00 10/08/2017 03:48




ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI


See preceding page for earlier entries today,8/9/17.




BTW, he is not 'former Benedict XVI' - he will always be Benedict XVI

I have been 'indulgent' about the many violations of Journalism 101 perpetrated by the editors and writers of the English newsbits we get from Gloria.TV, mostly because I only occasionally use their material, and only when the item appears properly sourced or at least traceable to its primary source. Unfortunately, like the two major Catholic news aggregators in English, the outlet seems to be more interested in 'catchy' headlines that are not always supported by the associated news report. But in this case, my objection rises to the level of outrage.

The news item above is clearly wrong - as it seems to be based only on a photograph taken recently in which the Emeritus Pope's ring is more or less 'clearly' seen. To deduce from the few pixels the ring occupies in the context of the entire photograph that he is still wearing the Fisherman's Ring is just wrong!

He surrendered that ring upon stepping down from the Papacy for the Papal Camerlengo to do what he is supposed to do with the ring of someone who is no longer pope - by death, usually, but obviously, not in the case of Benedict XVI - which is to smash it or do whatever is necessary to forever stop it from being the symbol of a sitting pope's authority.

It was reported after February 28, 2013, that Benedict had chosen to henceforth wear a ring that he had commissioned as a gift to his new cardinals in 2010. He no longer has his own personal cardinal's ring to wear because he had offered it to the Madonna of Altoetting on his pilgrimage to her shrine during his apostolic visit to Bavaria in 2006. So the generic cardinal's ring he commissioned is the ring we see in the photo below where he is shown greeting Pope Francis at Mater Ecclesiae:


I have cropped the images to show the ring better (though I am sorry I do not have the tools to optimize the images) - it has a clearly rectangular outline compared to the elliptical design of Benedict XVI's 'Fisherman's Ring', which I have shown inset (its surface is more bas-relief unlike the cardinal's ring he now wears which has a raised surface).

For Gloria.TV to say outright that the emeritus pope is still wearing the Ring of the Fisherman is just one of the most audacious accusations ever laid against him. And to what purpose?

It is bad enough that the hydra-headed myth about his renunciation continues to rear one of its many heads from time to time, even if the two largest 'heads' are contradictory - one maintaining that Benedict XVI believes he is still pope, or at least, shares the papacy with the reigning pope, thus he 'affects' papal airs and outward simulacra of being pope; and the other that he has been so coopted by this pope that he is subserviently approving everything he says and does, no matter how opposite it is to what Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has stood for all his life.

This horrid and totally gratuitous 'fake news' (I hate the term but this time, it does apply] only serves to feed the greedy maw of the first hydra-head. And watch how all the 'traddies' will run with it - they now love to portray Benedict XVI as the Big Bad Wolf who betrayed the Church because he supports Vatican II, which for them means supporting everything negative about it including its false 'Spirit' and all its distortions of Catholic doctrine and practice. But did we hear this from them before he decided to leave the Papacy?

Besides, it is not for him - much less for any of them - to simply decide to ignore Vatican II as if it has not been a legitimate ecumenical council, which is just as infallible as a pope in matters that define faith and morals.

These 'traddies' fault Bergoglio for choosing to ditch the key provision in Familiaris consortio - shouldn't they fault themselves more for insisting that Vatican II should be completely ignored and simply dumped?



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/08/2017 04:55]