Benedict’s helicopter ride was very unlike Nixon’s. Nixon boarded Marine One, took off, and never came back to the White House. Nixon resigned, properly and validly. He resigned the Office. He signed a document that was short and to the point. Benedict COULD have resigned validly, had he followed Nixon’s example.
Instead, he tried to resign only the ministry – the governance – the “doing,” while trying to remain somehow as the hidden contemplative papal member, keeping the title “His Holiness.” Not strange at all.
Benedict’s helicopter didn’t really take him anywhere. Nine years later, still inside the Vatican.
And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it’ a bishop dressed in white ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father.’
– From the Third Secret of Fatima
Why the use of the quotations? I’ve been wondering that for a while.
Indeed, the “bishop in white” is Benedict 16. He is now preparing to take the most difficult road in his entire life: towards the cross on the hill, among the ruins of a great city, stumbling over the bodies of the clergy. I think it will happen soon, because the B16 is almost 95 years old and the war in Europe has already started. Rome will be destroyed – compare the original 3rd Fatima Secret.
AS TO: Presidential Resignation:
3 U.S. Code § 20 – Resignation or refusal of office
The only evidence of a refusal to accept, or of a *resignation of the office* of President or Vice President, shall be an instrument in writing, *declaring the same*, and subscribed by the person refusing to accept or resigning, as the case may be, and delivered into the office of the Secretary of State.
AS TO: Papal Resignation:
Can. 330 Just as by the Lord’s decision Saint Peter and the other Apostles constitute one college, so in a like manner the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, and the bishops, the successors of the Apostles, are united among themselves.
Note: St. Peter is one. The other Apostles are another. Just so, The Roman Pontiff is one. The other Bishops, successors of the Apostles, are another. *There is no St. Peter Emeritus*. *There is no Roman Pontiff Emeritus*. *One* is united with the *other*.
Can. 331 The bishop of the Roman Church, *in whom continues the office given by the Lord uniquely* to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, is the head of the college of bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the pastor of the universal Church on earth. *By virtue of his office* he possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.
*Can. 332 §2. If it happens that the Roman Pontiff *resigns his office*, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone.*
Can. 333 §1. *By virtue of his office*, the Roman Pontiff not only possesses power over the universal Church but also obtains the primacy of ordinary power over all particular churches and groups of them.
Can. 333 §2. *In fulfilling the office* of supreme pastor of the Church, the Roman Pontiff is always joined in communion with the other bishops and with the universal Church. He nevertheless has the right, according to the needs of the Church, to determine the manner, whether personal or collegial, *of exercising this office*.
Can. 334 Bishops assist the Roman Pontiff in exercising his office … (etc)
Can. 189 §1. To be valid, a resignation, whether it requires acceptance or not, must be made to the authority to whom it pertains *to make provision of the office* in question
Note: All authority vested in the Roman Pontiff by Canon Law is vested in the Office of Roman Pontiff. Throughout all expressions of Supreme Authority of the Roman Pontiff, it is sourced in his Office. When the Roman Pontiff resigns, he resigns his Office.
Note: There is no discussion in Canon Law, or permissions granted, to retire and remain as an Emeritus Roman Pontiff with spiritual authority over the Church, active authority loaned to another. Christ did not authorize it. Canon Law does not authorize it. There is no record of it in Sacred Tradition. Emeritus Roman Pontiff is illegal on its face – the ultimate illegal act; heresy at the cornerstone of the Church; chaos within the locus of unity in that there are now not just one, not even two, but multiple living Popes Emeritus without number are possible in the future as any Pope can retire to Emeritus for any reason, at any time, and “remain safely and forever within the Papacy”.
All of this endless discussion and chaos and devolution and revolution within the unchanging eternal Church endowed perfectly for all time and eternity by God Him Self sourced in a fatally flawed and needlessly complicated resignation by the supposed master of precision himself, Pope Benedict. He could have written a single sentence, resigning the Office of Suprem Pontiff, just as Richard Nixon resigned the Office of President.
One sentence.
Helicopter ride to Bavaria.
Memoirs.
But that didn’t happen.
Those who ignore the obvious living deformation of the Papacy participate in the violence done thereby to Holy Mother Church as willed and formed by our living Christ.
Alternate reality resignation letter from President Nixon (substantial error): “I hereby resign the administrative duties of President of the United States”.
Alternate reality action of President Emeritus Nixon (substantial error): takes up residence in Blair House; occupies a corner office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building; continues to issue advice to Executive Secretaries and receives foreign dignitaries; grants interviews on important topics affecting the nation; issues correspondence as President Emeritus Nixon.
Alternate reality resignation of Pope Benedict XVI (properly rendered): “I declare that I renounce the Office of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter”. (period)
Alternate reality action of Father Ratzinger (properly acted): Returns to his Bavarian home; writes many books; grants many interviews; plays many songs on his piano; assists at Mass at his local Parish.
Happy Feast day of the Holy Face of Jesus. Lord, Jesus, come. Have mercy on us.
Neither Benedict or Bergoglio are immortal, so our current state of affairs will not go on forever.