Tuesday, February 13, 2024

E. Sylvester Berry on what about happen if a layman were to be elected the Pope

  

A layman can be validly elected to the office, since the power of jurisdiction can be exercised without the power of Orders. In such a case, the person elected would receive the power of jurisdiction immediately upon his election, but the power of Orders would come only through the Sacrament of Orders, which he would be obliged to receive, since Christ evidently intended that His Church be governed by bishops,--bishops by the power of Orders as well as by the power of jurisdiction. (E. Sylvester Berry, The Church of Christ: An Apologetic and Dogmatic Treatise [Frederick County, Md.: Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, 1955; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2009], 227-28)