The Sede Vacante
That
the college of bishops cannot act without its head is seen also from the fact
that in a period of “Sede vacante,” that is, in the time between the
death (or renunciation) of a pope and the election of his successor, there
cannot be an intervention, in any significant matter in the governance of the
Church. Moreover, many offices stop (almost all the offices of the Roman Curia)
and, if a council is in process, it is suspended automatically. The death of
the pope marks almost a paralysis in the life of the Church. The faith is
certainly not suspended, the Sacraments continue to be celebrated, and the
bishops remain at the head of their dioceses; however, nothing can be done that
has universal effect on the governance of the Church except for the election of
the successor of the deceased pope. This implies that the college of bishops
cannot act without its head.
Thus,
the Second Vatican Council, which significantly developed the theme of
episcopal collegiality, nonetheless specified that “’College’ is not understood
in a strictly juridical sense, that is as a group of equals who entrust their
power to their president, but as a stable group whose structure and authority must
be learned from Revelation.” (Lumen Gentium, “Preliminary Note of Explanation,”
§1) This means that, even if the pope is chosen through a vote by the
cardinals, he does not receive his power from them, but he receives it from
Christ Himself. The voting only serves to indicate the one that Christ has
chosen. This procedure is already found in the Acts of the Apostles, when the
Eleven cast lots to determine who—among the two candidates for substituting
Judas Iscariot in the college of the Twelve—would be chosen by the Lord (“You,
Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen”
[Acts 1:24]). Thus, the episcopal college is not simply a group of equals that
determines through oligarchical election—that is, through the cardinals, the
chosen members of the college—who will be their president. This can happen in
human societies, but not in the Church, which is a society tui iuris and
sui generis. The pope is equal to the other members of the college
through the received Sacrament: he is a bishop. But he is also superior to all others
because only he is the Vicar of Christ on earth and the head of the college. (Mauro
Gagliardi, Truth is a Synthesis: Catholic Dogmatic Theology [Steubenville,
Ohio: Emmaus Academic, 2020], 609-10, emphasis in bold added)
