by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

The reality of social media is, that while you may be interacting with someone who claims to be Catholic, you nearly always assume that the other person is competent, sane and informed.  If you are like myself, who spent most of my lifetime at school or educational formation programs or in academic studies of one kind or another, public and private, you might have a psychological bias of thinking that everyone on social media asks a question or reads an article to be informed, and is able to think for themselves, do a search, investigate and be informed.

Alas that is not the case, as we all know, by hard knocks.

This is especially true among fellow Catholics.

Recently, one reader of FromRome.Info started asking fellow Catholics what they think of the Save Rome Project and received this stunning response:  “I do not want to get involved in Sedevacantism”.

I have to shake my head and roll my eyes at the expression of such total ignorance, that is, incapacity to evaluate problems in the Catholic Church.

The History of the Election of Pope Nicholas II, and St. Hildebrand’s role in it

So for those out there who suffer from having friends or relatives at this level of information bias, here is the story of Saint Hildebrand, and how he protected the Papacy by promoting Nicholas II to the apostolic throne against the antipope John Mincius, of the House of Crescentius, who was Bishop of the suburbican diocese of Velletri, and took the name, Benedict X.

Now, according to Cardinal Saint Peter Damian, John was an upright, honest and Catholic man, his only fault was that he was elected illegally. He was even pardoned by Pope Nicholas II and ordered out of the city of Rome. However, when he later returned, St Hildebrand brought him to trial, wrote out his own confession of guilt, forced him to read it, and had him condemned and reduced to the lay state. With the pleas of many, later on, Pope Nicholas raised him back to the status of a Lector.

Benedict X was not a heretic, but he was an antipope.  His election was illegal, because Pope Stephen IX, before he died, decreed that the election of his successor should not take place until St. Hildebrand returned from his diplomatic mission at the Imperial Court in Germany.

Now Saint Hildebrand is considered one of the greatest saints to ever become Pope — an event which took place 14 years later — and no one in their right mind has ever called him a “sedevacantist” because he opposed the election of a man against the rules.

Note Well: “Sedevacantism” is the name given to the position of those who insist that there have been no valid popes since the death of Pius XII or John XXIII: as regards Conclaves, their allegations are based on non-factually supported claims that were launched years after the election of popes and based on speculation of conspiracies during one or another Conclave, not evidence of anything illegal during the Conclaves. This is what makes “Sedevacantism” an ideology, not a valid juridical position worthy of any Catholic. The proponents of this position are more fixated on their alternative histories than on even the Code of Canon Law of 1917 or the Apostolic Constitution of Pius XII for papal elections. And they never sought the condemnation of those, whom they accuse, in any tribunal, tacitly admitting they had no legal proof.

But Saint Hildebrand of Saona based his rejection of Benedict X’s election on the historical events of his election which no one denied, which went against the published rule for the election to be delayed, established by Pope Stephen IX.

St. Hildebrand was, however, accused by those who favored corruption at Rome, of being a “fake monk”, though, since he went around wearing the habit of a Benedictine Monk without them asking him for proof of his vows.

How, history repeats itself!

You can read a summary of this history from pp. 17-18, in the book, “The Life and Times of Hildebrand”, by the Right Rev. Arnold Harris Matthew, published by Francis Griffiths, London, 1910. — You can click these two images to expand them for easier reading on your device.

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This year of Our Lord, 2025, we are in an exactly similar, though worse, juridical mess: since no one denies that 133 Cardinals voted in the Conclave, nor that the Papal Law forbids that in n. 33 of that Law. — While those who broke the Papal Law, this year, are like those in 1058, they make excuses but have no valid legal excuse, since Pope John Paul II’s UDG. n. 4, forbids the use of dispensations during a sedevacante. Nor is there any doubt that Cardinal Prevost embraced heresy before his election, a thing which makes his election null, void, and irritus, according to the Bull of Paul IV, “Cum ex apostsolatus officio”.

That it has been nearly 80 days since this fraud was perpetrated on the Church and THAT there are still Catholics, unwilling to review the facts of the matter and the law, says a lot about how comfortable Catholics have become with living in a corrupt society while rejecting even in their hopes the Kingdom Christ Jesus, Who is Infinite and Inescapable Justice, not to mention their utter contempt for the laws of Roman Pontiffs, Christ’s Vicars on Earth.

For those who would like more information about this great Saint, who becomes Pope Gregory VII, here is that entire book, I just cited from in PDF. Take note the the entire book is in a 358 MB file. However, if you would like to view this book online or download it in other formats, see HERE.

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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present

This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!

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