Expert: Griff Ruby - 2/22/2005

Question
Where is the true church?

Answer
The hierarchy of the true Church today consists of those bishops who are validly consecrated and who hold and teach the Catholic Faith in its entirety, and the priests and faithful attached to them.

This represents the most stripped-down mode the Church has ever existed in all her history.  One bishop is meant to lead them all, and that bishop is meant to lead from Rome (the "Bishop of Rome"), and the remaining bishops are not only to be subject to such a one bishop, but also willing to work together.

Doctrinally, the Church absolutely cannot be any further stripped down.  There shall always be bishops who are lawful, valid, and orthodox, and therefore with the authority to speak for Christ in this world.  There shall always be lay Catholics to provide the bright young men for the priesthood.  And as long as there are bishops and laymen, those bishops can always make priests from qualified laymen.  And as long as there are bishops and priests, there shall always be the means of selecting a leader to rule the Church, to be the Bishop of Rome.

That there should be no current Bishop of Rome (or at least anyone willing to serve in that capacity by actually doing the job instead of merely enjoying the fun and palaver of the apparent position) has its precedent in the sede vacante position that results from the death of each pope, and even that the Church would be unwilling to elect another also has its precedence in a period in the 1200's where the Church went without electing a pope (again due to internal factionalism suprisingly similar to what we see today), to the point that secular authority had to intervene and invent what we now know as the conclave, that is keeping the electors under lock and key until they elect someone.
That there should be such factionalism in the Church has its precedence, not only from that one popeless period, but also from the First Great Western Schism (in the 1300's) where each of the two and then three portions were nevertheless part of the Church despite their vituperative unwillingness to get along with each other or cooperate in finding the one solution needed.
So although no one situation serves fully as a precedent for our present sad state of affairs, nearly all aspects have occured before at varying times.
That these bishops (those of the SSPX, the SSPV, the CMRI, the Trento Priests, those of other similar societies all around the world, and even the bishop of the Campos Saint John Vianney Society) are truly our authentic Roman Catholic bishops can easily be seen from observing their congregations and churches, and the congregations and churches of their priests.  While the internet can well serve as an information source, there is also much misinformation there as well, and most importantly, that is not where the life of the Church is.  That life is in the traditional congregations all around the world.  It lives in the lives of all those who regularly avail themselves of the traditional and authentic sacraments of the Church and who endeavor to live the Church's teachings on a daily basis in all they do.
As to the doctrinal and canonical reasons that this extraordinary situation has come to pass, I discuss it in my latest series of articles on Daily Catholic, the first three of which installments are at:
http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/05Feb/feb4str.htm
http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/05Feb/feb11str.htm
http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/05Feb/feb18str.htm
This will explain what happened to the Church, and how the Church and today's Vatican institution came to be distinct entities, with differing boundaries.  I hope to be able to post the fourth and last installment to this series soon.