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Did EWTN's Catholic News Agency (& possibly Opus Dei) just admit with Dr. Mazza that Pope Benedict Bifurcated the Papacy & is in SUBSTANTIAL ERROR?

It appears that the reportedly Opus Dei "influence[d]" EWTN's Catholic News Agency as well as some Catholic news outlets unwittingly may have admitted to be true what Dr. Edmund Mazza's thesis proposes that Pope Benedict XVI bifurcated the papacy and is in substantial error. Catholic pundit Ann Barnhardt explains:

National Catholic Register casually admits what we’ve been saying for years: Pope Benedict never resigned and is still the Pope.

So I guess now the new hotness is to freely admit that Pope Benedict never resigned the Office, only the active governance of the Church; that he believed and believes still that the Papacy is a “Fourth Level” of ordination that can never be resigned; and that Pope Benedict is, in fact, the Pope…

…while blithely ignoring the ontological and explicit canonical impossibility of calling a valid conclave while the Pope is still alive and occupying the See, and by extension the total logical absurdity of having multiple living Popes simultaneously.

How very modern. Refusing to deal with reality by pretending reality doesn’t matter. Or pretending that SUBSTANTIAL ERROR can be shrugged off with an effeminate “Meh”. [https://www.barnhardt.biz/2022/07/21/national-catholic-register-casually-admits-what-weve-been-saying-for-years-pope-benedict-never-resigned-and-is-still-the-pope/]

The Catholic News Agency said:

Does one stay pope forever?

In practice, Benedict XVI distinguished between the munus and the officium, that is, between the function and the exercise of the function. Once elected pope, he remains pope forever.

In a certain sense, Benedict XVI equated the election as pope with a further episcopal ordination. The theologian Karl Rahner, who emphasized that the power of order and the power of jurisdiction were indissociable, had come to consider the primacy conferred with the election as Pope as the highest degree of the sacrament of orders. According to this criterion, the beginning of the Pope's Petrine ministry would represent a unique ordination.

Pope Francis, however, plans to be Bishop of Rome Emeritus. He would no longer have the Petrine primacy and therefore would return to work in public life as a confessor, and likely also reside in the Lateran Palace. [https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251831/the-pope-emeritus-puzzle-will-pope-francis-rewrite-the-rules-of-resignation]

In a PCM interview transcribed by The Catholic Monitor, Catholic historian Edmund Mazza explains why Pope Benedict XVI "bifurcated the [the papacy] in his thinking, dating back 60 years":

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Not lawless like the old West, but lawless in the sense of something beyond the normal situation. In other words, the chief executive, when he invokes something like this, he’s destroying the constitution to save the constitution. It’s one of those things where you cannot in advance stipulate something. It’s a situation in place that the state, in order to continue existing, you’ve got to do something that on the face of it, seems to go against the constitution. I don’t know. I don’t know what to make of it.

 

In my early research on the subject, this phrase and other things led me to believe that perhaps Benedict had separated Vicar of Christ from Bishop of Rome, and maybe that’s why he still wears white and still gives apostolic blessings.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Feeling himself to be the former, but not the latter.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Exactly, now what I looked up in my research is that if you look at, for example before Vatican II, between Vatican I and Vatican II If you look at dogmatic manuals of theology. I looked at about three or four of them that are solid, they all say that the majority of theologians believe Christ or Peter constructed Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome in such a way that they’re inseparable. But a minority of theologians believe, and have believed that it is possible for a Pope to separate Vicar of Christ from the Diocese of Rome and so I began to think, “Well, maybe that explains what Ganswein is talking about with the Immaculate Conception and what a tremendous thing Benedict did and why Benedict still wears white and why he still gives apostolic blessings.

 

But the thing is this, let’s just assume that the majority of the Church’s theologians throughout history had been correct and you cannot separate the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter from the Diocese of Rome, that they’re tied together you can never lose them.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Then his stipulating that he’s only gonna resign to become Bishop Emeritus or Bishop of Rome Emeritus or Pope Emeritus, would mean what? If a man becomes Bishop of Rome, what does he automatically become? Vicar of Christ. So if a man becomes Bishop of Rome Emeritus, what does he automatically become? Vicar Emeritus of Christ. Does that logically follow? And if that’s true, then not only would Benedict be claiming, the way he does claim publicly in writing, that he still has an ontological connection to the Diocese of Rome that can never be severed as Bishop Emeritus, but he would also have to claim a spiritual share of Vicarship of Christ only as the Emeritus Vicar of Christ. 

 

Patrick Coffin:

Mm-hmm (affirmative)

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

But actually this is formal error because in the 17th century during the height of the Jansenist heresy, a pope came out and said there’s only one vicar of Christ and he doesn’t share power because the Jansenists were trying to say that Paul was just as much the leader of the church as Peter was because they were both in Rome. Long story short, the church is on record as saying that you cannot share Vicar of Christ, but I would argue from my research so far to claim to be Bishop of Rome Emeritus or Pope Emeritus is to simultaneously claim to be Vicar of Christ Emeritus, and that’s a complete fiction. That’s a unicorn. It doesn’t exist. Again that would be substantial error because I argue he only resigned because he thought he was still going to be papal, he was still going to share in the shadow of Peter, so to speak.

 

Patrick Coffin:

And providentially, he foreshadowed all of this in his writings from the 1960’s and 70’s. We can look back and see revealed the foundation of this thinking, this minority version of identity.           

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Exactly.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Okay.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

What I hope my own contribution to this as a PhD and somebody who’s taught college for 20 years and I wrote a book on St. Raymond of Penafort, who actually codified Canon law back in 1235, and it stood until 1917. I hope my patron St. Raymond is looking out for me, but what I hope my contribution to this discussion is we’re not simply quibbling over munus versus ministerium. That is how this discussion started, but we’re way past that now. Anybody who does a deep dive into Benedict’s thinking will see here that we’re way past that. Like you said, we can go back to Vatican II and see that his ecclesiology is most likely erroneous, and if his ecclesiology is erroneous, it means that he probably committed substantial error, which means that his renunciation is probably invalid.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Okay, now I have a problem because I have 14 different possible follow-ups to what you just said. Maike Hickson over at Life Site News in commenting on, I believe it was the 2020 biography, where Pete Seewald says that that it’s kind of a myth that Ratzinger was sort of progressive at Vatican II, he was part of the German Rhine River Nouveau theology, the new theologians. I’ll put a link to what that means in the show notes. Congar, von Balthasar, let’s see Karl Rahner, Schillebeeckx.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

 

Patrick Coffin:

Anything new or neo gets my attention and not in a good way.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Not in a Matrix way.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Right, that’s right. Ganswein’s saying, loading up all of these extraordinary and new and innovative and profound and apocalyptic. Whatever the phrases he used to show how radical this new understanding, there’s that word again, new. The idea of Ratzinger from the sixties and seventies, as progressive, then he was appointed by Paul VI  as the Archbishop of Munich and that began his churchman career as a sitting Bishop. Then of course, he was brought to Rome by John Paul II as the prefect for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. Then he became sort of traditionalist and fervently conservative. Seewald, if memory serves, says that’s not really true. He never really stopped being a progressive. In fact, he opposed the anti-modernist oath that was instituted. Am I misremembering? Have you heard this before?

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

I have heard this before so I don’t think you’re misremembering.

 

Patrick Coffin:

I’m going to put the link, just go to patrickcoffin.media. This occurred to me as you were talking.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Again to show his new Nouvelle Theologie street credit, listen to what he has to say about the teaching of Vatican II, specifically on this issue of munus and ministerium He says that the teaching of Vatican II, “Breaches the wall that separated the Middle Ages from the early church, and hence the Latin West from the Churches of the East.” Other words, Benedict by being fixated on the fact that to teach to sanctify and to govern is given at that sacred consecration or ordination, and that’s enough really, that’s the important thing, not the grant of jurisdiction that you might get.

 

Patrick Coffin:

Mm-hmm (Affirmative).

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

He’s trying to get back at the early church. That’s the claim of the Nouvelle Theologians. They want to get back to the early church, and this is what he says. He says, “We see the reason why future references to Peter Lombard, Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas will no longer be meaningful in this issue.” What you talking about Willis? He’s chucking Peter Lombard, who wrote the Sentences, Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas out the window on this issue? Again, this just shows how far left of center he was.

 

He says, This passage, the passage from Vatican II that he’s talking about is the one I brought up before, Lumen Gentium 22, where he says, “This inconspicuous little statement that membership in the College of Bishops is attained through sacramental ordination and communion with the head and members of the College. This statement gives Episcopal Collegiality a double basis, but in such a way that these two routes are inseparably connected. The rigid, there’s that word again, rigid. The rigid juxtaposition of sacrament and jurisdiction of consecrating power and power of governance, that had existed since the Middle Ages and was one of the symptoms marking the Western separation of the churches from the East, has finally been eliminated. Our century’s liturgical and theological renewal has removed the basis for this division. We have no more right to speak of a ruling power neatly separated from the sacramental ministry than we have a right to speak of a separation between the mystical and Eucharistic body of Christ.” I rest my case.

 

Patrick Coffin:

So he’s already bifurcated the two in his thinking, dating back 60 years.

 

Dr. Edmund Mazza:

Precisely, I’m willing to debate this to try to get to the truth of the matter with whoever wants to debate me on this, but I think there’s a very strong case, that you could even read it in his decaratio. Let me go back to his actual English translation and the actual wording of… Did I lose it? I think I might have lost it. Oh, here I have it here.

 

He’s very careful in his declartio of February 11th, 2013 to never specifically renounce the munus itself. In other words, in that Latin quote that we began the show with, he says, “I’m no longer strong enough to wield the munus, practically speaking,” But he actually never renounces the munus itself. What he eventually says is, “Well aware of the seriousness of this act and with full freedom, I declare that I renounced the ministry of Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter.” Now let’s look at the Latin. Bene conscious ponderis huius actus plena libertate declare me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri. Now, he used munus throughout his declartio, but at the very end in the Latin, he drops munus and inserts ministerio. Why? I think it’s plain as day. He does want to reject the active words and deeds, he’s no longer capable of that, but ontologically, he’s not rejecting the munus. As he says in his interview with Seewald and as Ganswein says in his speech, before and after his resignation, he understood and understands his current ministry as a participation in the Petrine munus. It’s why he wears white, it’s why he gives apostolic blessings, and it’s why Francesco Bergolio is now seriously thinking, rumor has it of coming out with a modal proprio, trying to either eliminate Pope Emeritus or talk about it in some legal sense, but that’s why I think this topic is especially germane to talk about right now. [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/10/part-3-of-exclusive-transcription-is.html]

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis's Amoris Laetitia.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost - Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Francis Notes:

- Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

"[T]he Pope... WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See."
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)


Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said "the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church."
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

- If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the"Roman Rite Communities" like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & "Eminent Canonists and Theologians" by "Resist[ing]" him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 -  LifeSiteNews, "Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers," December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows "sexually active adulterous couples facing 'complex circumstances' to 'access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'"

-  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

"The AAS statement... establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense."

- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

"Francis' heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents."

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes:  

- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html

- Tucker Carlson's Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written" according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1
 
- A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
 
What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: "Anitfa 'Agent Provocateurs'":
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1

Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God's Will and to do it.
 
Pray an Our Father now for America.
 
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Very, very interesting, Fred!
Thank you for sharing!
God bless you and your work.
Pray! Pray! Pray!

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