Dr. Mazza: "Canon 332.2, Star Date Point 2 says, 'In order for a [Pope Benedict] Papal Resignation to be Valid, its got to be Free,” but according to the Church’s Moral Theology, if you Commit Substantial Error your will is Not Free"
He had an erroneous understanding. You know, thanks to the Nouvelle theologie… Like... Charlie Brown. If I was Linus I could say to Pope Benedict, as respectfully as possible, “Joseph Ratzinger you’re the only person in the world who could take an easy thing like resigning and turning it into a problem.” - Catholic historian Edmund Mazza
So what happens if a pope really does become a heretic (which can happen when he is not speaking ex cathedra)? - Catholic philosopher Edward Feser [http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2019/05/popes-heresy-and-papal-heresy.html]
That’s the thing. People again look at scholars like myself and say, What do you think your doing? Do you think that Benedict didn’t know how to resign? Do you think that he didn’t know what he was doing? He says it was free. He says just accept him at his word, but that’s the thing Patrick. We are accepting him at his word and his word is that there’s more to go on than meets the eye here. He’s been very open about it, like you say and substantial error means again, your will chose something, when your intellect was operating on error. And that means that your will was not free. So Canon 332.2, star date point 2 says, “In order for a papal resignation to be valid, its got to be free,” but according to the church’s moral theology, if you commit substantial error your will is not free. - Catholic historian Edmund Mazza
In a Patrick Coffin Media interview transcribed by The Catholic Monitor, Catholic historian Edmund Mazza explains why Pope Benedict XVI's resignation appears to be in "substantial error" and is therefore not a valid "papal resignation":
He had an erroneous
understanding. You know, thanks to the Nouvelle theologie… Like... Charlie Brown. If I was Linus I
could say to Pope Benedict, as respectfully as possible, “Joseph
Ratzinger you’re the only person in the world who could take an easy
thing like resigning and turning it into a problem.”
I don’t think he [Pope Benedict XVI] is guilty of heresy per se. As a matter of fact, what my research has uncovered is that there’s a slight possibility that he might be right, because the church has actually never come down and defined the mechanics, of how you are made a bishop in the church. There’s an outside possibility that he could be right, in which case his renunciation was valid. I could send that to you to maybe put in the show notes. But the fact of the matter is he could be in just error. You know just genuine sincere error; if that’s not the way the mechanics of the church, if that’s not a correct ecclesiology.
As I understand it, he kind of sees becoming pope as almost like... a second Episcopal consecration... he told Seewald, “If you think that you can just step down from the office, because of old age, that’s a functional misunderstanding.
That’s the functional misunderstanding. The munus enters into your very being. In fact, he has repeatedly said in interviews like the 2020 Seewald book, the latest Sewald interview with him, he insists that as Pope Emeritus, he has a spiritual ontological link to the diocese of Rome that can never be separated and done away with. But again, so he can be off about something without actually being a heretic. So I just want to be clear, I’m not casting aspersions, but that being said, he comes very close.
For example, in his again, Principles of Catholic Theology, he talks about how groundbreaking it was when Pope Paul VI met with the patriarch of Constantinople.
Listen to what Ratzinger has to say, “When Athenagorus embraced Paul VI, he used a formula from St. Ignatius of Antioch. When St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the bishop of Rome, in the early 2nd century, he talked about that See that presides in charity, Right? That presides in love. The word, I’ll just quote from Ratzinger. “It would be worth our while to consider whether this archaic confession of Ignatius, which has nothing to do with the primacy of jurisdiction, but confesses a primacy of honor and agape [charity].”
[Agape] Charity... “Might not be recognized as a formula that adequately reflects the position Rome occupies in the church.” I mean that’s going against Vatican I. Vatican I talked about the primacy of jurisdiction. And then he goes on to say. “Holy courage requires that prudence be combined with audacity. The kingdom of God suffers violence.”
Well, oddly enough, Ganswein in his characterization of what Benedict did on February 11th or February 28th, his last day on the job, he uses in his May, 2016 speech the same vocabulary to describe this expanded Petrine ministry. In fact, Ganswein analogizes what Benedict did to what God did with Mary’s Immaculate Conception.
Let me give you a quote from Ganswein. “It was fitting. God could do it, therefore he did it. In this case, so did Pope Benedict.” And then he goes on to say words and phrases like, “The papacy has been profoundly transformed. This was extraordinary courage, spectacular, unexpected, a new phase, a turning point, historic, never been a step like it, Unprecedented.” Just because the Pope resigned? No, there’s a lot more going on here than just a simple ordinary resignation from a position in the church.
That’s the thing. People again look at scholars like myself and say, What do you think your doing? Do you think that Benedict didn’t know how to resign? Do you think that he didn’t know what he was doing? He says it was free. He says just accept him at his word, but that’s the thing Patrick. We are accepting him at his word and his word is that there’s more to go on than meets the eye here. He’s been very open about it, like you say and substantial error means again, your will chose something, when your intellect was operating on error. And that means that your will was not free. So Canon 332.2, star date point 2 says, “In order for a papal resignation to be valid, its got to be free,” but according to the church’s moral theology, if you commit substantial error your will is not free. [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/10/part-2-of-exclusive-transcription-is.html and https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/10/part-3-of-exclusive-transcription-is.html]
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