Dear Michael:

There have been anti-popes (see list) and there have been corrupt Popes in the history of the Church. An anti-Pope is not a legal Pope and thus cannot make any changes at all to Church teachings or practices that cannot be restored by the legitimate Pope.

No Pope or anti-Pope can change one iota of Church dogma. Christ said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. He protects the Chair of Peter, even from anti-Popes or corrupt Popes. Even if Satan himself were to somehow be elected Pope, he could not change dogma.

Jesus intimates this protection when he talked about the Chair of Moses in Matthew 23:2. Jesus told his disciples not to follow the example of the Pharisees because they were hypocrites and corrupt, but when they sit in the Chair of Moses they are to be obeyed.

God has always had His Magisterium and Pope on this earth. Adam, Abraham, and Moses were all Popes. The Mosaic papacy was replaced by the Petrine papacy when the New Covenant was given to us through Christ.

The word Pope merely means "father". Isaiah 22:21 teaches us that the Prime Minister of the Church is the the "father" (Pope) of the Church.

As for the Mass, the rubrics of the Mass can be changed anytime the Church desires. The Mass liturgy itself is not infallible as many misguided Ultra-Traditionalists seem to think. In fact, the liturgy of the Mass does not even qualify for infallibility status because for something to be infallible it must apply to the entire Church and not to a portion of it. Each of the more than twenty-one rites of the Church have their own distinctive Mass Liturgy.

What is infallible is the institution of the Eucharist. It is not the specific words we use in the Roman Rite (again as the Ultra-Traditionalist try to assert), but the institution itself that is infallible and consistent among all the Rites of the Church.

We, in the Roman Rite, tend to be bigots sometimes in thinking that the entire Church must do things as we do them. This is nonsense, and contrary to Church teaching. Each Rite of the Church is equally valid and holy.

Back to the idea of any Pope or anti-Pope destroying the Church -- that is impossible. The Church cannot be destroyed by anyone. If the Church could be destroyed then Christ is cruel and a liar. He is not cruel nor a liar.

Corrupt Popes can do some damage, but not to official Church teaching. Whatever damage they create in disciplinary and non-essential areas is always repaired. But, essential doctrines can never be corrupted.

To give one example that we can take God at His word when He says that He will protect the Church, is the story of Vigilius who was Pope from 537-555. This is an account of a Pope who sat on the Chair of Peter with the specific intent on bringing the Church into heresy.

Vigilius conspired with Empress Theodora, a Monophysite heretic, to bring the Church into that heresy once he was elected Pope. The election of Vigilius was very irregular but he was consecrated Pope.

Once Vigilius sat on the chair of Peter, however, he could not go through with the plan to bring the Church into heresy. The Holy Spirit protected the Church. He will always protect the Church.

You have nothing to fear. Official Church teaching can never be corrupted. That is the promise of God and God does not lie, He keeps His promises.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary