Recently a group of somewhat prominent clergy and lay people wrote a letter to all the bishops of the world urging them to declare Francis a non-pope. About ninety people have signed on to it.

Few people may remember, but I did precisely the same thing in 1991. I wrote a letter in Latin and sent it to all the Novus Ordo bishops of the world. I received no positive response. In fact, a paltry few responded.

What is praiseworthy about this recent letter is that it is a step in the right direction. It shows that some neocons (Novus Ordo conservatives) have finally come to the realization that Francis is a heretic who needs to be declared, and that a new conclave should elect a new pope.

This absence of a declaration on the part of cardinals or bishops is what prevents many Catholics from saying that Francis is not the pope. While they may have doubts about him, they do not want to make the decision on their own that he cannot be the pope.

Those who hold to the material/formal sedevacantism, as I do, also see such a declaration, at least by one or some bishops who have converted from Vatican II to the true Catholic Faith, as necessary for a solution to the problem in the Church.

What is also positive about the letter is that it was not an angry tirade, but a very calm and scholarly presentation of the facts of Bergoglio’s deviation from the Catholic Faith, not only personally, but also in his teaching.

What is imperfect about the letter is that it concentrated only on the recent heresies regarding sexual morality, ignoring the root problem of Vatican II itself, as well as the heresies and heteropraxis (heretical activity) of John Paul II and Ratzinger. In fact John Paul II is often cited in the letter as a source of “orthodoxy.”

Unless Vatican II is seen as the source of the Church’s problems, and is annulled, any attempt to fix this problem of unorthodox teachings is bound for failure.

The root of Vatican II is Modernism. Modernism was condemned as the synthesis of all heresies because it is a mentality that is capable of producing any heresy. The mentality is that the Church must be changed to fit the modern world.

From this bottomless pit of Modernism springs the error of relativism of truth, which is the most basic characteristic of the modern world. It comes to us from the eighteenth century philosophers, and ruins the objectivity of truth. For the modern world, truth is what you make it. Truth is not ruled by an object which is the same for everyone, but by your experience of that object. So what is true for you may not be true for someone else. But both are in possession of the truth because they are faithful to their own experience.

This sounds crazy, and it is. This idea, demented though it is, is what operates modern society. It is the reason why we have abortion, same-sex marriages, transgenderism, “identifying” with a certain race or gender which is different from what you were born with. In the area of religion, it leads to ecumenism, according to which there is no one true religion or one true church. Every religion has value and truth, because it conforms to the experiences of those who adhere to it. The natural conclusion of ecumenism is freedom of religions and freedom of conscience.

Ecumenism is the poison which has destroyed the Catholic Faith in our Catholic institutions. The Catholic Church, and it alone, was founded by Christ. Therefore anything outside of its boundaries is a false religion. This doctrine is absolutely essential to Catholicism. Ecumenism, however, destroys this doctrine, and consequently destroys the faith’s adherence with firmness and supernatural certitude to Catholic teaching.

From this relativism of truth flow all of the abominations of ecumenical meetings and other violations of the First Commandment perpetrated by the Vatican II “popes.”

From it as well flow all of the sexual heresies of Francis. From the relativism of Vatican II also flows the immorality of the clergy. As Ratzinger himself said, in the 1960’s Catholic moral theology collapsed, and with this collapse came the disappearance of absolutes.

In addressing the heresy of Francis, therefore, the letter is ignoring the root cause. It would be like trying to weed your garden simply by snipping off the tops of the weeds.

Despite this imperfection, however, the letter marks a refreshing departure from the “nothing-has-changed” approach to Vatican II, and the voluntary blindness to the “emperor’s new clothes” when it comes to heresies pouring out from the Modernist inmates of the Vatican. It means that at least some in the neocon community have taken the arguments of the sedevacantists seriously.

What is deplorable is that this letter did not emanate from the high clergy — bishops and cardinals — but from lower clergy and even laymen. This letter should have been written in 1965, and should have come from the pen of Cardinal Ottaviani and others like him. Instead, they remained silent. I think that history will judge them very harshly for doing so.

I highly doubt that the signers of this document will receive any positive reaction from the bishops. Fr. Cekada has pointed out, in one of his excellent videos, that there is little to expect from a hierarchy which, in a “papal” visit to Brazil, is waving its arms back and forth to the promptings of sodomitic dancers.

What is also to be deplored is the fact that the Society of Saint Pius X was not the author of this letter. They always criticize sedevacantists for making a judgement about the “pope” before obtaining a legal declaration. Why then, do they not undertake a worldwide campaign for such a declaration? Why has this been left to the neocons? The reason is that the Society of Saint Pius X is seeking a reconciliation with the Modernists, and a letter such as this would ruin all of their plans.

I do admire the courage of the signers of this document, however, since by doing so they are destroying their ecclesiastical careers.