By Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Sandro Magister has at last spilled the beans — as we say in English — that is, he has told us what really happened during the recent Book Flap over the defense of the Priestly Celibacy by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah, the only Cardinal in any position in the Roman Curia, who was appointed to his office by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Main Stream Media has run with the story that it was Bergoglio who fired Archbishop Georg Gänswein for not preventing that Book from going to press and obstructing its publication as a work of the the Cardinal and the Pope.

But Magister, apologist extraordinaire for the Argentine Regime at the Vatican, in a report on his official Blog at L’Espresso, says what really happened. In a post entitled, Il silenzio di Francesco, le lacrime di Ratzinger e quella sua dichiarazione mai pubblicata – in which he speaks in a noticeable intent to humiliate the reigning Pontiff by calling him by his civil name — he says that it was Benedict who first detected Gänswein’s treachery and took decisive action to circumvent his interference.

Magister, writing in Italian says:

Ebbene, la mattina di mercoledì 15 gennaio, mentre papa Francesco stava tenendo la sua udienza generale settimanale e Gänswein sedeva come di regola al suo fianco nell’aula Paolo VI, lontano quindi dal monastero Mater Ecclesiae che è la residenza del papa emerito di cui egli è segretario, Benedetto XVI alzò di persona il telefono e chiamò Sarah prima a casa, dove non lo trovò, e poi in ufficio, dove il cardinale rispose.

Benedetto XVI espresse, accorato, a Sarah la sua solidarietà. Gli confidò di non riuscire a comprendere le ragioni di un’aggressione così violenta e ingiusta. E pianse. Anche Sarah pianse. La telefonata si chiuse con entrambi in lacrime.

My English translation:

Well, the morning of Wednesday, January 15th, while pope Francis was holding his weekly general audience and Gänswein was sitting, according to the rule, at his side in the Paul VI Hall, far indeed from the Monastery Mater Ecclesiae which is the residence of the Pope Emeritus, of whom he is the secretary, Benedict XVI personally picked up the phone and called Sara first at his home, where he did not find him, and then in his office, where the Cardinal picked up.

Benedict XVI expressed, in a heartfelt manner, his solidarity with Sarah. He confided in him that he had not understood the reasons for such a violent and unjust aggression.  And he wept. Sarah also wept. The phone call ended with both of them in tears.

Magister also reports that Cardinal Sarah and Pope Benedict then wrote up a joint Statement and had Gänswein bring it over to the sostituto of the Secretary of State, Edgar Peña Parra — the very man whom the Italian State Police say they speak with when they are asked by Italian citizens why they are being treated so bruskly by them on Vatican soil or in Vatican extra-territorial zones here at Rome.

I know this, because in October, while I attended the Proud to be Italian rally organized by Matteo Salvini and the heads of all the opposition Parties in Italy, I was accosted by the Italian State police for the “crime” of having attached a banner in support of Pope Benedict to a Fence demarking the beginning of Vatican Extraterritorial zone at the Scala Santa. Here is an image of one of the banners.

They told me to take it down because it violated Italian Law. I said it cannot be violating Italian law because it is on Vatican Territory. Fluxed, they called the Secretary of State at the Vatican, and then returned and put me on the phone with the sostituto, whose name I did not catch at the moment. This evidently was Edgar. He told me I should not display such a banner at the Rally, because the Rally had nothing to do with the Catholic Faith. I told him that I do an apostolate in public among persons of all kinds. He told me to take it down or else. I asked his name and he refused to give it to me. He insisted.

I understood I would be arrested. So I had my volunteers, all supporters of Pope Benedict, take it down and we mounted upon tall poles provided to us by Forza Italia, the party of Burlesconi. That way even more persons saw them! One of the men who was there the day I was told to take the banners down was in the Piazza S. Pietro on Tuesday morning, when I was led away by the police. Strange coincidence, no?

Thus it is not surprising in the least that the communication written by the Pope and Cardinal never saw the light of day. But Magister says, that the Italian Version of the Book, was defended by the Publisher a few days later, with a public statement crafted by Cardinal Parolin himself, word for word, praising the book.

My observations

The news about Edgar Peña Parra does not surprise me. It was reported at ChiesaRomana.Info in December, that a local priest said in public that Edgar authorizes excommunications over the telephone — a thing which he has no authority to do in any law. That the Archbishop brought the message to him and not to Parolin is already significant, since as Head of the Pontifical Household he should not suffer to speak with anyone but the Secretary of State.

But the real news is this. Pope Benedict XVI is as fiesty as ever. He had no illusions about the Archbishop which would have made him hesitant to break faith with him and make his own phone call behind the Archbishop’s back. He then began direct relations with Cardinal Sarah and was devastated to hear how his former personal secretary had betrayed him in the public press.

The second important fact is that it appears that Parolin is willing to take Benedict’s side, because it is really beneath a Secretary of State’s duties to write a communique for a private publisher of a pope emeritus’ books, but not so, if the author is the Successor of Saint Peter in truth.

The events related by Magister point to a significant moment in history. That was when Pope Benedict XVI unplugged Gänswein. The Italians call it, defenistrazione, which is a colorful word deriving from Late Latin, meaning to throw someone out of their office through the window, rather than letting them resign with dignity by leaving the office through the door after a resignation.

That is really why the Archbishop disappeared. Bergoglio could not fire him. Only the Pope can do that.

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Let us continue to pray for Pope Benedict, by joining the League of Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI, that his strength and resolve grow more and more daily and that he take up the reigns of the Petrine Munus which he still retains to this day.

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CREDITS: The Featured Image is an excerpt of a video feed showing Pope Benedict leaving the Vatican on Feb. 28, 2013, as Pope. It is used here for editorial commentary, in that Benedict’s gesture of leaving the Vatican as Pope and not as Cardinal Ratzinger was a prophetic sign that he had not given up the fight, but that victory in the end would be his.

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