The “party” that Ratzinger also referred to abusively threatens to make the church too unstable. And there is a risk that the “American Front” will move against Pope Francis
To dwell on the São Paulo katéchon is perhaps an exaggeration given the eschatological and apocalyptic resonances associated with the mysterious figure of “the restrained one”.
But of course Benedict XVI. portrayed a “crucial element of stabilization and detente” in recent years as Pope Emeritus is reflected in those in the Vatican who knew him very well. “Especially on the front lines of those who have been more or less abusively inspired by him and are opposed to Francis, the death of Joseph Ratzinger could have two opposite effects. Or continue to pacify, which is also unlikely. Or, more likely, to cause great instability in the Vatican as in the universal Church.”
Benedict XVI from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery was exemplary of what was once called “Sensus Ecclesiae” when it was more widespread. The Pope is the Pope, it is not possible for a Catholic to choose as a reference the one who comes closest to your ideas. A lesson that Ratzinger taught immediately, on February 28, 2013, addressing the Cardinals a few hours before his resignation from the pontificate took effect, without being able to know who his successor would be: «Among you, in the College of Cardinals, he is also the future Pope, to whom I promise today my unconditional homage and obedience”. He repeated the same words to Francis when the new pope called him to Castel Gandolfo on the evening of his election.
Thus, for almost ten years, Ratzinger’s words held back the most obvious centrifugal thrusts through his writings or the confidants entrusted to the biographer Peter Seewald. And it’s not just the extreme wing, the “Sedevakantists” or various conspiracy theorists who have never forgiven his renunciation or have imagined that it was invalid and that Benedetto was forced by who knows what powers: “It’s all nonsense. Nobody tried to blackmail me. I wouldn’t even have allowed it, »explained the emeritus.
Discontent has grown over the years, making the United States the epicenter of opposition.
For some time there has been talk of the “schism” of the anti-Bergoglio, money- and network-rich US Catholic right that has been hovering like a specter for years, a threat to which Pope Francis had already responded calmly but dryly, speaking to in 2019 Journalists: “I pray that there is no schism, but I am not afraid: there have been many schisms in the Church…”.
However, the landscape is varied. There is the most extreme and flamboyant part, represented by former nuncio to New York Carlo Maria Viganò, a now-retired archbishop who called for Francis’ resignation in 2018 and has since accused him, among other things, of “standing on the side”. the enemy”, that is Satan, and lead with a “false magisterium” a church that wants to be a “spiritual arm of the New World Order and champion of the universal religion” in order to concretise “the plan of Freemasonry and its preparation” for the arrival of the “Antichrist”. There’s the ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, formerly a friend and then at odds with Steve Bannon, the leader of the explicit opponents. And then there’s the less explicit but more insidious resistance: In November, the US bishops elected majority to the new President Timothy P. Broglio, a military ordinarius and former secretary to then-Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, a candidate who was well known to Francis.
Those who never digested Bergoglio’s pontificate are getting organized, it’s no secret that they are already thinking about the next conclave. The point of reference for the more conservative wing in the Vatican is the 77-year-old Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah.
At the other end is the other dreaded “schism”, the “progressive” referring to Germany and the Synod of the German Church, with discussions about the female priesthood, the possibility of blessing homosexual couples, the revision of the celibate compulsory priesthood (“for some priests would be better off if they were married”, remarked the German Cardinal Reinhard Marx), in short, a series of issues that were discussed especially among the faithful of Northern Europe.
In between, between Spain, France and even Italy, the dissatisfaction of silent episcopates that have not yet arisen. Francis knows all this. The synod that will meet in October 2023 is approaching, it is no coincidence that they wanted to extend the time and foresee a second part in 2024 to calm the growing tensions. The Pope wants the Church to reflect on itself and find new ways of speaking to the world without barricades or leaps forward, even speaking of ideological “backwards trend” and “progressivism” as “evidence of disloyalty”.
January 3, 2023 (change January 3, 2023 | 07:11)
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