Should We Wait for Divine Intervention?

God is all-powerful and does not need the cooperation of men. But He nevertheless wants men to cooperate with Him. The history of the Church and the history of mankind show abundantly that God desires men to act and cooperate in their salvation. The Church, in the same way, cannot and never has in the past, relied on direct intervention from God as a remedy for the various crises that have afflicted its earthly pilgrimage.

At the time of the Great Western Schism, three different “popes” had each appointed their own cardinals and excommunicated one another. The situation was disastrous. Nevertheless, Christians did not settle into a passive expectation of divine intervention. A General Council was organised within the Church, comprising clergy from the various factions and people from different groups and nations. The three pretenders to the papacy either abdicated or were forced to abdicate. Martin V was elected in their place and the unity of the Church was restored.

The solution to the various crises endured by the Church, has always come from the clergy who remained faithful. In all probability, it will once again have to come from the Catholic clergy.

We therefore affirm that, in order to remedy this affliction of the Church, something must be done today. We must pray, but we must also act. Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote: “We must pray as if everything depended on God, and act as if everything depended on us.”

We believe that the Church must work towards organising an Imperfect General Council.

Purely legal questions about authority cannot take precedence over questions of Faith and divine law.  Pretenders to the papacy are teaching a gospel other than the one handed down to us with the Faith. Who in the Church today has the authority to resolve this issue, is secondary to the question of faith and divine law. Members of the clergy who are aware of the gravity of the present situation of the Church cannot remain inactive. They must come together to seek a remedy for the current crisis in the Church.