@Kenjiro M. Yoshimori You are correct: Mr. Mandelbaum isn’t Catholic…and neither are YOU. Because if you were, you’d know that if the Holy Father was ever indeed “forced” to resign, the resignation would be intrinsically null and void. He would remain the duly elected Supreme Pontiff of Holy Mother Church. The very act of coercion itself would automatically and immediately invalidate the so-called abdication, and would insure that Pope Francis remained firmly seated upon the Throne of Saint Peter as Chief Shepherd of the Church and Christ’s own Vicar on Earth. In as much as a Pope cannot be judged by any human or human agency while he remains the Pope, the Church has never - and CAN NEVER - establish in Canon Law a juridical process to officially investigate, judge, declare and condemn a sitting, duly elected Supreme Pontiff as a “Heretic.” No such process exists because no such process can ever be created that would have men attempting to judge the One who CANNOT be judged by men. Many, including great theologians and even Doctors of the Church, have personally and in their capacities as individuals, theorized and postulated about the circumstances of such a situation, and debated about whether or not those circumstances could even occur. Some individuals have also singularly offered their own personal theories about how to address or resolve such circumstances. But the Church herself has NEVER, EVER officially and universally defined and established, either by Papal Mandate or valid Ecumenical Council (which is what would be required), any such binding juridical process to proclaim a sitting Pope heretical along with his subsequent legal removal from the Petrine Office. It’s simply not going to happen. Thus, your shrill and incessant whining and complaining and rabidly ranting like a crazed dog frothing at the mouth about the Holy Father and calling him a “heretic” doesn’t make him one, nor would it, even if a hundred or even five-hundred Bishops and Cardinals said as much. They do not, nor do you, have any ecclesiastically legal competence to do so. There is no person nor power on this earth that can legally, in accordance with Canon Law and with the authority of the whole Church, declare Pope Francis a “heretic.” Nor could any such person or group of people “force” him to resign for any reason, because doing so would automatically and immediately make that act of abdication utterly and entirely invalid. That, my friend, is how it works in Catholicism. So if you don’t like those apples then perhaps you should convert to Judaism like your good neighbor there, where apparently you’d be more comfortable.

@Orthocat Are we certain that the fornicating was done in “secret”? What does that even mean? If Sisters within the Convent were aware of it was it still a “secret”? How did the Bishop find out about it? Someone must have witnessed it and then spoken of it to him and/or others. For such a vile, shameful, evil thing to be going on in a Monastery of cloistered Nuns, among Christ’s own Brides no less, deflowering and polluting the very sanctity and virtue of the Mother Superior herself, who violated and contaminated her Holy Vows in lustful debauchery and concupiscence, rutting like some wild beast in a field, is utterly reprehensible and intolerable. Nothing could BE more “scandal” causing. What do you expect or recommend, that such a diabolical thing be simply ignored, or that it be addressed under the cover of the devil’s darkness as opposed to it being brought to the purity of Christ’s light? The Bishop had to do something. He could not let such a whirlpool of wickedness and depravity continue unabated. Clearly the depth of the corruption there was unspeakable. The Mother Superior was fornicating. Selfishly endangering the immortal souls of her Daughters while she slaked the gross cravings and desires of her own flesh. As the responsible spiritual authority in the diocese, Bishop Olson had to expose and drive out Satan’s nest of vipers and cleanse that place, so that perhaps one day soon, it can become a house of prayer again, sanctified for our Master’s use.

Oh no! If this is done without at least the tacit approval of the Vatican and some sort of “green light” (public or private) from the Holy Father, it could very well provoke the promulgation of an official declaration of Schism.The Priestly Society should avoid such a provocation at all cost. May the Spirit of Christ guide them into full communion with His Holy Church and rebuke the foul demons of division, contention and strife birthed from Satan’s abyss.

My, my, my…..a French Concordat with the Holy See that has the likes of Emannuel Macron appointing and removing Bishops….no different (or possibly even worse) than the current hellish mess in China, with hordes of heathens, infidels, apostates and heretics ruling over the national affairs of Holy Mother Church. A blasphemous affront to the Lord of Glory. This, then, is the result of many centuries of horrible statecraft and diplomacy by the Vatican, conducted under the questionable guise of “protecting the Faithful” and “keeping the Church alive” in nations where the cause of Christ is besieged and under all-out assault from Satan and his human imps. God help us, when will it be understood that it is far, far better to have no agreement with the devil at all, than to have one formed with, and comprised of, his own diabolical terms. You cannot treat honorably and honestly with the Father of Lies. Such a lesson, it seems, the Vatican has yet to learn. All things being equal however, I suppose we should at least be thankful that governments and heads of state (like the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) no longer hold the privilege of outright vetoing Candidates for the Throne of Saint Peter during Papal Conclaves. At least we have that. May God, in His infinite mercies, save the Church, and by His all-powerful Hand and the mighty Hosts of Heaven, protect her from the ravishment of evil men.

God’s opinion on the subject:
“Wherefore, God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness: to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause, God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts, one towards another: men with men, working that which is filthy and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient. Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, wickedness: full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity: whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute: without affection, without fidelity, without mercy. Who, having known the justice of God, did not understand that they who do such things, are worthy of death: and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.” Romans 1:24-32

It has NOT changed and it will NOT change…..EVER.

This arrangement that governs the selection of Bishops and others to the hierarchy of the Church in “Prussia” is no better than the Chinese agreement recently renewed by the Vatican. Sadly, the Holy See has long made extremely poor judgement calls in its negotiation and ratification of Concordats with nation-states, going back many hundreds of years, particularly those with various French and German governments and individual political leaders throughout the centuries. Often ceding over total and complete control of the Church to other authorities in those countries, and at times subjecting even the power of the Throne of Saint Peter and its occupant to the whim of crazed despots and mad tyrants - as long as the Faithful’s gold continued to make its way to Rome. But today, thanks be to God, at least heads of state and nations like the former Austrian-Hungarian Empire no longer have a “veto” over the election of Papal candidates during Conclaves. It is nothing less than supremely and spectacularly miraculous that the Church has survived man’s evil machinations and manipulations throughout the millennia, both within and without.