30 Settembre 2022 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti

Marco Tosatti

Dear friends and foes of Stilum Curiae, we are pleased to offer for your attention this review of Andrea Cionci’s book, The Ratzinger Code, written by A Marian Soul. Enjoy reading it.

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Piecing Together the Puzzle of Benedict XVI’s Resignation

Book Review of The Ratzinger Code by Andrea Cionci (Byoblu Editions, 2022)

By A Marian Soul

The Declaratio of February 11, 2013, with all the errors highlighted

For the past nine years, one topic has been strictly taboo for respectable, faithful Catholic writers: the resignation of Benedict XVI. Until now. The Ratzinger Code, which is a #1 bestseller in Italy since its release in May 2022, is the fruit of Italian journalist Andrea Cionci’s investigation in excruciating detail of everything Benedict XVI has said and done since the fateful morning of February 11, 2013, when he read his Latin Declaratio aloud in the presence of the College of Cardinals. The result is a relentlessly logical investigation, drawing on the contributions of numerous experts, that is refreshingly unafraid to go wherever the trail leads in uncovering the truth.

The evidence being considered resembles a pile of puzzle pieces. There are numerous bits of information and statements that at first seem like they don’t make sense, but upon a closer look are revealed to be part of a consistent method of communicating by Benedict XVI.

For example, consider these facts:

• For nine years now, Benedict XVI has repeatedly said, “There is only one pope” – yet without ever saying “…it’s Francis” or indicating which one of the two it is.

• When asked about the text of his Declaratio, Benedict XVI, who is renowned as an excellent and refined Latinist, said, “I wrote it in Latin because such an important thing is done in Latin. … I could have also written it in Italian but there was the danger that I would make some mistakes.” And yet, within days of its release in February 2013, well-known philologists publicly pointed out that there are over twenty grammatical and syntactical errors in the short document.

• In 1983, John Paul II specifically changed the Code of Canon Law – with the assistance of Cardinal Ratzinger – splitting the papal office into two juridical entities, the munus and the ministerium. This distinction is drawn from German dynastic law where its purpose is to prevent the usurpation of dynastic thrones.

• The various official translations of the Declaratio by the Holy See obliterated the key distinction between the Latin terms munus and ministerium and arbitrarily translated the Latin verb vacet as “the see will be vacant” when it actually only means “empty” or “free.”

• At 5:30 p.m. on February 28, 2013, Benedict XVI stood on the balcony at Castel Gandolfo and said, “You know this day of mine is different from the previous ones; I am no longer Pontefice Sommo [Pontiff Supreme] of the Catholic Church . . . until eight o’clock in the evening I still am, but then no longer.” But there is no such thing as “Pontiff Supreme” in the Catholic Church; there is only a Supreme Pontiff, and the Holy See changed Benedict’s words in the official transcript.

• Numerous canonical experts agree that there is simply no canonical entity of “pope emeritus,” and yet in 2017 Benedict wrote to Cardinal Brandmuller: “By using the title of ‘pope emeritus’ I tried to create a situation … where it is completely clear that there is only one pope.”

• In 2016, Benedict said, ““No pope has resigned for a thousand years, and even in the last millennium it has been an exception.” And yet, Celestine V resigned in 1294, well under 800 years ago, and a total of four popes resigned in the second millennium. So Cionci applies logic: “Either Benedict XVI does not have a good memory, or he is communicating something extremely precise to us.”

• As a youth, Joseph Ratzinger had a passionate devotion for German vaudeville comedian Karl Valentin, and in 1989 Cardinal Ratzinger was inducted into the “Order of Karl Valentin.” Valentin was famous for his unique and clever skill of “playing on words,” and he died in 1948 on Rosenmontag, the Monday before the start of Lent, a famous holiday of Carnival in Germany which every German associates with playing pranks. And yet, when asked if there was any significance to his resigning on Rosenmontag (February 11, 2013, was the Monday before the start of Lent), Benedict said, “I was not aware that it was Rosenmontag.” Ask any German person – something doesn’t add up.

As the puzzle is constructed, there are simply too many elements that do not add up. Cionci proposes that if Benedict XVI, who possesses a brilliant theological mind, continues to repeatedly say things that “don’t add up,” may we not surmise that he is actually trying to communicate something about the state of duress in which the See of Peter currently finds itself?

Writes Cionci: “To summarize with an image, by his 2013 Declaratio, Benedict XVI is like someone who has boarded a lifeboat, escaping from a burning ship, carrying with him the “seeds,” the “transmissible DNA” of true Roman Catholicism: he alone preserves the Petrine munus, the papal title conferred on him directly by God [at the moment of his election in 2005], and nothing can take it away from him except death or a valid resignation.”]

Those who wish to expand their horizons in understanding the present crisis of the Church and the papacy ought to attentively read this book. Those who wish to repeat the same old tired narrative will ignore or belittle it. As Cionci writes in his Preface: “We are living through a “final war,” and it is necessary to decide which side we are on: the side of the Truth, or the side of the Lie.” The Ratzinger Code is a sincere and laudable effort to shed light on the Truth. It raises many more questions than it answers, and readers may well disagree with some of Cionci’s conclusions. Nevertheless, no astute follower of today’s ecclesiastical landscape can afford not to read this painstakingly well-documented investigation.

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Tag: anima mariana, cionci, libro

Categoria: Generale