Some People Think the Continuity of the Catholic Church is Purely Sociological

As a layman, I cannot turn myself into a priest or a bishop without a bishop. I also cannot perform certain sacraments, namely all except baptism in case of necessity and marriage to another baptised person. If I were unbaptised in a desert, I could not baptise myself.

Living without contact with a parish with its priests under a bishop is not a normal Catholic life. But neither is it sth which can never occur to a Catholic. Let me explain why.

The Catholic continuity since the Apostles certainly is sociological to some degree, but it is not purely so. In Sweden between a Catholic régime 1515 (neither heresy nor schism) and a Protestant, heretical Lutheran régime in 1535, there was little sociological change. Sure, there were two big events, schism in 1520 over Swedes electing Laurentius Magni as new (national / anti-Danish) archbishop and Pope sticking to (pro-union / pro-Danish) Gustaf Trolle, heresy in 1527 introducing instead Laurentius Petri, along with his brother Olaus a student of Martin Luther in Wittenberg. Only then did the Pope accept replacing Gustaf Trolle with Laurentius Magni, but it was too late.

But to most, these two big events were ... big events, little concern of theirs. The priest changed language, changed a few gestures, forbade a lot of things previously in use, was replaced by someone whose ordination some very few Papists would not consider valid, Swedish was in use suddenly, but it was not as if this was totally impossible to Catholic thought now the printing press made a fixed language possible .... the Lutheran heretic in 1535 was usually either attending same priest he had attended as a Catholic in 1515 or his successor. He was usually attending same priest he had attended as an - unaware - schismatic in 1525 or his successor.

Laurentius Petri had an episcopal consecration by one old bishop, still Catholic, who was forced by the King. He thought he would not have survived going in exile.

A real Catholic in Sweden in 1535 was by contrast obliged to stay without most sacraments. Most couldn't, and it would have been taken as illegal for two Catholics to try to get married without the new Lutheran priest, but that is what a real Catholic would have had to face as a situation.

Sociologically, he would look to some like a Protestant in a house-Church - but he wasn't, because he wasn't a Protestant. He only kind of looked like one by remaining Catholic.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Sts Zachary and Elisabeth
5.XI.2020

Sancti Zachariae, Sacerdotis et Prophetae, qui pater exstitit beati Joannis Baptistae, Praecursoris Domini. Item sanctae Elisabeth, ejusdem sanctissimi Praecursoris matris.