The Impeded Papacy
The Katechon, the Obstacle to the Legitimate Holder, and the Eclipse of the Petrine Function
Introduction — A question more precise than that of the “pope in contradiction with the Papacy”
The present crisis compels us to ask a question that goes beyond the simple alternative between “a legitimate but bad pope” and “an empty see.”
The problem can be formulated as follows:
What if the Papacy, as a perpetual divine institution, remained intact, while its legitimate occupation were prevented by a power that had seized the visible structures of the Church and presented itself to the world as the Church itself? An ecclesiological hypothesis
This hypothesis makes it possible to understand the contemporary paradox differently.
On the one hand, Catholicism teaches that the Church is a visible, hierarchical society, founded by Our Lord and visibly governed by a head who holds the place of Peter. Pius XII recalled in 1943 that Christ willed a visible Church and that, after His Ascension, He entrusted to Peter “the visible government” of the community He had founded.
On the other hand, Church history shows that it is possible to distinguish the divine institution from the man who claims, or appears, to exercise the function. Classical theology precisely developed this distinction in the controversies concerning a heretical pope.
The question therefore becomes:
Can one conceive of a situation in which the divine existence of the Papacy remains, while an obstacle prevents its normal expression in a truly legitimate holder?
It is this hypothesis that we shall examine.
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