Critique by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
I publish, above, a link to this interview (click the image) for the sake of the historical record.
As can be seen the Archbishop has advanced an opinion regarding the juridical invalidity of Pope Francis’s pontificate which is unique in the Church. For he holds that Pope Benedict XVI validly resigned, but that the Conclave of 2013 was invalid due to vote canvassing. Thus, he holds that the upcoming Conclave will be canonically invalid for having Cardinal Electors not appointed by a true pope and having too many of them, 135 instead of 120.
He also holds the position that he has always been faithful to the Church and had begun to denounce unworthy candidates to the episcopate nearly 30 years ago, and explains under this light how he has been persecuted since then, even though he went along with all the other Cardinals in accepting Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation as an abdication, which it was not.
Yet, he also holds that the Church needs a Great Catholic Reset, which requires that Pope Benedict XVI never abdicated.
It is easy to make a claim, but it is not reasonable that anyone make a claim without evidence. That is why it is reasonably claimed that Pope Benedict XVI never abdicated, because there is no act made by him which is conformable to the terms of canon 332 §2. — Yet, while sometimes Archbishop Viganò says things which imply this is the case, but at other times the opposite.
For example if you say the Conclave of 2013 was invalid because of vote-canvassing, or because Jorge Mario Bergoglio was a heretic or Freemason before he was elected, then you are also taking the position that Pope Benedict XVI validly resigned.
Also, if you take the position that the next Conclave will be invalid due to the participation of Cardinal Electors appointed by Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio), you have to demonstrate that either there is canonically demonstrable evidence of vote-canvassing in the Conclave of 2013, or that Pope Benedict XVI never resigned, AND that there was no juridically valid election of Pope Benedict XVI’s successor.
Yet, he also advances the thesis of the Great Catholic Reset, which is only possible if Pope Benedict XVI never validly resigned!
These are tall orders. But the Archbishop wants the Catholic world to accept his assertions without proof and without himself being consistent as to which juridical position he is taking.
Thus, while we can have a lot of sympathy for the Archbishop on account of his being persecuted or on account of the great amount of truth which he says, his lack of consistency damages his reputation, because how can anyone agree with a man who this month advances one argument, and the next advances another?
As the readers of FromRome.Info know, since FromRome was the first to extensively cover the vote-canvassing scandal in 2013 (See our Chronology of Reports on Team Bergoglio), and the first to extensively follow the controversy over Pope Benedict XVI’s renunciation, going so far as to publish a Scholastic Question containing the arguments for and against (See our Index to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation), I have always been consistent in reporting the facts and the laws and not expressing an opinion which runs counter to either. Therefore, to me, the Archbishop seems to be intending to say whatever he calculates, today, will discredit the legitimacy of his ecclesiastical superiors without any intellectual integrity of avoiding claims without basis in facts and law, and when on the morrow another argument seems better, to sustain that one, forgetting he held a different opinion before.
I won’t even mention that the Archbishop thinks that the Russian Federation is fully justified in attacking the Christian Nation of Ukraine.
However, what makes the Archbishop’s position even more curious, is that if after the Death of Pope Benedict on Dec. 31, 2022, he held there was not valid pope, why did he NOT write to the Cardinal Dean to call for a Conclave NOR organize the Faithful of Rome to do it, when the Dean failed to respond to his letter? He was, back then, after all, an Archbishop incardinated at the Vatican, and he would have been fully in his rights to do so! Yet, he is so opposed to such a suggestion, that he not only did not attend the Assembly of the Faithful held on January 30, 2023, in accord with all the rules of Apostolic Right and to fulfill all the requirements of Canon Law, but he studiously avoided even any mention to it, though he was fully informed and invited.
So if the Archbishop laments that no Cardinal has ever contacted him, perhaps it is because he is so inconsistent in his position, that no right-thinking Cardinal would know what to say to him, or what meeting with him would mean, for the Archbishop, objectively speaking, has taken the position of a disgruntled Vatican employee, who is willing to say anything to discredit his employer, but has no intellectual integrity himself, a thing which requires consistency, at the very least.
For the record, many of my friends and supporters have written to the Archbishop sharing information with him from FromRome.Info. He has never responded to them even though he knows who they are and corresponds with some of them regularly.
UPDATE: Father Nix, an influential traditionalist priest in Colorado, has responded to the Archbishop’s interview above, by publicly endorsing the Sedevacantist thesis that Pope Francis was never a true pope. At the same time, he appears to think that the next Conclave could be legitimate, but only if they elect a Catholic. This is the joke-poney position of all those who were never clear thinkers, but who are successful for publishing click bait. See here for the commentary by Father Nix.
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The Book on the Trinity, every faithful Catholic priest would love as his next present
This is Br. Bugnolo's English Translation, of Saint Bonaventure's encylopedic book of theology on the Trinity: With this book, your priest will always have something intelligent and awesomely inspiring to preach to you about
God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit!
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This fund was started by Ordo Militaris Catholicus, an international relief organization founded by Br. Bugnolo and AJ Baalman. Click the image for more information.
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