Ministry Or Munus?
Here are two very detailed analyses of the Pope Benedict ‘resignation’ that make the case for it’s invalidity. If these analyses are correct then Benedict is still pope. Estefanía Acosta is certain that Benedict is still Pope.
Canon 332 § 2 indicates that “if it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office [in Latin munus], it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested, but not that it is accepted by anyone.” In no way should it be understood that this canon establishes a “sacramental formula” of which the word “munus” is an indispensable part, as occurs, say, in the formula “this is my Body” for the consecration of the Eucharist. (Those words are indispensable under penalty of invalidity of the sacrament and, therefore, of non-existence of transubstantiation). What happens is that the Petrine munus (or its synonyms: charge, office, papacy, pontificate etc.) constitutes nothing less than the object on which, by mere logic, any papal resignation must fall.
Estefanía Acosta talks about her book
Edmund Mazza has a slightly different take. He makes a case that Benedict was in “substantial error” with his Declaratio. That would invalidate the action much like leaving out the necessary words out of a Eucharistic Consecration would mean that transubstantiation did not take place.
They Discuss:
The facts behind the inquiry into whether the 2013 resignation is valid
The grave signs that Francis’ many scandalous and heretical teachings that prompted the investigation into the resignation
The key distinction between munus and ministerium, which Ratzinger made in renouncing the latter but not the former
A brief history of Ratzinger’s innovative treatment of the papal office and ministry
How Archbishop Georg Ganswein (the former secretary of Benedict XVI) has indicated that the renunciation was not total but partial
The lame and strange justifications made to rationalize the disturbing state of affairs
Other thinkers who are actively researching the topic to force an answer to the question of invalidity of the February 2013 quitting
Why none of this has to do with sedevacantism (the false belief that the Chair of Peter is empty)
It is very interesting, not to say, inflammatory stuff. Sean Hannity has left the Catholic Church over the things said and done by Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Patrick Coffin debated Hannity on Hannity’s show and came away unimpressed. The overton window on the the discussion has shifted enough to make the discussion something other that a forbidden fringe theory. The truth will set us free.