Originally posted February 28, 2022
28 Feb 2013. 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, Benedict tried to resign only the ministry – the governance – the “doing,” while trying to remain somehow as the hidden contemplative papal member, still wearing white, keeping “Pope” in his title, addressed as “His Holiness,” imparting his Apostolic Blessing. He OBVIOUSLY intended to REMAIN in some way PAPAL.
Benedict’s helicopter didn’t really take him anywhere. He remained inside the Vatican for nearly another decade. His resignation was wholly invalid, grounded in Substantial Error(can.188), and also not properly manifested (can.332.2). He fully retained the Office. He remained the one and only living pope until 31 Dec 2022, when he passed away and the chair became vacant. Jorge Bergoglio is not now, never has been, and never will be, true pope of the One True Church. Thanks be to God.
It looked like a joyflight rather than a departure. Why the flyover of the colliseum? The Papal helicopter was also followed by media (perhaps in another helicopter) who had clearly been alerted. Why have the flight at all rather than Benedict being driven or accompanied to another part of the Vatican, if that was his intended destination? Unfortunately it appears to be political theatre. I suspect that the Bergoglio takeover was pre-arranged.