The historical change that Pope Francis anticipated in an interview

A journalistic statement known this Tuesday by Pope Francis changed the future history of the papacy in the two thousand year life of the Church. Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVII, who resigned in February 2013, more than nine years ago from the Petrine ministry as Bishop of Rome, he will be the first and only Pope Emeritus among the 266 pontiffs recognized by the Church.

Benedict’s resignation was a gesture of extraordinary importance in the history of the Papacy, which opened the doors to a modernization of the so-called Immobile Church. The resignation of a pontiff has become a normal fact, planned. missing, yes, an encoding that the current Pope is called to realize, but cannot do so while Joseph Ratzinger, 95, stay alive Why The figure of the Pope Emeritus will be eliminated.

Francis, renunciate, he will be the first bishop emeritus of Rome, who will wear black and could be called monsignor. He prefers to be called Father Jorge like him during his long apostolate in Buenos Aires.

Cardinal status he lost it when he was elected Pope. Cardinals are advisers to the pontiff, who cannot hold both titles at the same time.

The interview with Francesco

The prospect of his resignation and his placement at the top of the Church was announced by Jorge Bergoglio, taking advantage of thelight tone of an interview two hours at the largest Latin American television giant, the Mexican Televisa Univisión also extended to the United States.

Francis is giving continuous interviewswhich is partly explained by the need to stay in the center of the stage due to the problems caused by the acute pain in the right knee. Valentina Alazraki, the talented Televisa envoy who accompanied the last popes on more than 150 trips, is a favorite interlocutor of Jorge Bergoglio to explore all kinds of topics.

He told her that her knee is better under intense infiltration therapy. The knee hurts less and he can walk but feel “lowered”.

Dad He opened his resignation. “I’m not going to do it right now, but if I feel the Lord is asking me in the future, The answer is yes“, She said.

Clarione has published two recent articles on Bergoglio’s will to accompany a concrete process of discernment, something very Jesuitto face his resignation inevitable in the medium term if the problems in his right leg prevent him from fulfilling the heavy commitments of his pontificate, which include apostolic journeys, meetings and audiences with the faithful and other movements that they will become more and more difficult.

an absolute monarch

The organization of the feudal church is super centralized in the Pope, an absolute monarch subjected to a work overload.

Currently the Argentine Pope is in good health beyond the problems created by arthrosis in his right leg and hip to exercise the pontificate.

Jorge Bergoglio addressed himself in the interview with Televisa “head on” the question of his future in case the time comes to resign someday.

He made it clear that if he resigns he will not live in the Vatican nor will he return to Argentina.

“I am the bishop of Rome and would be the bishop emeritus of Rome“, He explained.

Many experts, especially Jesuits, are of the opinion that the position that Ratzinger invented at the time of his resignation as the pontiff contains, that of pope emeritus risky ambiguities which must be eliminated with a pontifical act that clearly establishes the place that the resigning pontiffs will occupy in the future at your expense. It must be very clear Dad there is only one.

A conflicting figure for Bergoglio

The title of Pope Emeritus that Joseph Ratzinger gave himself when he resigned from the ministry of Bishop of Rome, allows him to be called “Holiness”, wear the white cassock and the cap or skullcap on the head of the same color, sign your documents or letters as pope. And living in the Vatican, in a convent in the Vatican gardens, accompanied by his secretary, the German bishop Georg Gaenswein, a conflicting figure for Francisco.

After several episodes that have opened breaches in the trust that should have been bridged between the Casa de Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel where Francis resides, and the monastery in the gardens where Ratzinger lives accompanied by the faithful Bishop Gaenswein, his personal secretary, and four women consecrated women who take care of him, the pope has put Gaenswein on permanent leave. Monsignor is still prefect of the Papal Household but was removed by the Pope’s decision.

Ratzinger’s episcopal secretary had the Argentine pope jumped from the throne when in May 2016 he stated that the election of Benedict XVI as pope emeritus meant that there are not two popes, but in fact there is an extended ministry, with one active member and one contemplative member. This is why Ratzinger has not renounced his name of Benedict XVI, nor his white cassock and receives the correct name of “Holiness”.

The worst confrontation occurred in early 2020 when a book appeared signed by the Pope’s conservative “minister” cardinal, Robert Sarah, an African, ultra-conservative, against openings that he intended to open the priesthood to married priests in the Amazon, when an awaited Synod was held that required many changes that Francis left aside in his final document of the world bishops’ assembly.

Joseph Ratzinger was presented as co-author of the book. After the pope’s silent but bitter reaction to the interference, Benedict withdrew his signature, Cardinal Sarah protested, and Bishop Gaenswein, a conservative, was accused of manipulating the old pope emeritus and losing the post of prefect of the Papal House.

As for Ratzinger, Jorge Bergoglio spared him praise for managing his status as pope emeritus, a position they are preparing to liquidate.

As Bishop Emeritus of Rome, descendant of St. Peter, the first Episcopal of the Church, Francis explained that “it could be” that he decided they live in the Archbasilica of San Giovanni in Lateranotraditional seat of the bishops of the city, where a cardinal exercises the vicariate on behalf of the reigning pope.

For this Bergoglio highlighted in the interview that his title it will be that of the Bishop Emeritus of Romea condition common to the episcopals who have withdrawn from their seats.

In the interview, Francis told Valentina Alazrakhi that, as he had already thought when he was preparing his retirement as Archbishop Emeritus of Buenos Aires when he was elected Pope in the Conclave of March 2013, he would like to be a kind of parish priest in a Roman churchconfess the faithful and go spiritually to the sick.

But the fact that Jorge Bergoglio is still alive as Bishop Emeritus of Rome after his resignation may be an important reality in the events that will take place before and after the election of his successor.

The ultra-conservatives who want to end their adventure, more promised than doneof the reforms of the Church began at least two years ago to pass from the schismatic conspiracy to the decision to concentrate their anti-Franciscan action on the preparation of the Conclave that will elect his successor.

The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, he is the visible leader of the conservative current. He has sent to all the members of the Sacred College books that analyze the currents of the Conclave of cardinal electors, under the age of 80, who must elect the new Pope.

An action criticized because it is assumed that the cardinals cannot engage in activities and negotiations, since the Pope is elected with divine contribution. According to tradition, the Holy Spirit descends on the cardinals and enlightens them in their election. The next will be the 267th. The Pope in the history of the Church.

On the part of the Pope, the candidates most promoted by the progressives are the cardinal of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi, Italian, currently the favorite, and the Filipino cardinal Luis “Chito” Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the very important Il Vatican “ministry” that deals with missions.

Francis brought “Chito” Tagle to Rome from the Philippines. totally identified with Bergoglio’s reformist ideas, What Cardinal Matteo Zuppi According to observers, to prepare him to learn about the internal affairs of the Curia and to manifest its values.

One of the two could be Jorge Bergoglio’s successor and many believe that the living presence of the neo-ex-Pope will influence the fifteen days which normally take place between the convocation of the Conclave and the election of the successor, fundamental in the plot and management of the choice of the new pontiff.

Vatican correspondent

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