News From Benedict: Fear of the Antichrist is "All Too Natural"
His resignation had nothing to do with scandals like Vatileaks, the former Benedict XVI told Peter Seewald on 12 November 2018. The statement is contained in Seewald's Benedict biography (May 4). Seewald addresses Ratzinger as "Papa Benedetto".
At the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI signed - like Paul VI and John Paul II - his resignation in case of an illness which would make the exercise of the papacy impossible. "That other forms of insufficient capacity for rightly ministering are also possible, became clear to me at the end of my service," he adds.
“Emeritus" means that a bishop doesn’t actively hold his episcopal see, but is "in the special relationship of a former bishop with it".
Benedict reminds that every bishop needs a see, even if it is, as with auxiliary bishops, only the titular see of a diocese that no longer exists. After the introduction of the episcopal retirement age, there were not enough titular see left. Therefore, Bishop Simon Landersdorfer (+1971) of Passau, Germany, began calling himself "emeritus" [but died after seven months].
"A bishop's see can only have one holder", Benedict emphasizes: "At the same time a spiritual bond is expressed, which can under no circumstances be taken away."
He applies this to the Roman see. There he has "no longer any legal authority whatsoever, but a spiritual affiliation which - even if invisible - remains". This legal-spiritual form, however, avoids any thought of a "coexistence of two Popes", he tries to square the circle.
Benedict describes accusations of interfering with Francis' administration by making statements as "malicious distortion of reality". As an example he mentions his message for the funeral of Cardinal Meisner, "My word about the little ship of the Church drifting in heavy storms, I had taken almost literally from the homilies of St. Gregory the Great."
Benedict doesn't want to comment on Amoris Laetitia, "because this would lead too much into the concrete aspect of Church government and thus leave the spiritual dimension, which alone is still my mission."
But he praises Francis for his "kind and cordial attention": "As you know, the personal friendship with Pope Francis has not only remained the same, but has grown".
Benedict refers the current dominance of homosexual marriage and abortion to the power of the Antichrist: "A hundred years ago everyone would have thought it absurd to speak of homosexual marriage. Today, anyone who opposes it is socially excommunicated." He adds that the same applies to abortion.
Modern society has formulated an anti-Christian Creed: "The fear of this spiritual power of the Antichrist is then all too natural, and it really needs the prayer of an entire diocese and the universal church to resist it."
For Benedict, the real threat to the Church and the ministry of St Peter lies "in the worldwide dictatorship of apparently humanistic ideologies, which may not be contradicted without one being excluded from the basic social consensus".
Picture: © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsEaaltlrots
At the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI signed - like Paul VI and John Paul II - his resignation in case of an illness which would make the exercise of the papacy impossible. "That other forms of insufficient capacity for rightly ministering are also possible, became clear to me at the end of my service," he adds.
“Emeritus" means that a bishop doesn’t actively hold his episcopal see, but is "in the special relationship of a former bishop with it".
Benedict reminds that every bishop needs a see, even if it is, as with auxiliary bishops, only the titular see of a diocese that no longer exists. After the introduction of the episcopal retirement age, there were not enough titular see left. Therefore, Bishop Simon Landersdorfer (+1971) of Passau, Germany, began calling himself "emeritus" [but died after seven months].
"A bishop's see can only have one holder", Benedict emphasizes: "At the same time a spiritual bond is expressed, which can under no circumstances be taken away."
He applies this to the Roman see. There he has "no longer any legal authority whatsoever, but a spiritual affiliation which - even if invisible - remains". This legal-spiritual form, however, avoids any thought of a "coexistence of two Popes", he tries to square the circle.
Benedict describes accusations of interfering with Francis' administration by making statements as "malicious distortion of reality". As an example he mentions his message for the funeral of Cardinal Meisner, "My word about the little ship of the Church drifting in heavy storms, I had taken almost literally from the homilies of St. Gregory the Great."
Benedict doesn't want to comment on Amoris Laetitia, "because this would lead too much into the concrete aspect of Church government and thus leave the spiritual dimension, which alone is still my mission."
But he praises Francis for his "kind and cordial attention": "As you know, the personal friendship with Pope Francis has not only remained the same, but has grown".
Benedict refers the current dominance of homosexual marriage and abortion to the power of the Antichrist: "A hundred years ago everyone would have thought it absurd to speak of homosexual marriage. Today, anyone who opposes it is socially excommunicated." He adds that the same applies to abortion.
Modern society has formulated an anti-Christian Creed: "The fear of this spiritual power of the Antichrist is then all too natural, and it really needs the prayer of an entire diocese and the universal church to resist it."
For Benedict, the real threat to the Church and the ministry of St Peter lies "in the worldwide dictatorship of apparently humanistic ideologies, which may not be contradicted without one being excluded from the basic social consensus".
Picture: © Mazur, CC BY-NC-SA, #newsEaaltlrots