BXVI´s resignation was invalid



There was a remarkable talk given last weekend by Roberto de Mattei, titled “Tu es Petrus: true devotion to the Chair of St. Peter,” and was posted at Rorate HERE.

Please consider clicking the link and reading all of it. At times, it is flowing with rational, linear thought. At other times, it is maddeningly inconsistent. He starts off by establishing a seemingly unambiguous premise:
“The primacy of Peter constitutes the bedrock on which Jesus Christ instituted His Church, and on which She will remain solid until the end of time. The promise of the Church’s victory, however, is also the announcement of a war. A war, which, until the end of time, will be waged by hell against the Church. At the center of this fierce war is the Papacy. The enemies of the Church, throughout the course of history, have always sought to destroy the Primacy of Peter, because they have understood that it comprises the visible foundation of the Mystical Body. The visible foundation, because the Church has a primary and invisible foundation which is Jesus Christ, of Whom, Peter is the Vicar.
 
True devotion to the Chair of Peter is, under this aspect, devotion to the visibility of the Church, and constitutes, as Father Faber observers, an essential part of the Christian spiritual life.”
“Visibility of the Church” — keep this theme in mind. It’s not a false premise, but he will come to apply it in a false setting. I urge you again to read the whole thing. After 2500 words or so, revisiting the forces behind Vatican I, Vatican II, attacks against the papacy, the errors of papalotry, etc, all of a sudden we are hit with this bomb:

“Is a Papal Diararchy Possible?”

Remember, a papal diararchy was exactly what Pope Benedict attempted in his failed partial abdication. De Mattei, although a vocal critic of Bergoglio and the “new paradigm” for several years now, to my knowledge has never before broached this subject publicly. Given his stature, simply posing the question implies there is widespread discussion happening in the background. Some may be tempted to ask, well, Benedict is super smart, so maybe he was right and this is the kind of papal structure we need in the modern world. So… what says de Mattei?
“Papalotry does not exist in an abstract sense: today, for example, we need to speak in a more precise way of Francisolatry, but also of Benedictolotry, as Miguel Ángel Yáñez observed well, on Adelante la fé [10]. This papalotry can come to counterpoising Pope against Pope: the followers, for example, of Pope Francis against those of Pope Benedict, but also of looking for harmony and coexistence among the two Popes, imagining a possible division of their roles. What took place on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, was significant and unsettling. All of the media’s attention was focused on the case of a letter of Benedict XVI to Pope Francis: a letter, which turned out to be manipulated and caused the resignation of the head of Vatican communications, Monsignor Dario Viganò. The discussion, revealed however, the existence of a false premise, accepted by all: the existence of a sort of papal diararchy, of which there’s Pope Francis who carries out its functions, and then there’s another Pope, Benedict, who serves the Chair of Peter through prayer, and if necessary, with counsel. The existence of the two Popes is admitted as a done deal: only the nature of their relationship is argued. But the truth is that it is impossible that two Popes can exist. The Papacy is not dismountable: there can be only one Vicar of Christ.”
A papal diarchy is “accepted by all”? I’m not sure what he could mean here, because as far as I know, Benedict and Ganswein are the only two people who think a diarchy exists. But he’s quite right in the conclusion that no such thing does exist, nor can it exist. Here is how I laid it out in a post two years ago on the same topic:

“Let’s talk about Immutability. The Petrine office was instituted by God, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, who is perfect. Not only is He perfect, He also exists outside of time, because it was He who created time. John 1:1-3. Time is a construct, just like all other created things. Being as He is co-eternal with God the Father, He exists both before the beginning of time as well as after the end of time, plus everything in between, AND… it is all happening at once (for God). All of eternity exists for Him in the same instant. Without the construct of time, change is impossible. If this seems to be putting a limit on God’s omnipotence, it does not, because a) in His omnipotence, He could have designed it any way He wanted, b) He designed it this way because that is His will, and c) HE’S PERFECT. Applying all this to the situation at hand, we can see plainly that Jesus Christ, who is immutable and perfect, most certainly did NOT institute an imperfect, defective, ‘version 1.0’ of the papacy, not yet beta tested. 
And he most certainly did NOT, 2000 years later, send the Third Person of the Holy Trinity down to Benedict in a Geek Squad van to deliver ‘version 2.0’, with bug fixes, increased compatibility, and an enhanced user interface. Furthermore, ponder the idea that a human being, even a pope, could have the authority to alter the intrinsic nature of the divinely instituted Petrine office, the Vicar of Christ, in order to make it more perfect than God made it.”
Getting back to de Mattei, the very next paragraph is a show stopper:
“Benedict XVI had the ability to renounce the papacy, but consequently, would have had to give up the name of Benedict XVI, dressing in white, and the title of Pope emeritus: in a word, he would have had to definitively cease from being Pope, also leaving Vatican City. Why did he not do so? Because Benedict XVI seems to be convinced of still being Pope, although a Pope who has renounced the exercise of the Petrine ministry. This conviction is born of a profoundly-erroneous ecclesiology, founded on a sacramental and not juridical conception of the Papacy. If the Petrine munus is a sacrament and not a juridical office, then it has an indelible character, but in this case it would be impossible to renounce the office. The resignation presupposes the revocability of the office, and is then irreconcilable with the sacramental vision of the Papacy.”
Look at that first sentence and break it down to its basics: “Benedict XVI had the ability to renounce the papacy, but…he would have had to definitively cease from being Pope…Why did he not do so? Because Benedict XVI seems to be convinced of still being Pope…” Isn’t this flat-out stating that the resignation did not take place?
This is huge. In this one paragraph, de Mattei exposes both a) Substantial Error as anticipated in Canon 188, aka The Barnhardt Thesis HERE and HERE, aka Benedict altogether failed to resign the papacy, because he attempted to retain a portion of it by only renouncing the juridical office of the Petrine ministry; and b) the root cause of this error, namely Benedict’s “profoundly-erroneous ecclesiology”, whereby Benedict believes it impossible to fully resign the papacy due to an imagined indelible character irrevocably conferred on all who accept the coronation. This root cause was expressly confirmed in May 2016 by his personal secretary Archbishop Ganswein, who referred to Benedict’s abdication as “quite impossible after his irrevocable acceptance of the office in April 2005.” HERE
We know where this is leading, right? Canon 188 states: “A resignation made out of grave fear that is inflicted unjustly or out of malice, substantial error, or simony is invalid by the law itself.”
A resignation made out of substantial error is invalid by the law itself.
Benedict believed he was incapable of fully resigning the papacy, because he wrongly believes the papacy itself confers an indelible character on the occupant (“irrevocable” and “forever”, in his own words). So he then attempted a partial resignation by way of bifurcating the papacy into a diarchy, with a juridical head and a spiritual head, which is impossible. This is Substantial Error, rendering the resignation invalid by the law itself.
Except de Mattei doesn’t go there. He takes a left turn. Maybe the abyss stared back. Inexplicably, he dismisses all the evidence, and appeals to Universal Acceptance as the arbiter.
“Regarding the doubts, then, about the election of Pope Francis, Professor Geraldina Boni[13], remembers that Canonists have always taught that the peaceful “universalis ecclesiae adhaesio” (universal ecclesial acceptance) is a sign and infallible effect of a valid election and legitimate papacy, and the adhesion or acceptance of Pope Francis by the people of God has not yet been doubted by any of the cardinals who participated in the Conclave. The acceptance of a Pope by the universal Church is an infallible sign of his legitimacy, and heals at the root every defect of the papal election (for example, illegal machinations, conspiracies, et cetera). This is also a consequence of visible character of the Church and of the Papacy.”
First of all, does anyone really believe there exists a “peaceful universal ecclesial acceptance” of Francis, thus infallibly signalling a valid election and legitimate papacy? The cardinals certainly aren’t helping with their deafening silence, I admit. But if fully 84% of actual Catholics over at the Saint Louis Catholic poll HERE believe Bergoglio is NOT pope, isn’t it fair to say there almost certainly is NOT peaceful universal ecclesial acceptance, even if the dissent remains hidden thus far?
Secondly, the idea of Universal Acceptance providing “dogmatic certainty” as to which man is pope DOES NOT APPLY IN THIS CASE. Stay with me. Universal acceptance only applies in cases of shenanigans during the interregnum or at a valid conclave. The idea is that, should bad actors conspire, even breaking the rules which lay out how things are supposed to work, and even if there is cheating in the ballots, those broken rules do not automatically lead to an invalid result. If the ensuing election results in universal acceptance, then we can be dogmatically certain that the elected man is truly pope and is truly in receipt of the special graces and protections to faithfully execute the office. If not for this provision, which falls under “the gates of Hell will not prevail” promise, one can only imagine how many past popes would have been illegitimate, which eventually would have led to the destruction of the Church, which is impossible.
But that’s not the reality of the current situation. The current situation is that not only the election, but also the conclave itself was invalid in its entirety. Its very convocation was invalid, because Pope Benedict’s abdication was invalid, and the See was not vacant. Therefore the conclave can be classified as a deception: Despite outward appearances, IT NEVER HAPPENED. Whether it was “willful” deception on the part of Benedict is unknown (we know his intent but not his motive). But we do know, as brilliantly laid out by Louie Verrechio, an act of deception, no matter how cleverly conceived or convincingly executed, cannot change the objective reality of a given situation. HERE
So de Mattei’s assertion, supposedly grounded in the “Visibility of the Church” mentioned earlier, doesn’t hold water. He himself lists numerous other “visible” signs pointing to the real truth: Benedict’s choice of title, his retaining the vesture, his “remaining within the enclosure of Saint Peter.” We also have the visible words of Pope Benedict in the Declaratio, in his last General Audience, and the speech from Ganswein in May, 2016.
Folks, the heart of Thomism is forcing oneself to accept what is true. Wisdom is attained by conforming the rational intellect to objective reality. This is literally the opposite of Modernism and the “new paradigm”, which seeks to conform reality to whatever the mind wants it to be. We have before us a data set that very clearly points to a singular reality, and that reality is being suppressed. It’s being suppressed by fear; fear of losing human respect, loss of title, loss of income, loss of pageviews, loss of “Likes”. SOULS ARE AT STAKE, yet those who could and should act, first among them Pope Benedict himself, but also cardinals and bishops, as well as laity in the Catholic media, PREFER TO DO NOTHING. I pray you change course and expose the truth. I pray you take action; cite Canon 188 in declaring the abdication invalid, based on the weight of the evidence. Your reward awaits you, either way.
I guess there is nothing I can do except re-present the evidence once again. Sorry if you’re a regular here. What follows is a re-post from July of last year, which itself is a follow-up to my initial declaration of moral certitude on this matter HERE. Mind you, this is not an exhaustive exposition of all the evidence. For instance, there is also Pope Benedict’s claim of “inner continuity” between two pontiffs each exercising their own distinct role within an imagined Expanded Petrine Ministry HERE.