Posted on 08/27/2021 9:35:11 AM PDT by viewfromthefrontier
This is all part of the Tradition-smashing. Repercussions and unintended consequences are going to gain momentum due to the TC edict. Bergoglio wants to diminish Benedict’s power and/or influence in case he becomes a rallying point for trad catholics. If he’s an “emeritus” he has clout.
It’s not clear that he’s issuing an apostolic exhortation and only an apostolic exhortation. Nor did I mean to suggest that only canon law would establish an understanding of what “pope emeritus” actually means in the future. My point was only that Pope Francis need not have the charism of infallibility to provide a default understanding of what he means by “pope emeritus” if he, or even a subsequent pope, chooses to claim that title (recognizing that a subsequent pope could plainly redefine the term to fit his own usage).
>> For one thing, it would make it easier for him to pick his successor. Otherwise the next Pope might be be someone who would derail the reset and return to tradition. <<
Any cardinal which give one whit about tradition would surely vote against anyone he felt an abdicating pope was campaigning for. Pope Benedict stayed far, far away from the conclave; the worst that could be said for him, IIRC, was he long previously said he thought Bergoglio would have been a better choice than he. But don’t hold that against him: you can hardly suppose from that he would STILL choose Bergoglio, since (1) Bergoglio had since become as old as Benedict had been when Benedict complained he was too old; (2) Bergoglio had seemed like he was the champion against every error that Bergoglio now forces upon the church.
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