A popular Catholic blogger has published a piece calling the recent affirmations of Mr. Andrea Cionci of “nonsense” and “fiction”. The blogger adds insult to injury by calling those who agree with Cionci —including yours truly— “profiteers looking to make money” and other things. But that is not the serious part. The blogger, whose influence is not minimal, estimated that Pope Benedict made an error, in fact “the biggest error in the history of the papacy” etc. In doing so, the blogger displayed (at best) ignorance about the intellectual evolution of Joseph Ratzinger and certain ignorance about the value and weight of formal declarations by a Pope.

This is not deep theology and there is no need to get overtly emotional and start accusing and insulting people. We have more important problems at the time. So the bullets below should be enough. Forgive me for not being a canonist or a theologian. I have to rely on common sense. This brief assumes a familiarity of the reader with the matter at hand.

  • At the time of his Declaratio, Pope Benedict XVI was the Pope. According to Jesus in Matthew 16, Benedict had at the time the divinely given privilege to “tie and untie” infallibly. His Declaratio was prima facie a valid papal document.
  • If there was a substantial doctrinal error then it reasonably follows that (1) Jesus lied to Peter in Matthew 16:19  [see also : “Pray for me that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”] (Matthew 10:16)  and (2) the Holy Spirit failed to assist a sitting true successor of Peter. (John 16:13)
  • If the above two points are true, it follows logically that St. Matthew, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father have failed to sustain the Papal inerrancy and truth in important matters … and all of them were caught in error by: a blogger!
  • The same also forget that Pope Benedict could have been instructed or inspired by the Holy Spirit to act as he did. (Matthew 10:16) Here I must say that the precision of the public statements made by Benedict since the days of the Declaratio (almost a decade ago) are nearly astonishingly smart for a person of his advanced age. I am much younger than Benedict and have i.e. recently confused Goethe with Schopenhauer; the Northern Kingdom with the Southern Kingdom and a number of other embarrassing snafus that I prefer not to recall now.

I bear no animosity to those who think that the likes of Mr. Cionci, Fr. Minutella and others (including myself) are pushing “a fiction” to “make some money” etc. First, I am not pushing anything, I merely stated my rather irrelevant opinion in a blog of no importance. And I am more than willing to be corrected if proven wrong. My current state of penury is more than enough to prove me innocent of the profiteering charge. There is a button out there for those who voluntarily want to support this blog. I do not have “premium content”, organize “cruise vacations” or force anyone to make a donation. By the way, donations are rare and no one is getting fat on them. Adding the presumption of wicked intentions to an act of defamation only makes it worse.

I hereby declare my opinions are sincere. I could be wrong —I have been wrong more times than right— and I will be happy to be corrected. More so in important matters like this. There is no need to start a war or call someone names. That is not the way we were instructed to behave and I am the first to admit guilt in that department.

On August 15, 2022 I will complete 20 years in the Catholic Church, where I was received by deceivers (oh! irony of ironies!) belonging to an infamous conspiratorial group based in Switzerland. Notice that I don’t call them ‘mafia’ —I have known some mafiosi in my time and I am not about to offend anyone with insulting comparisons! In those 20 years I have been vilified, “dossiers” and “records” have been produced to smear and damage me but … the great treason and sin that I was expected to produce never happened. On the contrary, many of my accusers have been shamed in a court of law. I will mercifully avoid naming names but you may know at least three of them through the news services of the world (and you may see more of them in the media in the months to come).

To publicly opine about such high matters, one should be at the very least a well formed Catholic and know the subject. The intellectual evolution of Joseph Ratzinger from a more liberal position to his more traditional present is well known. It is unfair to bring up something from the past to criticize what the man is today. Ratzinger was himself critical of his past intellectual positions more than once. (Judges 14:14)

Let me finish by asking your prayers for our Pope, Benedict XVI, for Andrea Cionci, for Fr. Minutella, for yours truly, for misinformed self righteous bloggers and for the enemies of the Church that are already working (in vain) for our destruction. As we were told to do: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:40-48) Try it and see what happens.

Roman shtick (Shtikus Romanus)

 

For those who understand Italian. This video where Andrea Cionci is interviewed and perfectly refutes the sloppy thinking of his detractors with solid logic and his usual kindness. English subtitles available on YouTube.