{"id":10751,"date":"2017-07-26T17:23:23","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T21:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=10751"},"modified":"2017-12-26T20:56:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T01:56:57","slug":"it-is-reasonable-to-doubt-francis-legitimacy-and-scandalous-to-demand-moral-certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=10751","title":{"rendered":"IT IS REASONABLE TO DOUBT FRANCIS\u2019 LEGITIMACY, AND SCANDALOUS TO DEMAND MORAL CERTAINTY"},"content":{"rendered":"

WWW.CANON212.COM<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Brighton’s erudite Fr. Ray Blake is furious <\/a>with apologist Louie Verrecchio for co-opting his suggestion that Benedict may have abdicated under pressure into an argument against Pope Francis’ legitimacy.\u00a0 Father’s reaction is not unusual, since many clergy and professional Catholics insist the Francis papacy must be taken on faith, and faith in the process.\u00a0 But really, if Francis is our ‘Peter’ then his barque isn’t only storm-tossed, but it’s also full of leaky holes.<\/p>\n

I do not maintain that Francis is NOT pope.\u00a0 I simply don\u2019t know for certain.\u00a0 It is not, as Fr. Blake indignantly claims, “irrational” to doubt that Francis is pope.\u00a0 It is perfectly normal under the circumstances.\u00a0 Trying to assert definitively one way or another, however, distracts from the fact that Francis isn\u2019t Catholic and should be corrected, then formally removed. Father uses honest questions as opportunities to hurl \u2018sedevacantist\u2019 and other insults at faithful Catholics in order to marginalize them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strategic piece of rhetoric and it only serves Francis and his faithless court.<\/p>\n

Writers have put forth several cases against Francis\u2019 legitimacy.\u00a0 While many may turn out to be conclusive, the sheer number is compelling alone.\u00a0 Altogether, there are several reasons why we must look at Francis as someone who may not actually be the pope.\u00a0 I\u2019ve included one or two of my own:<\/p>\n

1. Benedict abdicated the papal throne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Popes should never abdicate and they almost never have.\u00a0 It immediately casts a shadow upon the next papacy.\u00a0 Popes, whose business is shedding light upon things, cannot function under shadow.\u00a0 There is absolutely NO good reason for a pope to abdicate unless he is forced out by his own heresy.\u00a0 Since Benedict expressed no valid reason to step down, and indeed had none, we must contend with an assortment of bad possibilities.\u00a0 The ones which he gave are clearly dishonest, even ridiculous.<\/p>\n

2. Benedict abdicated the papacy while claiming to continue to be pope, but in a different way<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benedict plainly felt the papal charism would continue in him and made that clear to the world when he stepped down.\u00a0 Abp. Georg Ganswein, his enigmatic minder, confirmed this \u2018contemplative pope\u2019 invention later.\u00a0 Can one relinquish the papacy while thinking that he remains spiritually pope at the same time?\u00a0 In order to think Francis is pope today, you must believe that one can.<\/p>\n

Not only is it unfathomably irresponsible and extremely unusual for a pope to step down, but Benedict did so in this contrived and incomplete way. \u00a0Furthermore, Benedict\u2019s very weird abdication strikes me as the kind of thing a pope might say if he actually DIDN\u2019T want to abdicate, but felt he had no choice, and wanted to console himself and his heartbroken planet.<\/p>\n

3. A lobbying group of cardinals was active for several years prior to the conclave specifically for the purpose of electing Francis <\/strong><\/p>\n

This type of planning is proscribed in Canon law.\u00a0 In order to believe Francis is pope one must assert that Canon law does not apply here or that its violation would not invalidate the election.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think either of those ideas would be true, but I am not an expert.\u00a0 I have not read any convincing material to the contrary, though.\u00a0 Perhaps no authority could be found to prove that the St. Gallen group invalidated the election.\u00a0 Nevertheless God may think it did, since perhaps it is true.<\/p>\n

4. Benedict may have been pushed<\/strong><\/p>\n

What happened to that huge dossier of paper, higher than Obamacare, which was compiled to root out corruption, sex abuse, and other illegality? Why did the banks lock out the Vatican just prior to abdication?\u00a0 Why did Benedict say he was too weak to be pope any longer and too feeble to make World Youth Days?\u00a0 What normal person isn\u2019t ‘too feeble’ for those?<\/p>\n

Did he have powerful enemies who wanted him gone?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Did he please them by forsaking the Church?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Was he threatened with something apparently more damaging than his abdication?\u00a0 The fact that he has not clearly named the pressures he and his close bishops have alluded to does not mean they didn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 That\u2019s why abdication is a bad idea for popes.\u00a0 Of course they happen under pressure.\u00a0 How could they not?\u00a0 The essence of a papacy is to stand against pressure.<\/p>\n

God does not protect the Church from popes being discreetly forced out and replaced by heretic mobs.\u00a0 He will continue to bless the removed pope and curse the mob and their thief.\u00a0 Peter and the many martyred popes understood this.<\/p>\n

The scenario is not workable.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the modern practice of permitting mixed marriages so long as they raise the children Catholic.\u00a0 A non-Catholic father is incapable of raising Catholic children, so it simply can\u2019t happen.\u00a0 But one can always pretend like the bishops do.\u00a0 It\u2019s very likely that Benedict quit because powerful forces wanted him gone.\u00a0\u00a0 That puts his, and any papal abdication in doubt.<\/p>\n

5. Benedict\u2019s movements and press releases are restricted and appear compelled<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benedict remains right in the Vatican under close control.<\/a>\u00a0 He has even admitted that he only goes anywhere when Francis ‘invites’ him.\u00a0 He is rarely seen without Abp. Ganswein.\u00a0 He has only spoken a few brief words on camera in these four years, and some of these sound almost like cryptic cries for help.\u00a0 Statements and publications released in his name often do not sound like him.\u00a0 Instead they sound like people trying to sound like him.\u00a0 No one seems to report accurately or meaningfully on recent conversations they\u2019ve had with him.\u00a0 \u00a0One wonders what would happen were he to try and take a holiday, perhaps in Germany with only a few friends.<\/p>\n

6. A significant chunk of the cardinal electors were heretics<\/strong><\/p>\n

I excerpted a section of Canon Law on elections:<\/p>\n

Can. 171 \u00a71. The following are effected to vote:<\/em><\/p>\n