Summary and Commentary by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

José Alberto Villasana Munguía is one of the first journalists in the world, to discuss the facts that Benedict XVI never abdicated. In his article, from yesterday, he explains how Pope Benedict XVI defended the papacy by turning off his Petrine Ministry and declaring an impeded see.

Here is an English Translation of the Article — My commentary will follow after it:

Benedict XVI is the last Pope of this era of the Church. When he dies, a group of bishops faithful to him (and to the Gospel, the authentic Magisterium and Tradition), will choose a successor among themselves, perhaps from the Orthodox churches, without the need to resort to the conclave of invalid cardinals appointed by Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

In a surprising twist, on October 6, 2022, the Holy Father Benedict XVI let it be known, in an enigmatic message, that the Apostolic See is impeded. That is to say, there is no valid Pope in it due to an obstruction.

The occasion was the personal message that he sent to the Fellows gathered by the Pope Benedict XVI Foundation for the presentation of a book by Piergiorgio Odifreddi, entitled “In cammino alla ricerca della Verità. Lettere e colloqui con Benedetto XVI” (Rizzoli, 2022; Spanish translation: “On the way to the search for Truth. Letters and Colloquiums with Benedict XVI”).

Pope Benedict XVI asked Archbishop Georg Gänswein, his personal secretary, to be dressed as a priest, not as an Archbishop, and without the pectoral cross. Pope Benedict told him: “Don’t make an official greeting, greet them personally on my behalf and tell everyone that I have not deserved this illustrious list of presenters.” Archbishop Gänswein told him: “Holy Father, if I say this you will not believe me, but I will obey.” Pope Benedict continued: “You either believe or you don’t believe, if you don’t believe, read, either Jeremiah or Isaiah. I will not say in which verse or in which chapter, but there is the answer.”

After reading both major prophets one understands the situation to which the Pope was referring, which is in Jeremiah 36, 5 where it reads: Then Jeremiah ordered Baruc: “I AM IMPEDED and I cannot enter the temple of the Lord. You, then, will go to read, the roll that you have written under my dictation.”

Indeed, Jeremiah could not enter Jerusalem to read in the temple to the scribes and Pharisees what God had dictated to him, since he was imprisoned by the king. Therefore he sends his secretary Baruch to read the parchment with the message of God.

For Pope Benedict, Jeremiah was the katejon (obstacle, retainer, of the apostasy of the Holy City of Jerusalem in the Old Testament). Thus, when referring to Jeremiah and Baruch, in his message delivered by the archbishop, Benedict XVI definitively declares himself the defender of the faith but is prevented from proclaiming the message.

This is very important because the illegality of the “resignation of Pope BXVI” and the transgressions of the Universi Dominici Gregis Constitution, which in 2013 produced an antipope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, led some canonists to speak of a “vacant” See (that is, , Headless Church), as has already happened several times in history. In reality, what Pope Benedict XVI is telling us now is that we are, rather, not before a vacant See, but before an impeded See or, to be more precise, a self-impeded See because an external situation forced him to abandon the active exercise of the Petrine ministry.

For this reason, he clearly established in the Decree of his Resignation, on February 27, 2013, that he was not renouncing the Petrine ministry, the position of being the Vicar of Christ and successor of Saint Peter, but only the active ministry of the Bishop of Rome. There cannot be two Popes with the munus petrinus.

In addition, it is evident that the vacant See does not occur, since the Code of Canon Law No. 412 indicates that it only exists when a bishop suffers “captivity, relegation, exile or incapacity”. None of these causes were those that forced BXVI to self-exile. On the other hand, in a personal letter sent to Cardinal Brandmuller, Pope BXVI accepts that the status of Pope “Emeritus” does not exist in Canon Law: according to previous Papal Decrees he should have become cardinal again (as in the case of the resignation of Pope Gregory XII who once again became Cardinal Angelo Correr, or the resignation of Pope Celestine V, who once again became the monk Pietro Murone).

He says that the status of “Emeritus” was invented and did not observe what is established in the decrees that establish how resignation should be, putting aside all papal prerogatives (continuing to be dressed in white, calling himself Pope, with the nickname His Holiness, with the name Benedict XVI, with the fisherman’s ring and remaining in the Vatican) “as the only way to keep myself absolutely inaccessible to the media.” When the Holy Father Benedict XVI dies, then there will be a vacancy, and the Church will not But, since Bergoglio is an antipope “without any power” (according to No. 76 of the aforementioned Constitution), all the cardinals appointed by him are also invalid (there is no longer two thirds plus one to elect a Pope valid), and a small group of bishops faithful to Pope Benedict XVI, to the Gospel, to Tradition and to the authentic Magisterium will have to elect a true Pope, a successor to Benedict XVI, in order to put an end to what at that time was I know vacancies. There will no longer be another conclave as we now know it.

In themselves, as we see in the history of the Church, cardinals are not necessary for an election. The figure of cardinal was created in the fourth century so that the bishops and priests who lived in Rome would help the Pope in his different tasks. But at the beginning of Christianity they were not the “electors”. It was enough for a group of bishops to meet, even sometimes just a triumvirate of an archbishop, a bishop and a priest of doctrinal and moral prestige, and among those three they elected the Pope.

And during the two thousand years of the Church various Popes have been elected without the consensus of all the bishops or cardinals. The case of Pope Honorius II stands out. He surrounded himself with a group of eight bishops of doctrinal and moral prestige whom he appointed electors. When Honorius passed away, the bishops chose Innocent II. The opposing faction, which was the majority, chose Cardinal Pierleoni as Anacleto II, who turned out to be, despite that, an antipope. The schism required several years to resolve.

Finally, we have to illuminate this situation with the case of Saint Athanasius. The vast majority currently consider Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a valid Pope, they pray for him at Mass, although few read him. But faith is not a matter of statistics, numbers or a democratic majority. At the beginning of the fourth century, practically all the bishops, including the Pope, had fallen into the Arian heresy that supported the idea of a very elevated Christ assumed by God, but not true God. Only Saint Athanasius held otherwise, for which he was rejected, tortured, imprisoned, and exiled. But thanks to him, thanks to a single bishop, the faith of the Church was saved, which was finally accepted at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

Today the same thing happens with Pope Benedict XVI.

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COMMENTARY

Because Villasana is such an important journalist in Mexico, and because this article contains a number of errors, I consider it necessary to respond with a commentary.

First, the Latin word, “munus”, is neuter, and thus the correct phrase is “munus petrinum” not “munus petrinus”. (cf. “munus” here in the Persus Latin Dictionary).

Second, before the death of Honorius II, Pope Honorius promulgated a special constitution, reserving the election of his successor to a committee of bishops. This was a special law which ceased to have any force immediately after the election of his successor. Thus it established no precedent and cannot be invoked for the election of Benedict XVI’s successor.

However, hypothetically, it could be — and I have some indication that may be the case — that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has arranged that his successor be elected by a specially select committee. But until this is made known, it is pure speculation, though it could be done by the same or similar means that Honorius II did it. But if he does not, then not. In any case, no one should presume that the Holy Father will die before the anti-pope, or that no Cardinal Elector will return to him.

Third, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI did not resign on Feb. 27, 2013. He did announce that he was to resign the ministry on Feb. 28, however. But on that date he did not. Though from that day onward he has effectively, that is, de facto, stopped exercising his petrine ministry, at least publicly.

I have explained why, here.

Finally, fourth, during the Arian crisis the Holy Father did not become an Arian, though at the Council of Sirmium, one pope was forcibly required to sign a semi-arian creed, which he promptly, upon release, repudiated.