Sedevacantist Watch...
MARIO DERKSEN’S ELEMENTARY ERROR ON “FACT VERSUS LAW”
Mario Derksen runs the Sedevacantist website “NovusOrdoWatch” which he uses as his platform to attack and belittle Catholics who oppose the Sedevacantist sect (even those who are very critical of the conciliar Popes and think Pope Francis is a menace to the Church). Evidently, Derksen has an insecurity problem, since he conceals his identity by hiding behind the pen-name “Gregorius.” And his efforts to respond to critiques of Sedevacantism are just as juvenile as his masquerading behind a Latinized pseudo-name, all the while he calls out Catholics (by their real names) and disparages them. Like the approach of Fr. Cekada, Derksen’s website is filled with humorous caricatures and comical satire aimed at discrediting his opponents and
maligning their character, which is the customary effeminate response of those
who cannot engage their opponents at an intellectual level. And, as you will see, Derksen (right) has hit a new moral low in his most recent effort to discredit one of the authors of True or False Pope? This present article provides us yet another opportunity to reveal just why Derksen continually engages in such ad hominem tactics: Because he cannot defend Sedevacantism on its own merits, a defense that is riddled with the most elementary errors of theology and logic that one could commit.
Specifically, we show how Derksen makes a most fundamental error in arguing that Sedevacantism is solely “a question of fact” discerned by the private judgment of individuals, and not a question of Church law as judged by the proper authorities. It’s a classic case of petitio principii (“begging the question”). Whether the Pope is a heretic is indeed a “question of fact,” but who is authorized to judge the facts is a question of law that must first be resolved, as any student taking an introductory course in logic would realize (and not even the Magisterium has settled these questions of law). And Derksen’s anticipated and convenient appeal to “Divine law” to get around Church law will not help him, since the Catholic Church is the final judge on matters of ecclesiastical law precisely because she is the final judge on matters of Divine law (and canon law is a specification of the principles of Divine law). Derksen will also be surprised to discover that his mentor, Fr. Cekada, actually admitted that individual Catholics have no authority to settle speculative questions of theology and law – that is, before he was kicked out of the Society of St. Pius X and became a public Sedevacantist.
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