent upon episcopal goodwill and Roman authorisation, their capacity to provide a stable oasis is, in practice, contingent. The promulgation of Traditionis Custodes revealed the fragility of this arrangement. Even institutes of pontifical right experienced restriction, scrutiny, and uncertainty. An oasis that depends structurally upon the same authorities generating instability must continually negotiate its own survival.
The practical question for such communities is therefore this: can they adequately shield the faithful from doctrinal and pastoral ambiguities if they must exercise public restraint regarding those very ambiguities? Can they form consciences robustly if their canonical security depends upon discretion? Can they remain refuges without being perceived as oppositional?
The tension is not one of bad faith but of structure. Their charism requires clarity and continuity. Their canonical status requires prudence and measured speech. Whether this equilibrium can be sustained long-term remains an open and serious question.
The Question Confronting the Society of St. Pius X
A parallel, though inverse, dilemma confronts the Society of St. Pius X.
For decades, the Society has operated in an irregular canonical condition, justified by what it terms a state of necessity. Its resistance has been overtly theological as well as liturgical. It has criticised conciliar ambiguities, challenged doctrinal developments it judges ruptural, and insisted upon continuity with the pre-conciliar magisterium as the norm of interpretation.
If Rome were to accede to further episcopal consecrations and offer a canonical solution regularising its status, a new and decisive question would arise: would such regularisation enhance its capacity for positive influence, or would it attenuate its resistance?
Canonical recognition would bring undeniable goods: juridical clarity, sacramental normalisation, and visible unity. Yet it would also introduce obligations of governance and oversight. Would the Society retain freedom to critique theological ambiguities with the same clarity? Or would regularisation gradually moderate its voice?
History offers examples in both directions. Some reform movements, once absorbed into institutional structures, slowly assimilated into the prevailing theological climate. Others exercised profound influence precisely because they were integrated and could speak from within.
The central question is whether canonical integration would enable the Society to act as leaven within the ecclesial structure—or whether it would reduce it to another institute negotiating space within the same unstable framework that prompted its resistance.
Conclusion: Fidelity Amid Crisis
We are living through a genuine ecclesial crisis. Moral theology has been contested, sacramental discipline unsettled, liturgical identity strained. Confidence has been shaken. Apostolates wrestle with structural vulnerability; institutes in full canonical standing must negotiate their survival within frameworks that have themselves generated instability; bodies such as the Society of St. Pius X face the unresolved question of whether canonical recognition would strengthen or temper their resistance. These are not peripheral anxieties. They touch the lived reality of clergy and faithful alike.
Yet the Church’s history is not a chronicle of unbroken administrative clarity. She has endured Arian emperors, corrupt Renaissance pontiffs, and the Western Schism itself. Periods of doctrinal confusion and institutional weakness have marked her pilgrimage before. In none of those trials did the solution consist in precipitous declarations of vacancy whenever grave turbulence arose.
The bar for anti-papacy remains what it has always been: illegitimate election or manifest, obstinate, and publicly recognised denial of defined dogma. Present controversies, however grave, have not met that canonical standard. Structural tension, pastoral ambiguity, and even widespread theological confusion do not, in themselves, constitute juridically demonstrable rupture from the Petrine office.
Traditional fidelity, therefore, demands neither naïve acquiescence nor reckless rupture. It does not ask the faithful to ignore ambiguity, nor to internalise formulations they judge inconsistent with the perennial magisterium. But neither does it license the collapse of visible communion on the basis of private assessment. It demands perseverance in truth—anchored in Scripture, nourished by the Fathers, guided by the perennial magisterium, and sustained by disciplined sacramental life.
The storm is real. The need for oases is real. The tensions facing traditional apostolates are real. But crisis does not equal collapse. The Cross precedes resurrection. And fidelity—calm, principled, and persevering—remains the Catholic answer.
¹ First Vatican Council, Pastor Aeternus (1870), ch. 3.
² Amoris Laetitia, §305 and n.351.
³ Acta Apostolicae Sedis 108 (2016): 1071–1074.
⁴ Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2267 (rev. 2018).
⁵ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II–II, q.64, a.2.
⁶ Pope Pius XII, Address (14 Sept 1952).
⁷ International Theological Commission, The Interpretation of Dogma (1989).
⁸ Traditionis Custodes, Art. 1.
⁹ Benedict XVI, Letter to Bishops (7 July 2007).
¹⁰ Fiducia Supplicans.
¹¹ Various episcopal conference statements, Dec 2023–Jan 2024.
¹² Council of Constance (1414–1418).
¹³ Annuario Pontificio, list of antipopes.
¹⁴ Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, II, 30.
¹⁵ Code of Canon Law (1983), c. 751.
¹⁶ 1917 Code of Canon Law, c. 1325 §2.
¹⁷ Pastor Aeternus, ch. 3.
¹⁸ Decree of Bishop de Bruillard (1851).
¹⁹ Catechism of the Catholic Church, §67.
²⁰ CDF, Normae de modo procedendi (1978).
²¹ Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§675–677.
²² Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, §25.
²³ CDF, Donum Veritatis (1990), §§23–31.
²⁴ Ibid., §24.
²⁵ Code of Canon Law (1983), c. 212 §3.
²⁶ St. Vincent of Lérins, Commonitorium, ch. 2.
²⁷ Ezekiel 3:17–19.
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