Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said in an article published Friday that the unity of the Church has always prevailed over internal struggles and affirmed that there is currently only one pope.
“The Pope is one, it is Francis,” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI said in an interview with an Italian magazine published by Corriere Della Sera June 28.
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“In the end the awareness that the Church is and must remain united has always prevailed. Its unity has always been stronger than internal struggles and wars,” the pope emeritus explained.
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's conclusion would be correct since it was an extrapolation based on the past and on generalities. The world has changed to become more secular and less religious and so has the Church having its moral authority eroded by sex scandals, causing in part the number of churches to dwindle, probably due to the lack of funds and attendance, and large sums of money paid out in legal fees and out-of-court settlements resulting from sexual abuse cases.
Quoted below is from an article published by the Chicago Tribune entitled Chicago Catholics struggle to build future with fewer priests as parishes shrink, cash dwindles on January 4, 2019 [3]:
As dioceses across America face backlash from sex abuse scandals — including recent revelations that the number of clergy accused of sex abuse in Illinois is much higher than previously disclosed — and adapt to an increasingly secular society, Chicago’s church leaders hope to reanimate and rebuild the city’s Catholic population.
Cardinal Blase Cupich said change is inevitable. If the archdiocese doesn't command it in an organized, disciplined way, parishes will eventually be forced to close as they run out of resources.
Even though change is part of life with an element of inevitability (such as aging), change does not have to be a net negative. Change can be positive. People can be totally honest, can be truly humble and as holy as possible, concepts that are probably foreign to many clerics.
What is deemed a positive or a negative change depends on one's perspective. For some in the Catholic Church, promoting sex criminals up the ranks like Theodore McCarrick was a good thing, covering up for sexual predators within the Catholic Church, the possibility of ordaining women priests and outlawing the Tridentine (Latin) Mass [4] are all good things.
After "[t]he head of the Knights of Malta, an international religious order that operates in about 120 countries, has formally forbidden the use of the pre-conciliar Latin language Mass in the order's liturgical celebrations worldwide" [5], Bergoglio in his official capacity as pope received "[t]he Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Fra’ Giacomo Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, was this morning received in audience in the Vatican by Pope Francis. The meeting was the annual occasion for updating His Holiness on the principal medical and social activities, and the diplomatic commitments, of the ancient Catholic institution, which today is present in 120 countries." [6]
Unity between those who want total transparency based on the truth and those who prefer to hide behind lies, between those who prefer the Latin Mass and those who prefer the Novus Ordo Mass and between those who prefer the Catholic Church to have only male clerics and those who want the Catholic Church to be like some of the Protestant churches with female priests, perhaps progressing to having lesbian bishops over time, remains an unattainable ideal.
Many who love the Catholic Church who may be struggling for holiness, for a intimate relationship with God may be having a difficult time with the Church going in different and opposite directions, and all Benedict XVI had done was hide behind his extensive knowledge and vast intellect without being a shepherd to the herd. He is still a shepherd who in a way had told his sheep, too bad, just live with it without showing them where to find Christ's peace.
Many who love the Catholic Church who may be struggling for holiness, for a intimate relationship with God may be having a difficult time with the Church going in different and opposite directions, and all Benedict XVI had done was hide behind his extensive knowledge and vast intellect without being a shepherd to the herd. He is still a shepherd who in a way had told his sheep, too bad, just live with it without showing them where to find Christ's peace.
At least Benedict XVI acknowledged indirectly that the Church has problems with its internal struggles and stated with certainty that there was only one pope.
Too bad that this pope, Bergoglio, is so weakened by demonic forces that he is unable to do what Christ did, to wash the feet of His disciples [7]. In Bergoglio's case, it would be the feet of all the cardinals and bishops. not limited to those who are sycophants, and not limited to the selected prisoners staged to act out the drama, that Bergoglio would kneel down to wash.
Not only Bergoglio, Benedict XVI also did not wash the feet of cardinals and bishops. By not doing more as emeritus pope, Benedict XVI in a way did what Pontius Pilate did. Pilate acknowledged that Jesus was innocent yet he handed Him over to the people to be crucified. Benedict XVI acknowledged that the Church is not to be blamed yet has done nothing but stand on the sidelines watching it tear itself apart from the inside. The Church is now carrying its own cross to be crucified under scandals, conflicts, hypocrisy, internal power struggles, corruption and uncertainty.
One can suppose that popes are just ordinary hypocrites who happened to be voted in to take the seat of Peter, the Apostle, to represent Christ. One has to wonder if any of the popes throughout history was able to actually love in the way Christ loves with His whole Heart, His Sacred Heart.
Speaking of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, yesterday, Friday, 28 June 2019, was the Feast Of The Sacred Of Jesus, according to the 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal. The passage below is quoted from The Catholic Spiritual Life [8]:
The Sacred Heart took off as a liturgical feast after the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque ["Marguerite Marie Alacoque"] [9] in the seventeenth century. But it rests on earlier medieval devotions. In the wondrous thirteenth century, St. Gertrude envisioned laying her head near the wounded heart of Jesus, as St. John had laid his head on the breast of Jesus the night before he died, and entering into the passion of his love.
The unity of the Catholic Church will ultimately come to rest in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, not through the workings or intellectual musings of popes and other clerics.
[2] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
