Retired for “Reasons of Health” Nine Years Ago
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Someday, I hope on this side of the veil, we will learn the full, true story behind this abdication. He became Pope less than a month after I was received into the Church. His papacy seems like ancient history now.
Had he been replaced by a man of his same spiritual quality and leadership, maybe the mystery wouldn’t seem quite as confusing ?
Happy birthday and happy Easter, Pope Emeritus.
Pope Benedict XVI did one thing for which we should be most grateful: Anglicanorum Coetibus, the establishment of the constitution by which Anglicans and Episcopalians come swim the Tiber and preserve essential elements of their liturgy. That liturgy, the Ordinariate Usage, may be the savior of the Church in English speaking lands.
That was a great move Bob. Generally he ran a smart papacy. His speech about Islam was good until he backed down in the face of the furor it caused. Pope Benedict was one of our most intelligent popes and he had a yellow streak a mile wide. Intelligence with cowardice usually results in disaster, and I think that at base his resignation was a product of cowardice, probably involving some sort of blackmail. That he has gone along with the current farce of a papacy demonstrates the lengths he will go to for a quiet, safe life. Before the battle the chaplains at Lepanto preached sermons on the theme of no Heaven for cowards. Food for thought for the Pope Emeritus.
God help Clement VI and Joseph Ratzinger if assuming the Papacy was for life, and not a position from which to retire. Wotyla refused resignation to his last breath, as did Roncalli. Something very, very ugly in Ratzinger’s descent from the Chair. Blackmail is an interesting, maybe even benfundamenta, explanation. I repeat, God help Ratzinger.
I don’t subscribe to the prophecies of St. Malachy, but it’d be interesting if Benedict lives for another couple hundred years. I wonder at what point the secular world would acknowledge that something odd was going on.
“I wonder at what point…..” Nothing to see here folks, move along.
“Intelligence with cowardice usually results in disaster, and I think that at base his resignation was a product of cowardice…”
Please follow Italian journalist Andrea Cionci on Twitter (@CionciAndrea), and his extensive 2-year investigation on the truth of what Pope Benedict XVI’s February 11, 2013 Declaratio really meant (impeded See – Canon 412). I believe that you will reevaluate your assessment of his act, if you only take the time to understand it.
The majority of Cionci’s investigation can be read here:
https://www.byoblu.com/category/papa-e-antipapa-linchiesta/
He recommends at least to read parts 1, 2, 5, 6-14
Thanks for your consideration.
If he was a coward, then Jesus too was a coward for not fighting back in the Garden of Gethsemane. Food for thought for Donald R. McClarey and others. He did something far wiser and more inspired than almost anyone has yet realized. The Jews did not need an earthly political Messiah, and the Church did not need an “ecclesiastical” pope who sought earthly glory or praise from the right. Something far stranger and deeper is going on. “I am the last pope of the old era and the first pope of the new era, but the new era has not really come yet.” – Benedict XVI. Commenters here need to ponder this much more deeply than you all yet have. Peace be with you.
Pope Benedict’s acts and omissions from 2013 onwards have damaged the Papacy.
The multiple fault lines surrounding his alleged resignation combined with a suspect conclave has produced spiritual chaos in the church.
The schisms introduced by Bergoglio magnify daily.
Unfortunately the world was happy to see Pope Benedict go because he lacked the commercial appeal that Pope Francis has. The commercial appeal that waters down the Faith to nothing but sugary water. It’s too bad really, because Pope Benedict made a good Pope.
“If he was a coward, then Jesus too was a coward for not fighting back in the Garden of Gethsemane.”
No, the sacrifice of the Cross had to be done for the remission of sins. As Jesus noted He could call on legions of angels to do battle for Him. He dreaded the pain that He would have to endure and the humiliation, but He did the will of His Father to save us. If Christ had decided not to die on the Cross, then Pope Benedict would have been following His example with his resignation.