Monthly Archives: July 2022

Guess which one is Catholic.

Guess which one is Catholic.

In ARSH 1883, the New York Times reported that Sitting Bull was baptized into the Catholic Church.

ROMANS 9: 25-26

As in Osee He saith: I will call that which was not My people, My people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy, one that hath obtained mercy.
And it shall be, in the place where it was said unto them, You are not My people; there they shall be called the sons of the Living God.

Sicut in Osee dicit : Vocabo non plebem meam, plebem meam : et non dilectam, dilectam : et non misericordiam consecutam, misericordiam consecutam.Et erit : in loco, ubi dictum est eis : Non plebs mea vos : ibi vocabuntur filii Dei vivi.


Hosea 2: 23-24

And I will sow her unto Me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy.  And I will say to that which was not My people: Thou art My people: and they shall say: Thou art My God.

Et seminabo eam mihi in terra, et miserebor ejus quae fuit Absque misericordia. Et dicam Non populo meo : Populus meus es tu; et ipse dicet : Deus meus es tu.

Go Clean Up the Kitchen, You Stupid, Stupid Woman (reprint on the Feast of St. Martha)

(I was reminded at Mass today on this the feast of St. Martha of domestic happiness, and this piece which I wrote for The Remnant Newspaper a few years back.  It was wildly popular when it was first published, with only a handful of women griping about it.  Most women loved it, and for many it brought back happy memories of their own mothers and/or grandmothers, busily and lovingly taking care of the business of the household.  We know St. Martha must have been a stupendous hostess, as today’s Gospel specifically states that Our Lord availed Himself of her (and her siblings’) hospitality FREQUENTLY.  It also reminded me that I should watch one of my favorite movies tonight – “Marty”.)

I have had this piece in the back of my mind for some time, and have even run the title and general gist of it past a few people, all of whose eyes sparkled like the transporter beam of the Enterprise-A upon hearing it.

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I lived in a large, shared house built in the 1920s with a male friend.  I had the master bedroom suite, and thus my own private bathroom, and everything was completely on the up-and-up.  Fear not, gentle readers.  I shall not be scandalizing you with tales of ribaldry – no “accompanying body-to-body” going on, to use one of FrancisChurch’s creepier turns of phrase.  It was an excellent use of the property, and very frugal and affordable.  And, yes, I certainly preferred to live with males, from both the security as well as a domestic tranquility standpoint.

In this particular case, I did, in fact, greatly admire and count as a treasured friend the male housemate, and no matter what great adventure I had been on in those heady days of my youth, when my learning curve was near-vertical, and every day seemed an adventure, it was always a pleasure to simply go home.

I have always been a bit of a “foodie”, and would often eat out, arriving home after the “rush hour” in the relatively large and well-equipped house kitchen was over for the evening.  In fact, four out of five dentists surveyed would have guessed that my shelf in the refrigerator, packed with condiments, pickles, recycled glass jars of bacon drippings, and as many bottles of Corona Extra as would fit in the remaining void, was the “man shelf”. And they would have been wrong.  But I digress.

My evening ritual before turning in for the night was, in order, to go into the kitchen, wash and dry any and all dishes and cookware used that day, including the coffee pot, lift the grates off of the gas stovetop and thoroughly clean and polish the stainless steel stovetop, clean the countertops, kitchen table, and stainless steel double basin sink, and finally replace the stove grates and then set upon the perfectly clean stove the small saucepan for my friend to heat his milk for the next morning’s coffee.

Bear in mind, rarely were any of the dishes dirtied by me, as I ate out more often than not.  Further, I was almost never the first in the kitchen in the morning, and was not a ritual morning coffee drinker.  I cleaned the kitchen and set out the next morning’s accouterment not for myself, but for my friend and housemate.  I wanted him to start his day off not with a dirty kitchen, dishes stacked in the sink, and a grease-covered stove, the thought in the back of his mind, “Oh, I’m going to have to clean this kitchen after I get home from work today….”

No. I wanted to give him the smallest of gifts – a little help around the house. And God forgive me, that twenty minutes of quiet, nightly kitchen clean-up, in particular the polishing of the stove and setting out of the saucepan, was the best part of my day. If I were dishonest I would say that something liturgical or some formal prayer was the best part of my day, but it wasn’t.  The silent, spontaneous prayer of thanksgiving that flowed out of my soul as I recalled that day’s events, and how happy I was to be where I was, surrounded by friends, recalling past adventures and making plans for future adventures, and praying for my friend and housemate and his intentions, as I scrubbed grease splatter off of the stove with Ajax grease cutting spray and paper towels – that was the best part of my day.

To this day, if asked to pinpoint my zenith of personal happiness, it has nothing to do with my personal accomplishments in business – my first cattle marketing school, the opening of my brokerage firm, or even my first six-figure month. Nor does it have to do with my reception into the Church, which was more a feeling of relief than anything else.  If you ask me when I felt happy – truly, truly happy – it was when I was cleaning up for a man.  So roll that up real tight in your Virginia Slim cigarette and smoke it, Betty Friedan. It’s almost as if there is some sort of hard-wiring given to us by God – factory-loaded software if you will – nudging us toward our gender-specific vocations that will make us truly happy.

One evening as I was doing the evening tidy-up, my friend and housemate, having eaten his dinner in his room, brought his dishes into the kitchen after I had started cleaning up.  I happily reached out to take his dishes to wash, as I was already standing at the sink washing dishes.  He said, “No, I’ll do it.” And I happily replied, “No, I’m happy to do it.”  Which, as we just covered above, was the understatement of the evening.  At this, he angrily handed me the dishes, growled contemptuously, “You’re SO annoying,” and walked out.

Being human, I was certainly wounded at the revelation that the best part of my day, this small yet concrete act of charity, was a source of annoyance for my friend.  But, I also remembered a book I had read about the life of St. Joseph by the mystic Maria Cecilia Baij.

Baij claimed that the events of the life of St. Joseph were told to her by Our Lord Himself, and I found the book to be most informative and credible.  In it, the Blessed Virgin is described as a meticulous housekeeper, not out of the slightest hint of personal pride, obviously, but out of pure love for Our Lord and St. Joseph.  

Further, I was struck by the realization that Our Lord, who could have miraculously “cleaned” the house for His mother, or summoned angels to do it, let her do it.  Why? Because He wanted her to be happy, and we can only be truly happy when what we do is motivated by love, and what we are doing is proper to our state in life.  She loved St. Joseph because he was one of the finest and most admirable men who has ever lived, and he was her most chaste husband, and she was his wife ever virgin, and she loved Our Lord because He is God, and also her Son.  She who was full of grace, and thus capable of such tremendous love, was, in keeping with her state in life of woman, wife and mother, made truly happy in taking care of and cleaning up after her “Boys”.

After thinking on this, I resolved that I would not stop doing my evening clean-up, and I did until the very end.  I still remember the last night in that house, crying and crying as I polished the stove and set out the saucepan one last time.

Flash forward to today, wherein one of the main focuses of my writing and lecturing is Diabolical Narcissism.  Diabolical Narcissism is the psycho-spiritual driver behind most of the cultural pathologies we see around us today.  Diabolical Narcissism is broadly defined as when a human being, like the fallen angels, freely chooses to purge themselves of all charity, leaving them incapable of love or empathy, and capable of only the demonic emotional palate of anger, hatred, jealousy and fear.  These people are incredibly dangerous to souls as they, like the demons, literally hunt other human beings, attempting to murder not their bodies, but their souls, out of pure spite.

One of the points of nexus I made early on in researching Diabolical Narcissism was that the subset of Marxism commonly called “feminism” is nothing less than the explicit attempt to turn women en masse into Diabolical Narcissists – whereas women have historically comprised less than 20% of the total of Diabolical Narcissists in western populations.  Feminism demands that a woman be totally selfish, and beyond that hate men qua men, hate marriage, and even hate their own children to the point of demanding the state-protected, state-financed ability to premeditatedly murder them.

But where it all began was with the notion that any sort of work performed by a woman around the house was drudgery, a waste of time, an act of patriarchal oppression, even legalized slavery.  Many women today in the post-Christian west are shockingly bad housekeepers, and not just because they are working outside the home.  Many stay-at-home wives and mothers are content to live in squalor, even proud of the fact that they are “sticking it to the man”, boasting of their refusal to clean or inability to cook.

Are we surprised?  As true charity is purged from every corner of our culture, replaced with a self-worshiping narcissistic humanism, is it any wonder that today’s women are simply incapable of understanding how it could possibly be that cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry, or even that most primordial of caring acts, FEEDING another human being, could possibly make them happy, much less fulfill them as women on this mortal coil?

One of my favorite movies is 1954’s “Marty” starring Ernest Borgnine.  A side plot in the film revolves around two widowed sisters, immigrants from Italy, living in the Bronx.  One widowed sister has just moved in with her son, his new wife and their infant child.  The mother is angry and frustrated with her daughter-in-law because the mother can no longer be the sole housekeeper.  While her behavior toward her daughter-in-law is selfish and wrong, she gives a moving speech to her sister, also a widow but still living in her large family home and taking care of her remaining bachelor son, Marty, about the horror of growing old and not having anyone to take care of, not having anything to do.

To today’s women and girls, this sentiment is incomprehensible.  How could a woman complain, much less fall into a depression, because she doesn’t have to clean up after anyone, doesn’t have to do anyone’s laundry, doesn’t have to cook?  In other words, how can a woman not be overjoyed at having no one to love?

Goodness me, how I do hate feminism with a perfect hatred.

The lesson in all of this is to learn to be animated in our work by the love of God, because then all of our tasks and chores that we perform for others which the world considers menial drudgery at best and horrifically unpleasant at worst, including for perfect strangers, will yield that same happiness that comes from doing something for someone we love personally, be it a spouse, child, family member or friend.  This is called, “sanctity”, and is what drove the centuries of religious who took care of the sick and dying, the destitute poor, and orphans.  They saw Christ in every face.  Even those chores that those of us who are single and live alone do for ourselves can be done for the love of God.  And yes, to this day when I clean my own stove I still pray.  But what I wouldn’t give for just one more night to clean up for my friend, because looking back at my life, that was the closest I ever came to being a normal woman, which is why I was, in retrospect, so happy.

And so, when I hear a woman, especially a woman with a family, complaining about housework using the standard diabolical narcissist feminist boilerplate that we can all recite, all I can think is, “Go clean up the kitchen, you stupid, stupid woman.”

 

Barnhardt Podcast #176: Daddy’s Not an Astronaut

[Direct link to the MP3 file]

In this episode, Ann is joined by Non Veni Mark and Dr. Mazza for a rundown of the lastest developments in the Antipapacy, most notably how Charity proceeds from a foundation of Truth, not Truth from Charity. Making up fantasies to explain away absentee fathers only causes heartbreak and scandal when reality is confronted. And reality is ALWAYS eventually confronted. Pray for the Holy Father Pope Benedict, who needs our prayers.

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UPDATED: Cocaine is a helluva drug…

Note that the part in his hair even switches sides. But the big issue is the wild change in physiognomy. It’s the same person. But there is an almost preternatural change in the countenance, a distortion of the features, which is absolutely a textbook effect of demonic involvement. Ask ANY exorcist.

Crosspost: “Once elected pope, he remains pope forever.” Listen up. It is extremely important to get this straight. Benedict is still pope, but NOT because that statement is true. Benedict is still pope because that statement is FALSE, but he thinks it is true. This is error. Substantial Error.

NonVeni Mark, driving the point home. God willing, we are recording a Mazza-Mark-cast on Tuesday to discuss developments, especially the mainstreaming of the admission that Pope Benedict never resigned. -AB


National Catholic Register unwittingly spills the beans on why Benedict is still Pope: “Does one stay pope forever?”

“Does one stay pope forever? In practice, Benedict XVI distinguished between the munus and the officium, that is, between the function and the exercise of the function. Once elected pope, he remains pope forever. In a certain sense, Benedict XVI equated the election as pope with a further episcopal ordination. German theologian Karl Rahner, who emphasized that the power of order and the power of jurisdiction were indissociable, had come to consider the primacy conferred with the election as pope as the highest degree of the sacrament of orders. According to this criterion, the beginning of the pope’s Petrine ministry would represent a unique ordination.”

Once elected pope, he remains pope forever.

Listen up. It is extremely important to get this straight. Benedict is still pope, but NOT because that statement is true. Benedict is still pope because that statement is FALSE, but he thinks it is true.

This is error. Substantial Error. Pope Benedict doesn’t think it possible to really, truly resign. What he intended to resign was only the exercise of the function, the active governance, the ‘doing’ – not the ‘being.’ Which means his entire resignation was invalid, per the Substantial Error clause of Canon 188. It’s plain as day. Which means the conclave convoked by the Cardinals in March 2013 was invalid, and could only produce an antipope. The fact that Antipope Bergoglio is a raging heretic who obviously does not have the protection of the Petrine Promises is merely a confirming proofset of his invalid election. Bergoglio is, in fact, the easiest antipope to spot in the entire history of Church and Her 30 something antipopes in 2000 years.

Full NCRegister article HERE.

Commentary from Miss B. HERE.

Cardinal Burke, call your office.

VATICAN For Benedict XVI, the paedophilia crisis is a crisis of faith

Pope Benedict XVI Ratzinger, the one and only living Pope since April 2005 whether he likes it or not; his minder Archbishop Georg Ganswein; and the criminal usurper Antipope Jorge Bergoglio doing obeisance to the Vicar of Christ.

 

We’re the Baddies: World War Sodomy (with nukes!) is about US bio-weapons labs in Ukraine, which were INTENTIONALLY LEAKING into the human population.

Full crosspost from NonVeniPacem.

If this is true, and it sure seems so between the open admissions by US officials, and all of the documentary receipts, then Vladimir Putin should be wished every success, precisely so that World War Sodomy can be averted, and the people in Ukraine can have some sort of decent government and not be the cesspit of American and New World Order Sodogarchy that it is now, and that the people not be the human Guinea pigs of BigPharma, the Gates Foundation, Anthony Fauci, and the American Deep State.

Meanwhile, the faggot puppet installed by the CIA, Zelensky, sent his wife to the Grand Orient that meets in the US Capitol to beg for weapons and thus drag as many nations into direct conflict with Russia as possible. Because, you realize, World War Sodomy is EXACTLY what the Freemasonic Sodogarchy wants. Death, destruction, chaos, and MASSIVE weapons contracts.

Here’s Mark’s piece, in full.


U.S. funded Ukrainian deathlabs, already fully exposed back in February and ignored, now Russia has the receipts and is about to release the kraken

First, you need to get caught up. I mirrored several posts from Dilyana on this back in February, just weeks after the war started. Start with copies of the actual funding contracts executed between Ukrane and USA to set up the biolabs, all over Ukraine, but particularly along the Russian border:

https://nonvenipacem.com/2022/02/26/ukrainian-deathlabs-fully-funded-by-us-dod-to-study-and-manufacture-bioweapons-biowarfare-scientists-under-diplomatic-cover-wanna-see-the-contracts-and-protocols/

The day before that, the US embassy in Ukraine deleted their entire bio-weapons lab database website:

https://nonvenipacem.com/2022/02/26/why-did-the-us-embassy-in-ukraine-just-delete-their-entire-bio-weapons-lab-database-website/

Next, Dilyana has the receipts on live pathogen testing on humans. Nice:

https://nonvenipacem.com/2022/02/27/dilyana-has-the-receipts-on-all-sorts-of-interesting-us-funded-virus-research-in-ukraine-not-just-in-labs-but-on-real-live-people/

Finally, after weeks of MSM claiming the biolab story was Russian misinformation, Victoria Nuland admitted on March 8th in open testimony on the Senate floor that they were real, they were ours, and they needed to be protected:

https://nonvenipacem.com/2022/03/08/victoria-nuland-just-announced-from-the-floor-of-the-un-that-the-biolabs-in-ukraine-are-real-and-need-to-be-protected-will-this-too-be-deemed-russian-misinformation/

Now you are up to speed. Now you know why Biden’s stolen WH is all-in for Ukraine. And now Russia knows too, and they also know that the release of pathogens was no accident. This is the sutff WWWIII is made of.

Everything below is from Jeff Childers of the CoffeeandCovid substack. Link at the end. More tomorrow.


The next story may possibly be the most significant news I’ve ever reported, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating. The news is that Deputy Chairwoman of the Russian State Duma (congress) Irina Yarovaya gave an update yesterday on Russia’s official investigation into US Biolabs in Ukraine.

What the Russians are saying isn’t pretty. And they claim to have a mountain of evidence. So far, the U.S. has not deigned to respond to any of the deadly serious allegations.

Remember that back in May, the Russians presented evidence to the U.N. Security Council arguing that the U.S. had been performing illegal bioweapons development — AND TESTING — in Ukraine, including accusing the last three Democrat administrations of working with George Soros, Bill Gates, and big pharma to break treaties, develop illegal weapons technology, release bioweapons into Ukraine, test the weapons on soldiers and mental patients, and — most significantly — infect the Russian people and crops.

Specifically, the Russians identified a surprising list of key individuals and groups alleged to have masterminded the conspiracy:

  • The *Democratic National Party*
  • *Barack Obama*
  • *Hilary Clinton*
  • *Joe Biden*
  • *George Soros*

I am not making that up. That’s what the Russians are saying. A remarkable diagram shows all the alleged players that goes far beyond those named above, and includes Pfizer, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others.

The Russians accused the top Democrats of facilitating the illegal research for military purposes in league with big pharma, which was brought in whenever there were tests or leaks, to develop lucrative treatments for the new diseases. In return, argued the Russians, big pharma funneled massive campaign contributions back to Democrats, making a sinister and demonic viral feedback loop.

U.S. corporate media — which furiously leapt on the made-up Russiagate story and for weeks breathlessly reported unsubstantiated allegations against Brett Kavenaugh — completely ignored the Russians’ incredibly serious accusations, fully discounting them as “Russian misinformation” to the point it wasn’t even worth mentioning. The Biden Administration even tried to setup a “disinformation governance board” run by a former Zelensky aid, in an apparent effort to screw an even tighter lid onto the news.

Last week, the Russians announced they intend to release a comprehensive report about the U.S. biolabs program soon — before the midterms — and yesterday, as I said, Chairwoman Yarovaya gave a status update to the Russian Duma, or legislature.

🔥 Yarovaya began her comments yesterday as follows:

“As evidence today, the parliamentary commission may already present the facts that bio laboratories supervised by the Pentagon on the territory of Ukraine did not meet safety criteria. In the current mode of their activity, they posed and pose a colossal threat for citizens of Ukraine and for the whole world.

The facility was not only insecure. Despite the fact that they were working with dangerous viruses and pathogens, there was also a leak. It is quite likely that this explains the growth of epidemics in Ukraine.

But most likely, those who created these laboratories were interested in ensuring [they] were not adequately protected, not only for corruption, but also in order to carry out a live experiment; in this way, to monitor what the reaction from the population would be, what the mortality rate would be, what the consequences would be.”

In other words, the Russians are saying the U.S. has been INTENTIONALLY negligent. The idea would be that the U.S. could deliberately leak pathogens and then hide behind the excuse it was just an accident, because everybody knows the labs are so shoddy. Like when your kids manically swings his arms around acting crazy and then “accidentally” punches his younger brother in the nose. Sorry not sorry!

The Russians’ theory sounds bonkers until you consider Wuhan. Starting in 2018, the State Department published a series of reports about how the biolab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was so insecure and poorly-run. And then nothing whatever was done about it. Then the covid virus “accidentally” leaked and broke the world. So those State Department reports were retrospectively super helpful, in diverting suspicion that the virus was purposefully leaked.

It was just an accident.

The Russians also alleged that the U.S. culprits are hiding behind “animal research;” further concealing their guilt by genetically grafting human infection capabilities onto existing animal viruses, so they can claim natural origins for the newly-developed bugs. Like with covid. Or monkeypox.

If true, it would explain all the “veterinary reasearch” biolabs the U.S. has been building in all these third-world countries that lack oversight or effective supervision and what regulators there are, will — well — look the other way under the right circumstances. And probably pretty cheaply.

Yarovaya said the result of all this intentional negligence has been “unforeseen situations all over the world.” She fingered the U.S. for the novel monkeypox outbreak. “Everything related to coronavirus, monkey pox, should be searched in the test tubes of American laboratories,” she said.

By a totally random coincidence, the very same Wuhan Institute of Virology where covid was developed was also experimenting with monkeypox:

So.

🔥 Because the Russians are naming specific individuals, it is starting to look like the Russians plan to launch a Nuremberg-style international criminal complaint along the lines that so many Americans have been wishing for…

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-coffee-and-covid-tuesday-july-19?

National Catholic Register casually admits what we’ve been saying for years: Pope Benedict never resigned and is still the Pope.

So I guess now the new hotness is to freely admit that Pope Benedict never resigned the Office, only the active governance of the Church; that he believed and believes still that the Papacy is a “Fourth Level” of ordination that can never be resigned; and that Pope Benedict is, in fact, the Pope…

…while blithely ignoring the ontological and explicit canonical impossibility of calling a valid conclave while the Pope is still alive and occupying the See, and by extension the total logical absurdity of having multiple living Popes simultaneously.

How very modern. Refusing to deal with reality by pretending reality doesn’t matter. Or pretending that SUBSTANTIAL ERROR can be shrugged off with an effeminate “Meh”.

Today Canon 188, tomorrow the words of consecration of the Eucharist. “Meh.”

I’m reposting this Register piece IN FULL with screen caps for posterity, because it wouldn’t surprise me if they scrub this later today.

Please KEEP PRAYING the Matthew 17:20 intention with me:

-That Bergoglio be publicly recognized and removed as Antipope and the whole Bergoglian Antipapacy be completely nullified

-That Pope Benedict XVI Ratzinger be publicly recognized as the one and only living Pope, uninterrupted, since April ARSH 2005, whether he likes it or not

-That Antipope Bergoglio repent, revert to Catholicism, die in the state of grace in the fullness of time and someday achieve the Beatific Vision

-And that Pope Benedict repent of whatever he might need to repent of, die in the state of grace in the fullness of time and someday achieve the Beatific Vision.


The Pope Emeritus Puzzle: Will Pope Francis Rewrite the Rules of Resignation?

NEWS ANALYSIS: The Holy Father said if he stepped down, he would hear confessions and dedicate himself to the poor.

Pope Francis is shown with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Monastery of Mater Ecclesiae in Vatican City on June 30, 2015.
Pope Francis is shown with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the Monastery of Mater Ecclesiae in Vatican City on June 30, 2015. (photo: L’Osservatore Romano / Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY — With speculation running rife about whether Pope Francis could resign, and whether he might retire to a residence in the Vatican Gardens like Benedict XVI, it is worth analyzing what the Pope has actually said — and how this aligns with his wider project of a reform for the Roman Curia and the Catholic Church. 

Speaking with the Mexican television company Televisa, Pope Francis has made it known, once again, that he does not intend to give up the Petrine ministry. If and when he does, though, he would not take the title of pope emeritus. 

Instead, Francis would become bishop emeritus of Rome. He would hear confessions and dedicate himself to the poor. 

Where Benedict and Francis Think Differently

His recent comments suggest Pope Francis might go to live in the Lateran Palace, which is the seat of the pope as bishop of Rome.

In the Televisa interview, Pope Francis also discussed — in clear terms — how he thinks the office of pope emeritus should be defined and how he would interpret his own role after a possible renunciation.

Pope Francis’ conception of the office differs from that of his predecessor: Benedict XVI decided to accept the title of pope emeritus and to continue wearing white, although without la pellegrina, which is the white mantle symbolizing episcopal authority.

Benedict XVI defined the terms of his resignation in his last general audience as pope on Feb. 27, 2013: “There can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to resign the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord. ”

Does One Stay Pope Forever?

In practice, Benedict XVI distinguished between the munus and the officium, that is, between the function and the exercise of the function. Once elected pope, he remains pope forever.

In a certain sense, Benedict XVI equated the election as pope with a further episcopal ordination. German theologian Karl Rahner, who emphasized that the power of order and the power of jurisdiction were indissociable, had come to consider the primacy conferred with the election as pope as the highest degree of the sacrament of orders. According to this criterion, the beginning of the pope’s Petrine ministry would represent a unique ordination.

Pope Francis, however, plans to be bishop emeritus of Rome. He would no longer have the Petrine primacy and therefore would return to work in public life as a confessor and likely also reside in the Lateran Palace.

This role was outlined by Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, canonist and soon-to-be cardinal (at the August consistory), in an essay from 2013 republished by Civiltà Cattolica.

Seeking a Reform That Works

Father Ghirlanda’s essay offers many observations on the role of a pope emeritus, starting with the fact that ordination and authority are distinct from one another. The issue is a fundamental one and came up during the reform of the Roman Curia when laypeople were allowed to take up positions in the Curia departments.

If that is the standard, episcopal ordination is no longer a prerequisite for authority, much less collegiality with the pope, who is also a bishop.

In his statements, Pope Francis seems to be intending not to separate munus and officium. One ceases with the cessation of the other, and whoever renounces them returns to their previous life.

Will this be the reform that is announced for the office of pope emeritus? It is possible, certainly. The extent to which a bishop emeritus of Rome can influence the life of the Church will also require definition. By the admission of Pope Francis himself, everything in recent years has worked for the extraordinary character of Benedict XVI. But would it work the same with another pope emeritus?