Sedevacantism and the Sacraments: The Question of Lawful Reception

The lawfulness of traditionalist clergy is a question that divides sedevacantists and has serious consequences for the spiritual lives of the faithful. Some argue that receiving the sacraments from priests without ordinary jurisdiction is lawful and justified in times of crisis. Others, however, maintain that no state of necessity permits the violation of ecclesiastical law and that, in light of the Tridentine dogma, all priests without a canonical mission must be regarded as thieves and robbers who have not entered by the door.

This article classifies these groups according to their sacramental view, distinguishing between sacramentalists and non-sacramentalists (Home Aloners), followed by a commentary on each position.

I. 'Sacramentalists' and 'Non-Sacramentalists' (Home Aloners)

1. The Sacramentalist Position

Sacramentalists are those who believe it is lawful to receive the sacraments from traditionalist priests. Father Cekada maintains that Divine law not only permits, but obliges Catholic priests to administer sacraments as a duty tied to their priesthood. His arguments are summarised as follows:

• Our Lord’s commands to baptise (Mt. 28:19), forgive sins (Jn 20:22), offer Mass (Lk 22:19), etc., constitute a divine law that binds all Catholic bishops and priests until the end of time.
• Priests with cura animarum (pastors with ordinary or delegated jurisdiction) are obliged in justice to administer sacraments; others are bound either as in charity or in virtue of ordination.
• After Vatican II, most priests with cura animarum defected to the modernist religion, leaving faithful Catholics in grave spiritual need.
• Traditional priests, though often without formal jurisdiction (e.g., retired, outcast), are bound by divine law to provide sacraments.
• Bishops like Abps. Lefebvre and Thuc were obliged to ordain priests to continue providing sacraments, per their episcopal duty.
• Divine law grants traditional priests legitimate deputation and apostolic mission to administer the sacraments.
• Human ecclesiastical laws (e.g., Canon 879, requiring express jurisdiction for confession, or Canons 953, 2370 on episcopal consecration) cease when they become harmful to observe or in common need.  
• Such laws have ceased in the post-Vatican II crisis, as they would deprive Catholics of sacraments.

2. The Non-Sacramentalist Position (Home-aloners)

Those who refuse to receive the sacraments from the traditional priests are divided into two groups:

a) Recusants:

According to the website RecusantCatholic.org, this argument can be presented as follows:

• As Catholics, we refuse to participate in the services of illicit clergy who usurp authority without jurisdiction or mission.
• Jurisdiction comes from the pope, and with the See of Peter currently vacant, there can be no valid jurisdiction (supplied or otherwise) unless established by Pope Pius XII before his death.
• The Bible warns of false shepherds in Matthew 24, including not only anti-Catholic religions but also the Modernist Novus Ordo with its invalid, blasphemous "mass," and schismatic groups like SSPX, CMRI, SGG, RCI, MHT, SSPV, and CSPV. These groups, claiming to be Traditional Catholics, have dubious or invalid orders from modernists like Thuc, Lefebvre, and Mendez, and lack legitimate jurisdiction or divine mission, which requires papal authority or miraculous proof, as seen with Jesus, Moses, the Apostles, and St. Vincent Ferrer..
• Epikeia does not apply to unlawful pastors who lack both mission and jurisdiction.
• No illicit priest or bishop has the right to state that he is doing what God would want him to do when God Himself has removed the pope. They cannot rewrite Divine law to suit their needs
• Because of this lack of jurisdiction, none of these illicit or invalid priests or bishops has the ability to hear confessions. All confessions are invalid, even if performed by a validly ordained priest.

b) Sedefinists

Sedefinists hold that all bishops lost their office and jurisdiction in 1965 due to their adherence to the Montinian sect. This position may be summarised as follows:

• The consummatio saeculi is not the destruction of the physical world, nor the Last Day, but the end of one era and the beginning of another. It encompasses multiple events, including:

The proclamation of the Gospel to all nations [already fulfilled];

The removal of the Katechon (the visible Church and the Roman Pontiff, as unanimously interpreted by the Church);

The end of the so-called Millennium, marking the close of an era;

The release of Satan to deceive all nations;

The Great Apostasy;

The Operation of Error;

The placing of the Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Temple;

The crowning of the Antichrist in the same temple;

The abolition of the Perpetual Sacrifice;

The Harlot mistaken for the Bride;

The flock left as sheep without a shepherd;

The Bride fleeing to the wilderness, sustained by divine graces;

The rise of false shepherds and false christs (Mt 24:24).

• On 9 October 1958, with the death of Pope Pius XII, the last Vicar of Christ, the Katechon (the visible Church and the Roman Pontiff) was removed (II Thess 2:6), permitting the manifestation of the son of perdition.
• This marked the end of the Christian era, during which the Catholic Church, led by the popes, sanctified the world through the Gospel and the sacraments.
• The removal of the Katechon enabled the rise of the Antichrist, identified as G. B. Montini (“Paul VI”), heralded by his false prophet Angelo Roncalli (John XXIII).
• They preached a false gospel focused on earthly peace and security (1 Thess 5:3), neglecting the supernatural, leading to widespread apostasy.
• This ushered in the era of Satan, or Anomia (lawlessness), marked by the absence of spiritual and moral authority previously provided by the Holy See.
• The Catholic Church was eclipsed by the Great Harlot of Babylon or Montinian sect, a false church usurping the Church’s external structures, as foretold by Our Lady at La Salette (1846).
• The Great Apostasy occurred on 8 December 1965, when bishops and cardinals signed the heretical documents of Vatican II, betraying the flock and incurring automatic excommunication (Canon 188 §4, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio).
• This fulfilled Rev 13:5-7, where the Antichrist was given authority to blaspheme and wage war against the saints, overcoming them.
• The Operation of Error (2 Thess 2:8-12) began with Montini, marked by doctrinal contradictions, false sacramental prodigies, and heretical distortions disguised as orthodoxy.
• The Abomination of Desolation (Mt 24:15) refers to the Antichrist’s usurpation of the papacy, with the Montinian sect replacing the true Church.
• The sacraments were altered, the Perpetual Sacrifice abolished, and the liturgical calendar and sanctoral cycle destroyed, leaving the faithful as sheep without a shepherd.
• False christs and prophets (Mt 24:24) emerged, including the Montinian sect and traditionalist groups such as SSPX (Lefebvre) and the followers of Pierre Martin Ngô Thuc.
• These groups illicitly consecrate bishops and priests, defying Pius XII’s decrees and the 1917 Code of Canon Law, incurring excommunication and infamy (Canons 2229, 2370, 2372).
• These false shepherds, by rejecting the authority of the Holy See, commit grave sins akin to King Saul’s unlawful sacrifice (I Sam 13–14), acting against Divine law under the pretext of preserving the faith.

II. Critical Analysis and Commentary

1. Critique of the Sacramentalist Position

Sacramentalists correctly stress the priest’s grave obligation under Divine law and the possibility that human law may cease in some cases. However, this alone does not create a legitimate mission or jurisdiction, nor does epikeia supply what is strictly required by Divine law.

2. Critique of the Recusant Position

Recusants seek to defend Church law by rejecting clergy without mission, but err in claiming all jurisdiction ceased after 1958. The Church can supply jurisdiction in cases of common error or doubt (Canon 209) and in danger of death (Canon 882).

3. Critique of the Sedefinist Position

Sedefinism is speculative and heretical because it denies both the Church’s indefectibility and the perpetuity of the papacy as defined at Vatican I.

Conclusion

The vacancy of the Apostolic See has led Catholics to adopt different positions concerning the reception of the sacraments from traditionalist clergy.

Sacramentalists emphasise the priest’s obligation to administer the sacraments to the faithful in need, but they err in asserting that such an obligation is sufficient to constitute a legitimate deputation and mission.

Among non-sacramentalists, Recusants focus on safeguarding ecclesiastical law and discipline, rather than on the spiritual necessity of the sacraments. They also wrongly affirm that all jurisdiction died with the last valid pope in 1958. In contrast, Sedefinism goes so far as to claim that no Catholic hierarchy remains at all.

REFERENCES

Cekada, Anthony. Traditional Priests, Legitimate Sacraments. 2003. Accessed August 2025. https://traditionalmass.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TradPriestLeg.pdf

Codex Iuris Canonici (1917). Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1917.

Miaskiewicz, Francis Sigismund. Supplied Jurisdiction According to Canon 209: An Historical Synopsis and Commentary. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 1940.

Morell, Javier. Manual de Supervivencia Durante la Gran Tribulación y la Operación del Error. Internet Archive. Accessed August 2025. https://archive.org/details/manualdesupervivencia

RecusantCatholic.org. Accessed August 2025. https://www.recusantcatholic.org