CDIX – Pope Benedict Dunking on the Haters

I just saw a headline that said Pope Emeritus Benedict is very sick. I am sure the Betty-BiP’s out there are swirling. One of my least favorite things about the pontificate of Francis has been the near-schismatical and certainly unhelpful discussion surrounding Pope Benedict. So let’s start by praying for Pope Benedict’s health, wellness, holiness, and for the conversion of all those good Catholics who have been taken in by the toxic “Benedict-is-Pope” discussion.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen!

Second, let’s think about what would happen if–heaven forfend–our dear Pope Emeritus should pass on to life everlasting.

The current position is that Pope Benedict is the true Pope and Pope Francis is an anti Pope. To be unequivocal: This is not true. The Church proclaims Francis as Pope. The Church would have to declare him not the Pope–I am not going to prefer the opinion of internet pundits to the teachings of the Church.

If Pope Benedict dies, the first recourse of the people taken in by this belief should be to bend the knee to Pope Francis. They will have no other options and no alternatives. This would mean all of their sound and fury would signify nothing, and that’s OK. Welcome back, prodigal friends!

The second option would be schism–this is by far the worst option. They have doubled down so hard on Francis not being Pope, that they would rather insist on unreality than acknowledge the true Church. The worst flavor of this worst option would be that they appoint for themselves, somehow, a new Pope to take the place of Benedict. I am not even sure how they would do that, but that would be both comically absurd and spiritually horrifying.

The third and stupidest option is that they do nothing, which is entirely likely. They would probably bluster and wail and gnash online in the days following Pope Benedicts inevitable but hopefully distant passing from this life. And then quietly they would stop posting. Some may never stop referring to the Current Pope by his pre-Papacy Christian name. And when inevitably (and God willing, distantly) Pope Francis passes, they would accept the new Pope and pretend to have been on the team all along.

There’s a few loud proponents of the BiP theory, and how they react in the days following the death of Pope Benedict will be highly influential on the souls of the scores of people who follow them closely. Pray for them, that they see the best and most unifying path is with the Church, with Truth, and with the Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis.

AMDG