As year seven of this bathetic di-papal disaster has dawned, the only seeming new turns of events are -though beggaring belief- that things steadily worsen as the months and years transpire. The at first unknown Argentine quickly established himself first as a liberal, then progressive, followed by revolutionary. After that, as has become plain, he spewed his heresy while displaying a deeply malevolent animus delendi for the Church herself. Now, of course, descriptors like fag, occultist fiend, and child-trafficking criminal are well within the realm of possibility.
Along the way, however, an undimmed brilliance has shone from certain minds within the Church’s bosom, which date all the way back to July 2014, the time at
which Stefano Violi’s considered opinion appeared in English. Violi, Professor of Canon Law, argued that Benedict’s resignation comprised an attempt to alter the nature of the Papacy itself. Furthermore, this Professor commented, this act was bereft of any basis in sound theology or Canon Law. Thus the reality of Benedict the bifurcator, from that point forward, gradually raised questions that not only have gone unanswered, but also are most assiduously avoided by those Catholic voices concerned with human respect and love of paycheck.
Another bright and loyal son of the Church has been Brother Alexis Bugnolo, blogging at From Rome, who from the outset has argued that the so-called conclave of 2013 was illegal per John Paul II’s Universi Dominici Gregis, now has set forth detailed Canonical basis for the objective certainty of the invalidity of Benedict’s resignation.
Canon 332.2
The duty of every Catholic, to be ready to give reason for one’s faith is a standing obligation. In order to do so, of course, the mind must be duly conformed to reason itself. Gateway’s position from its inception has been that the current state of affairs at the Church’s head is fundamentally, and prima facie, contrary to reason: common sense itself leads to the ineluctable conclusion that what we are told to believe and accept cannot possibly be the case- without doing violence to the intellect.
Common sense also leads us to the theological mooring that the Catholic Church is not only apostolic and holy, but that she is also one. The words of our adorable Savior have brought and do continue to sustain these, her sublime attributes. If the Catholic Church is one, then she can have one, and only one head. This simple fact precludes the possibility of any man’s ever possessing power to alter the Papacy from a singular office, transforming it into a thing with two heads.
Protecting this singular nature of the Papacy is the legal principle delineated in Canon 332§2 of the Code of Canon Law.
With the clear words of Brother Alexis, a Catholic can readily understand the meaning of the text as it applies to the all-too-imaginary resignation of 2013. The law requires that in order to resign, the Pope in resigning is bound by law to explicitly state his renunciation of office, or munus. Instead of resigning the munus, as the law requires, Benedict resigned the ministerium (or Petrine Ministry), which is accidental to munus, but not in fact, the office itself. Hence the invalidity of the resignation is proven by the law itself, an objective state of affairs readily recognizable by one’s faculty of reason. The law merely codifies what is easily comprehended by the intellect.
It is possible that John Paul II; by the grace of office, in spite of his Koran kissing, synagogue side trips, Assisi, and having had literal bullshit streaked across his brow; knew of the modernist desire to split the Papal office into rule by more than one, and that this Canon was written to prevent such an occurrence. Furthermore, and by similar grace of office, it is possible that the already aging Benedict XVI, completely alone in the face of communists, sodomites and no small number of crypto-Jews (all potentially homicidal), conceived of the idea to write his resignation in just such a way to protect the papacy, and the Church, at a time when paralysis caused by her internal enemies was reaching its height. Resignation of the ministerium would render all satan’s plans vis a vis Bergoglio, McCarrick, Soros and other hidden hands, all as words written in sand -effaceable with the stroke of the true Pope’s pen.
State of the Debate
With so much at stake, certainly there must be brilliant arguments confected by which Bergoglio’s claim may obtain at least the patina of legitimacy. Well, not so much. Here is a summative and just paraphrasing:
Invalidity: Benedict’s resignation is invalid by the law itself, according to Canon 332.2. Not one argument has been presented that confutes this position.
Jorgevacantists: Benevacantist!
Invalidity: Actually, the suffix vacantist, as in denying a validly elected Pope applies more to your position than mine.
Jorgevacantists: You are crazy!
Invalidity: That’s an ad hominem fallacy.
Jorgevacantists: Others have already answered all your crazy arguments!
Invalidity: Please cite one.
Jorgevacantists: I simply will not engage with you!
Invalidity: Not one argument has been presented that confutes the position that Benedict’s resignation is invalid by the law itself.
This just in:
More to come.
cognitive gateway 