The risk of defection in the United States – Corriere.it

Perhaps the interest in the São Paulo cation is exaggerated, given the eschatological and apocalyptic resonances associated with the mysterious person of “the one who recedes”.

However, of course, in recent years, Pope Benedict XVI, as Pope Emeritus, has “a critical element of stability and détente”, reflecting in the Vatican those who knew him well. «Especially on the front of those who were more or less inspired by him and opposed Francis, the death of Joseph Ratzinger can cause two opposite results. Or further pacification, which, moreover, is unlikely. or, more likely, cause strong instability, In the Vatican as well as in the universal Church.

Benedict XVI, of the Abbey of the Mother Church, was an exemplar from the point of view of what was once called, when it was more widespread, “the sense of the Church.” The Pope is the Pope For a Catholic, it is not possible to choose the reference closest to your ideas. A lesson given immediately by Ratzinger, on February 28, 2013, when he addressed the cardinals a few hours before the activation of his resignation from the papacy, without knowing who his successor would be: the cardinals, there is also the future pope he prepared today My unconditional appreciation and obedience. The same words he repeated to Francis when the new pope invited him to Castel Gandolfo on the evening of his election.

And so, for about ten years, through his writings or the secrets entrusted to biographer Peter Seewald, Ratzinger’s words dampened the centrifugal momentum Clearer. And it’s not just the extreme wing, or the “Seduction Believers” or the various conspiracy theorists, who never forgave his ostracism or fancied it wasn’t true, Benedetto has been coerced by who knows what powers: «It’s all nonsense. Nobody tried to blackmail me. I wouldn’t even allow it, ”Fakhri explained.

Bad moods grew over the years and grew as well The focus of opposition is the United States.

We’ve been talking about it for some time The “schism” of the Catholic right in the United States, Anti-Bergoglio and rich in finance and networks, which has been hovering like a ghost for years, a threat to which Francis has already responded calmly but dryly, in 2019, speaking to reporters: «I pray that there will be no division, but I am not afraid: There were many divisions in the Church … ».

However, the landscape is diverse. There is the most extreme and most vital part, represented by the former ambassador to New York Carlo Maria Vigano, now retired Archbishop who was already Francesco’s resignation request in 2018 Meanwhile, he accused him, among other things, of being “on the side of the enemy”, i.e. Satan, and leading with a “false magisterium” the church that wants to be “the spiritual arm of the new world order and advocate of the world religion” to make a “concrete” plan of Freemasonry and to prepare for the emergence Antichrist.” There is the ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, already a friend and then in a feud with Steve Bannon, the leader of the Outspoken Opponents. Then there is the less visible but more subtle resistance: in November the US bishops elected a majority as the new president. Timothy B. Broglioordinary military and former secretary to the then Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano, a candidate known to be very distant from Francis.

Those who never fully grasped Bergoglio’s pontificate become orderlies, and it is no mystery that they are already thinking of the next conclave. The reference point for the most conservative wing of the Vatican is the Cardinal of Guinea Robert Sarah77 years old.

At the opposite extreme is the other dreaded “divisionism,” the “progressive” “divisionism” that references Germany and the Synod of the German Churchwith discussions on the female priesthood, the possibility of blessing same-sex couples, a revision of mandatory priestly celibacy (“for some priests it would be better if they were married,” German Cardinal Reinhard Marx remarked), in short, a series of issues discussed above all among the faithful from Northern Europe.

between Spain, France and even Italy, The bad mood of the silent episcopate, which has not yet appeared. Francis knows all of this. The Synod of October 2023 is approaching, and it is no coincidence that he wanted to extend the time and predict a second part in 2024, to calm the growing tensions. The Pope wants the Church to think of herself and finding new ways of speaking to the world, without barriers or leaps forward: to the point of speaking of ideological “backwardness” and “progressiveness” as “evidence of infidelity.”