Posted on 11/11/2024 2:20:03 PM PST by ebb tide
Joseph Ratzinger’s 2013 resignation led to a situation entirely unprecedented in the history of the Church. For virtually the next decade in Vatican City, two men wore the signature white papal cassock, two men bestowed apostolic blessings on the faithful, and two men were formally addressed as “His Holiness.”
Surely this inspires the question over whether there can be two “Popes” at the same time. In fact, as I detail in my book The Third Secret of Fatima and the Synodal Church, a small but growing number of experts now believe Benedict’s renunciation was invalid.
In Last Testament: In His Own Words, Benedict was asked by Peter Seewald, whether a “slowdown in the ability to perform [was] reason enough to climb down from the chair of Peter.”
Benedict gave a puzzling reply: “One can of course make that accusation, but it would be a functional misunderstanding. The follower of Peter is not merely bound to a function; the office enters into your very being. In this regard, fulfilling a function is not the only criterion.”[1]
He added: “…a father does not stop being a father, but he is relieved of concrete responsibility. He remains a father in a deep, inward sense, in a particular relationship which has responsibility, but not with day-to-day tasks as such…If he steps down, he remains in an inner sense within the responsibility he took on, but not in the function.”
It appears that Benedict believed that when he became Pope in 2005, he received a sacramental munus—not simply a juridical office—but a munus to teach, sanctify, and govern, as Vatican II teaches each bishop receives when sacramentally consecrated. A bishop does not lose these munera when he becomes bishop emeritus. And for Ratzinger, neither does a Pope when he becomes “pope emeritus.”
WATCH: Is Pope Francis Really the Pope? LifeSiteNews Responds
According to Cardinal Peter Erdo:
…as in the [Second Vatican] Council, even in the new Code [of Canon Law] ‘munus’…not infrequently also…[has] a special, theological meaning of the three munera [gifts] of Christ (can. 204 § 1) and of the Church…passages in which the legislator speaks of the “munus” of Peter (can. 331) or the Roman Pontiff (can. 332 § 2, 333 §§ 1-2, 334) are connected with this sense [of gift]. [2]
In his February 11th Declaratio, Benedict mentioned the Petrine munus, but never renounced it.
Contrary to Ratzinger and Erdo, however, pre-Vatican II Cardinal Billot explains that a proper papal resignation means there is no gift or munus—nothing of “Pope-ness” remaining:
there is absolutely no doubt that pontifical power in the line of Peter can come to an end …just as this person first began to be legitimate when he accepted his election as Supreme Pontiff, so he ceases to be as soon as by resignation he destroys the effect of the election in himself…it plainly follows from the very fact of abdication that he is free of the pontificate. [3]
According to Professor Carlo Fantappiè, the discrepancy of views between Seewald and Ratzinger arises from two rival conceptions of the papacy: “Against the prevailing juridical consideration of the canonists, who placed the power of jurisdiction at the center of the papal figure, as the origin of all the others in the Church, the conciliar theologians [like Ratzinger] have countered with the primariness of the sacramental dimension of the episcopate, from which derive the other specific functions of the bishop of Rome.”[4]
For centuries, the papacy was understood as an office with supreme legal powers over the Church. Yet, for the gravest of reasons, the office could be relinquished. Conciliar theologians, however, argue that since the Pope is, after all, the bishop of Rome, his office is not merely juridical, but sacramental. And sacramental power cannot be rescinded. A view which Fantappiè argues, when applied “to the Petrine ministry…makes the primacy a sort of personal charism, giving rise to inconsistencies or misunderstandings, such as the coexistence of two [actual] popes, even if one reigning and one emeritus.”
It matters whether or not Seewald and the canonical tradition have the correct account of the papal office or whether Benedict and the new theologians do. According to Canon 126 of the Code of Canon Law: “An act placed out of ignorance or out of error concerning something which constitutes its substance…is invalid.” If Benedict believed he could resign administrative duties, but nevertheless, remain papal, then according to the canonists his resignation was invalid. Thus, the conclave that elected Francis would likewise be invalid, as I cover in my upcoming series: Conclave/Antipope.
READ: Prominent Catholic theologian: Francis may no longer be regarded as legitimate due to heresy
ENDNOTES
Dr. Edmund J. Mazza is a former Full Professor of History at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles. For 14 years he taught Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance and Reformation History. Mazza is the author of The Scholastics and the Jews: Coexistence, Conversion and the Medieval Origins of Tolerance published by Angelico Press.
Ping
I hope to never go to the race track with you. You sure can pick the winners?!?!?
https://www.gofundme.com/f/ed-mazza-lost-his-job
A fool and his money are soon parted. Ride the horse/schismatic that brought you.
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While twentieth-century popes like John XXIII and Paul VI were thought to be homosexual, neither of them was ever accused of preying on seminarians as Francis has been accused of doing. The fact that Francis dismissed Viganò’s accusation of covering up for McCarrick with the publication of the whitewashed McCarrick Report, it came as no surprise that he refused to deny Viganò’s allegations about his sexual involvement with novices. Francis’ appointment of his homosexually promiscuous friend, Monsignor Battista Ricca, to be in charge of his papal residence; his failure to laicize over 150 bishops credibly accused of abusing minors and vulnerable adults; as well as his alleged lifting of the excommunication of Father Marko Rupnik who is accused of raping some 25 nuns, lead some to believe that Francis cannot discipline and punish clerics for the same behavior he himself is guilty of doing.
Even if he was correct, the remedy would be for a conclave to be called and elect another pope. And with he current makeup of the College of Cardinals, is there any doubt that they would almost certainly elect Bergoglio sas pope—if not someone even worse?
Maybe, a Rocket Theologian?
If Bergoglio is determined to be an invalid pope, all his appointments to the College of Cardinals would be invalid.
Only a creep would mock the unemployed.
Thanks for again showing your true colors, oystir.
This one makes me laugh. All hail the King of comedy. Ebby, the King of posting unreliable sources, queer/disruptive/schismatic websites with even queerer cartoons, or not titling the authors correctly, i.e., excommunicated authors/sources. This unemployed, fellow traveler fits your bill. Your fake/made-up outrage is YOUR true colors.
I certainly didn’t mock this unemployed author, either. In fact, quite the opposite. His “go fund me” credentials are listed. Go $$ chip $$ in. And check all your schismatic sources - they aren’t reliable people (by definition.)
Have you and Jimmy Martin decided on your next vacation?
Is in Sandals or Hedonism 2?
Pope Francis welcomes transgender activist ‘hermit’ ‘Brother Christian Matson’ at Vatican audience
Pope Francis warmly received Nicole Matson, a transgender activist living as a ‘diocesan hermit’ named ‘Brother Christian Matson,’ at a Vatican audience, despite Matson having undergone ‘sex change’ surgery and presenting herself as a man in violation of Catholic teaching.
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