In defense of Pope Francis — the college of cardinals duly elected him pope and there was no outcry at that time against the procedures observed in 2013.
Why all this agonizing today?
The Horror!
A Buenos Aires journalist describes Bergoglio (March 13, 2013)
If you claim otherwise, you certainly are a Bergoglio apologist.
>> In defense of Pope Francis — the college of cardinals duly elected him pope and there was no outcry at that time against the procedures observed in 2013. Why all this agonizing today? <<
You can’t elect a pope if there is an existing pope. The understanding of the College of Cardinals was that Pope Benedict had resigned. But he made several comments since then by which he suggested that he still believed he had the charisms of the papacy... which means he did not resign, but merely appointed an administrator.
Here’s the kicker: Pope Benedict XVI can actually be wrong about whether he has the power to resign. (I believe he is correct on this.) Or whether there can be two popes. (It’s ambiguous whether he considers Francis to have the charisms of the papacy.) But he CANNOT be wrong about whether he intended to surrender the charisms of the papacy. Even if he falsely believed he could remain pope despite resigning, that false belief would mean he did not willingly resign. Even so, it’s a little difficult to say what’s in his mind and whether he actually intended to retain the charisms of the papacy. As an old man, he could be prone to misstatement.
But then there’s the second issue of a supposed pope who always speaks just vaguely enough that it’s difficult to say from any one thing he says, “Aha! Here is heresy!” But it is certainly undeniable that the people he praises and promotes are the rankest, vilest of heretics and that he knows it. And you could argue that nothing short of painstakingly worded proclamation of heresy spoken with the formula to be infallible could be proof alone that the Francis is an antipope. (I would even point out that some antipopes were great men, and some even became valid popes at a later time.)
Thus two threads of evidence, neither solely determinative on their own, draw one towards a common explanation.