. . . the Dominican Theologian and
Missionary John de Fontibus, O.P., in a Letter to the Abbot and
Monks of a Monastery in Constantinople (c. 1350 A.D.) writes:
“The people, therefore, who has no
other above him except Christ by whom he was appointed, can be deposed by no
one other than Christ, unless someone kill him, as in the case of many martyr Popes,
or if a Pope become an open heretic persevering in heresy. For then, as in the
case of a dead Pope, the same must be done in the case of the heretical Pope,
i.e., after assembling a Council against him and declaring him in the judgment
of Christ to have merited deposition and to stand condemned, another would be
elected to replace him in his chair and office. However, even should this
happen, it does not necessarily follow that his authority would pass to the bishop
of Constantinople.” (letter published in Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 30
[1960]: 163-95, in William J. DeTucci, Communicatio in Sacris: The Roman
Catholic Church Against Intercommunion with Non-Catholics [rev ed.; 2012], 32)
And again, John de Fontibus, O.P.,
writes:
“For in every canon of a Council,
whatever it be, it is always understood the canon is to be so applied as to
respect the authority of the Roman Pontiff, who is subject to no Council; only
by Christ can the Roman Pontiff, if he is not, as I have said, openly heretical
and fully contumacious.” (Ibid.)
In addition, the erudite Fr.
Cornelius a Lapide, S.J., (1567-1637 A.D.) comments on the Scripture
passage (Matt. 18:17) with the following:
“Wherefore, under no circumstances can
be [the Pope] be deposed by the Church, but can only be declared to have fallen
from his Pontificate, if, for the sake of example, he should chance (which God
forbid) to fall into public heresy, and should therefore, ipso facto, cease
to be Pope, yea, to be a Christian believer. (Ibid., 33)
