Commentary on the News by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

Recently, the noted Italian journalist, Andrea Cionci, at a Conference in Namur, Belgium, on Nov. 23, 2024, stated that he has sources which say that Pope Francis has decided to resign the Papacy in January of 2025.

Pope Francis has repeatedly, however, insisted that he would not resign.

Luis Badilla reported on Aug. 24, 2021, for example, that Pope Francis has no intention of resigning for reasons of bad health.

On Dec. 13, 2023, when he declared that he has no intention of resigning, as Vatican News reported.

On January 14, 2024, when during an interview he declared he has no intention of resigning, as reported by Crux Magazine.

On March 19, 2024, when it was reported that he had “put rumours of his resignation” to rest, by the BBC.

Were all these denials a case of “thou doest protest too much!”?

Perhaps, because in October of 2024, Pope Francis said something different, when Aleteia, which works closely with the CIA disinformation program, reported that in his new Biography — which was intended to be published after his death — it will be revealed in January that he has stated that he is willing to resign if his health problems become intractable.

Is this a case of confounding the date of the books publication with the supposed date of the resignation?

Perhaps.

But it is clear that Pope Francis’ heath is deteriorating more rapidly, and that his recent appointment of Cardinals was intended as a desperate opposition to the kick-back he got on his heretical ‘Fiducia supplicans’, last year at this time. Normally a pope names cardinals only every two years, but in both 2023 and 2024 he has named Cardinals.

And this means that he himself knows his time is short. And so perhaps there is some truth in it that he will resign in January.

One can guess that the Cardinals, looking at the declining balance sheets at the Vatican, would surly counsel him to resign, because if he did so, the Jubilee year would be a success, with all the pilgrims having an additional reason to come to Rome: to see his successor.

However, many who have analyzed Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s psychology have stated that he would never give up being the center of attention.

And indeed, noted reporters have been very wrong on such topics in the past, as when Caterina Maniaci, on the same day as Luis Badilla’s report cited above, said that Pope Francis was about to pass a new law suggesting Popes to retire at 80 or 85 years of age. A thing which never happened.

As I observed years ago, a Papal Abdication by Pope Francis is politically impossible. Because in renouncing he will either posit another fake renunciation, like his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, to hide the fact that his own election was canonically invalid, or he has to posit a valid renunciation, the text of which will prove Benedict XVI never resigned validly.  So he is entangled in the Trap of Pope Benedict XVI — a trap which is objectively there, even if you deny Pope Benedict XVI intentionally placed it to capture his godless rival.

See my recent article on the 5 Ways the next Conclave may be invalid and give us another antipope, for more about the canonical issues involved.