Simple Waiver Questions. Perhaps the Holy Spirit was not wrong…: STILUM CURIAE

Dear StilumCuriali, Americo Mascarucci, whom we sincerely thank, offers to your attention these reflections on the resignation made by Benedict XVI, and on the fact that perhaps the Holy Spirit was not wrong…enjoy reading.

Down-to-earth questions about Benedict’s resignation

I am following with interest the debate on Stilum Curiae, in relation to the question of the resignation of Benedict XVI. I’m not a canonist, I’ve always written and reiterated it, so I won’t go into the merits of the disputes relating to the munus and the ministerium; I leave that to the experts.

My considerations are, shall we say, much more “down to earth” and linked to less canonical and more practical reasons. And so, although I have never disparaged the work of my colleague Andrea Cionci whom I respect and consider a capable investigative journalist, I have often asked myself questions.

• If there really is the possibility that Benedict’s resignation will be invalid and Bergoglio’s election void, how come no one within the Church has ever felt the need to see clearly? I am referring in particular to the many cardinals who in recent years have taken very critical positions towards the Bergoglian pontificate and in some cases have even gone so far as to denounce the risk of heresy behind certain pronouncements of the reigning pontiff. What need was there to advance “Dubia” or precisely denounce the risk of heretical tendencies when it would have been enough to raise the issue of the invalidity of Ratzinger’s resignation in order to be able to neutralize Bergoglio? It would have been enough to say: “Gentlemen, turn this thesis around, Benedict’s resignation may not be valid, the election of Pope Francis is invalid, do we want to see clearly? Shall we open an investigation? Do we want to set up a theological commission to shed light on the matter?”. Or again: none of these cardinals, despite having easy access to Benedict having been largely created by him, has ever felt the need to go to the source and ask: “Holy father, for the good of the Church, tell us how the what’s this”. They could have done so on the occasion of Amoris Laetitia, the Synod on the Family, the even more contested one on the Amazon, after the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes, all situations in which conservative cardinals express very harsh criticisms of the pontiff’s work. Why have they never taken into consideration the thesis of invalid resignations? Out of fear? About what? To be all excommunicated? But it is one thing to excommunicate Don Alessandro Minutella, another to excommunicate the cardinals who ask for clarity on such a disruptive fact for the future of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, isn’t it legitimate to think that these cardinals have never taken the matter into consideration, simply because they know very well how not to stand?
• Benedict is said to have made this move to save the Church and schism the modernist current, giving it the illusion of having conquered the government of the Church. Very well, but can we really believe that Ratzinger didn’t think about the faithful? Did he let millions of Catholics around the world be deceived by a false pope, receiving invalid sacraments? The answer is that Pope Benedict spoke in code warning the faithful. This too is very good, but is it possible that Ratzinger suddenly thought that all the Catholics of the world had suddenly become theological experts and therefore able to understand his encrypted messages? And those who have not understood them, not in bad faith but because they do not have the right competence or historical, theological and doctrinal preparation, are they all doomed to hell? Would the great Benedict XVI really have studied such a complicated and incomprehensible way in the eyes of the vast majority of Catholics to save the Church?
• It is said that Benedict in this way would have saved the true Church from the false Church. Now, with all due respect and no offense to anyone, can we really believe that Pope Benedict could have identified the true Church in priests like Don Minutella, Don Roncaglia, the mystics of the heavenly chapels? What’s more, they wage war on each other to the sound of mutual excommunications? Can we really think that the salvation of the Church can dwell in those who follow both? Or perhaps the time has come to stop associating Benedict XVI with characters that, always without offense to anyone, the Pope Emeritus has never even taken into consideration?
• Father Georg’s revelations contained in his book speak for themselves and show that Ratzinger has always considered Bergoglio his legitimate successor. It is true, as Tosatti himself confirmed in the interview I had the pleasure of giving him, that Ratzinger’s private secretary contradicted himself with respect to previous statements, but if what Ratzinger would say in code is credible, why shouldn’t it be the same when reports that there has always been only one pope and his name is Francis? How come in the space of a few days Father Georg went from being Pope Benedict’s most faithful servant in issuing messages in Ratzinger code, to becoming an unreliable person or only interested in his own personal gain?
• Last consideration: when Benedict decided to invalidly renounce the pontificate, did he do so having the glass ball and already knowing what would happen in the conclave? Did an angel from heaven appear to him announcing that the pope would be Bergoglio? What if, as everyone assumed, Angelo Scola had been elected? What would Benedict have done at that point? Since he was a cardinal he liked, would he have corrected the Declaratio making it valid?

Perhaps it is appropriate to recognize with great intellectual honesty that, like it or not, the pope is Francis and that his election was by no means an error of the Holy Spirit. Or perhaps it was the election of John XXIII and Paul VI, the popes of the Council from which all the problems of the Church began? But then John Paul II and Benedict XVI arrived and this does not mean that after this decidedly controversial pontificate a great pontiff like the previous ones cannot arrive. Just trust in the Lord and pray. Perhaps one day we will also understand why we have had a pope like Bergoglio.

Americo Mascarucci 

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Domande Semplici sulla Rinuncia. Forse lo Spirito Santo non si è Sbagliato… : STILUM CURIAE