+ + +
Commentary by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
On May 5 of this year, Andrea Cionci published the text of the alleged letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Peter Seewald, his appointed biographer, regarding his motives for resigning the Petrine ministry. The letter lacks the final page with the signature and final salutation, so by no means is this letter to be taken as authentic. That it is authentic is based solely on the claim of Peter Seewald, as far as I know.
The letter, written as if from Pope Benedict XVI, says basically that since he fell and hit his head, during his trip to Cuba, in 2012, his doctors advised him to resign from the papacy, since they knew no other cure for the constant insomnia which he had suffered since his election.
The patent absurdity of such a letter is obvious.
First, because chronic insomnia, though constant, is no necessary reason to resign the ministry or renounce the papacy, as there exists in Canon Law the concept of delegated authority. Thus, a pope who can only manage a few hours of activity each day, can assign to others to act in his name during the other hours. He can also set his own schedule and decide to attend or not attend this or that event, or go on this or that trip.
Thus there is no possibility of a legal necessity or moral necessity to resign or abdicate.
However, if the letter is authentic many questions arise. Some of which are as follows:
First, what was contained on the last page? Why was this page not published?
Second, if the elderly Roman Pontiff has such a long-standing medical problem, why is it that none of his staff has intervened to convince him to find some scheduling solution, or find such medical experts world-wide capable of some remedy, from natural cures, such as Turkey Stew & Cabbage, to any sort of remedy based on expert medical observation and examinations and tests?
Third, even if the Holy Father did write this letter, in which he says once again, like at all other times, that he intended to renounce the ministry because he could no longer exercise the office, it only confirms that his intention to resign was not an intention to abdicate, and that, therefore, he remained the Roman Pontiff to full effect until Dec. 31, 2022.
Finally, the dating of this letter, just two months before his death, which death occurred just 2 weeks after the Vatican and the City of Rome pushed a 4th booster DeathVaxx campaign for elderly people in the environs of the Vatican, certainly causes one to suspect that this text was produced or extracted as some sort of part of a plot to silence him forever, just at the moment in history when belief in his remaining the pope was becoming wildly popular in Italy.
Traduction française :
LETTRE DU PAPE BENOÎT XVI À SEEWALD, 28 OCTOBRE 2022 – POURQUOI J’AI DÛ DÉMISSIONNER DU MINISTÈRE
https://www.homelie.biz/2024/05/lettre-du-pape-benoit-xvi-a-seewald-28-octobre-2022-pourquoi-j-ai-du-demissionner-du-ministere.html
“It is clear, in this reading, why Benedict could not have managed another trip abroad: it would have been too risky. It would also explain the strict confidentiality of the letter sent to Seewald. Therefore, with high probability, at the center of Pope Benedict’s resignation, the central reason would indeed have been insomnia – but not as a simple annoyance in itself, but rather as a weak point of his around which something much more worrying occurred: a real attack, or a simple “warning” that was enough to make him understand that the time had come to leave the scene. So in order to defend the Church, he got out of the way, but without abdicating, instead applying the anti-usurpation device of the impeded see.”
This is Cionci’s reading based on my article,
https://www.fromrome.info/2020/01/12/benedicts-end-game-is-to-save-the-church-from-freemasonry/
However, the hypothesis of an end game is not necessary, as on account of his weakened state, and presumption to write in Latin, he could have simply made an error which no one around him or himself, was intelligent or upright enough to see and point out.