The Cardinal Siri Controversy
One
explanation of the white/black some and irregularities of the 1958 papal
election may have been due to Cardinal Siri being elected on an early ballot.
If this was the case, he must have refused the office; otherwise the conclave
would not have continued.
Although
stories have circulated that he and his family and/or Catholics in Communist
countries were threatened if he accepted the papacy, once one refuses the papal
office, he is not the pope. In addition, Siri made no public statement
proclaiming that he was pope.
Siri
took part in the papal conclaves of 1958, 1963 and two in 1978. On November 1,
1958, Cardinal Siri gave public obeisance to John XXIII saying, “I have called
you together to think God for the election of our Holy Father, John XXIII.” (The
original speech is posted on the Cardinal Siri website, maintained by a group
of Genovese scholars who published a book on the late Archbishop. [Associazione
Cultural Cardinal Siri]) He acknowledged Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II
as popes. Additionally, he never said he was pope and never wore papal attire.
Siri certainly was not a traditionalist as claimed by his followers. He offered
the New Mass and confected the New Sacraments. Since Siri was never pope, he
could not make cardinals. (Francisco Radecki and Dominic Radecki, Vatican II
Exposed as Counterfeit Catholicism [Wayne, Mich.: St. Joseph’s Media, 2019],
206-7)
For more, see the section “The
Siri Theory” in the
following from John Salza and Robert Siscoe, taken from their book, True
or False Pope: Refuting Sedevacantism and Other Modern Errors.