Reader suggestion Domingos Del Omo Filho, Sorocaba, SP
Illustrates Estevan Silveira
Edition Felipe van Deursen
– (Estevan Silveira/)
1. LACK OF SECURITY
The pope abdicated the throne of the Church in February 2013, a year after his personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, leaked private Vatican documents to the press, in the case known as “Vatileaks”. Cardinal Francis Arinze, a friend of the pope, told TV that it had shaken the confidence of Benedict 16 on his allies, which would have motivated his departure from the scene
– (Estevan Silveira/)
2. BAD COMPANIES
One of the documents was called “gay lobby”. It allegedly revealed that the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone, would lead a parallel power, which ignored pope decisions, such as punishing pedophile priests (the majority gay, according to the Church – hence the name of the file). The plot would use the Vatican Bank in corruption schemes of politicians and mobsters
3. LITTLE CHARISMA
In 2013, the Brazilian ex-friar Leonardo Boff, who studied with Benedict 16 at the University of Munich, in Germany, said in an interview that his colleague is an intellectual, who resigned because he felt frustrated. According to Boff, the Church needed a pastor, not an uncharismatic teacher like him.
– (Estevan Silveira/)
4. ACCOUNT SETTLEMENT
For the British Geoffrey Robertson, author of Is the Pope to blame?the resignation was compensation by the Church for the abuses it would have neglected during the era Benedict 16. In 2011, the International Criminal Court received a complaint against the pope and three cardinals for concealing sexual crimes against children around the world. The Vatican has not commented
– (Estevan Silveira/)
5. CHAIN IN SIGHT
The International Tribunal for Crimes of Church and State, an independent body with powers to convict criminal political leaders, claimed that the pope resigned to avoid arrest. Among the justifications is the alleged involvement of Benedict 16 in Vatican Bank criminal activities such as money laundering and conspiracy
– (Estevan Silveira/)
6. PREMEDITED DEATH
In January 2012, Colombian Cardinal Darío Hoyos delivered a letter to the pope in which another cardinal, Paolo Romeo, claimed to have overheard a plot to assassinate Benedict 16. She did not mention when or how, but the plan would be linked to the conflict between the pope and Bertore. The content was disclosed by the Roman newspaper The Daily Fact
– (Estevan Silveira/)
7. SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION
Once Pope Francis took over, Benedict told the Catholic Zenit news agency that he had had a mystical experience, during which God had inspired in him an absolute desire to dedicate his life to prayer rather than continue as pope. «It was God’s will,» he said.
– (Estevan Silveira/)
8. CHRISTIAN PROPHECY
Since 1929, when the Vatican State was established, every pope has been declared a king. Benedict 16 was seventh on that list. O Apocalypseat Biblesays that the seventh prophetic king (or pope) would have a transitional mandate: “When he comes, he must last a little while”
On the other hand…
Truths and faith are mixed in the diffusion of the theory
- The pope took control of the Church at a troubled time, when a considerable number of high-ranking Vatican priests were part of a corrupt and power-divided government.
- Pope Francis himself once admitted: “The court is the leprosy of the papacy”. the successor of Benedict 16 called the curia narcissistic and selfish
- Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman at the time of the resignation, explained that the Church needed a pope with more physical and spiritual energy.
- In 2010, Benedict 16 wrote the book Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Timesin which he left open the possibility of resigning if he did not feel capable
- Already in the book The Last Conversationsreleased in 2016, he said he had not come under pressure to resign, but that the Vatican’s «gay lobby» tried to influence decisions
- The pope has been heavily criticized for his silence on the scandal of pedophilia cases around the world.
- In 2012, the US State Department placed the Vatican on the list of states potentially susceptible to money laundering for the first time.
- The prophecy about the transitional seventh prophetic king also states that the next leader would be the last. So, is the end of the world coming?
SOURCES Books The Popesby Richard McBrien; BBC, Folha de S.Paulo, O Globo It is The Republic