Nearly 30 anti-popes have risen across two millennia of Church history. In times of deepest confusion, even saints found themselves on opposing sides. St. Catherine of Siena confronted cardinals backing a false pope. St. Vincent Ferrer supported the wrong claimant during the Western Schism. St. Bernard of Clairvaux rallied kings against a rival. None remained silent. Dr. Ed Mazza joins to walk through these battles from his book Saints Versus Anti-Popes, drawing the line from medieval crises to the present. The question now is not whether a pope can be a bad man; history is full of them. The question […]
Just as individuals can separate themselves from the Church by heresy or schism, so the Church can separate individuals from her visible body by her own authority through sentence of perfect excommunication.