8.37. If post-Vatican II popes aren't true successors of St. Peter, who holds the keys? Where does the Church you follow get its authority and guidance?

To answer directly: I believe the true Catholic Church is still alive, but it is currently eclipsed or overshadowed by a counterfeit structure — a false "church" that arose after Vatican II and continues to occupy the buildings and offices once held by faithful Catholics.

The Vatican has been overtaken by false claimants to the papacy — men who have publicly and systematically changed the teachings of the Church, especially through the Second Vatican Council. This includes promoting religious liberty, ecumenism, and the idea that all religions are paths to God — all of which were formally condemned by the Church before the 1960s.

Because these new doctrines contradict previous infallible teachings, they cannot be Catholic. The Church cannot contradict itself. Truth does not evolve. Therefore, Vatican II was not a true council, and the men who imposed it — John XXIII, Paul VI, and those who followed — cannot be true popes. They are intruders who created a new religion, not a continuation of the one founded by Jesus Christ.

So where is the Church today?

The true Church continues outside the Novus Ordo structure, among faithful clergy who rejected Vatican II and preserve the traditional Catholic Mass, sacraments, and doctrine. These are bishops and priests who were validly ordained before the changes to the rites in 1968 — or by those who were themselves ordained by such bishops. Their sacraments are valid, their teachings unchanged, and their fidelity to Christ uncompromised.

Even though we don’t currently have a visible pope — a situation the Church has faced in the past during long papal vacancies — we continue to follow the unchanging doctrine and disciplines of the Church handed down before the Vatican II crisis. We aren’t lost, and we aren’t without guidance — we are following what the Church has always taught.

This is the sad but necessary reality. I don’t reject the papacy. I believe in it wholeheartedly. I don’t reject the Church. I strive to be more faithful to it than ever. What I do reject is a false system — the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo “church” — that has objectively departed from Catholicism while continuing to pretend it hasn't. And sadly, most people don’t even realize it.

So to answer your question plainly: the keys have not been lost. They are waiting to be exercised again when the Church is restored. Until then, the true Catholic Church survives in the remnant — small in number, but fully Catholic in faith, sacraments, and worship.

I remain Catholic not in rebellion, but in fidelity — to the same Church, the same Mass, the same teachings, and the same Lord that our ancestors held fast to before the 1960s.

I hope you can see where I'm coming from on this. I'd be happy to demonstrate what the changes were and why we need to reject them if we are to remain Catholic.