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Is Benedict XVI The Real Pope? Four Factors Fueling Vatican Conspiracy Theories
Religion News Service  | By David Gibson
Posted: 11/26/2014 4:33 pm EST Updated: 11/26/2014 4:59 pm EST




   
(RNS) When Benedict XVI stunned Catholics by announcing that he would become the first pope in six centuries to resign, it immediately raised concerns — which were dismissed just as quickly — that an ex-pope around could undermine the legitimacy of the new pontiff.

Now, nearly two years later, those fears are emerging again, fueled by the growing discontent of conservative Catholics with Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis, and by Benedict’s presence, if not quite as a player, in church debates Francis has sparked.

“Benedict is hanging back for now, but there’s no doubt that he could easily become a figurehead for traditionalists harkening back to the good old days,” Notre Dame New Testament professor Candida Moss and Joel Baden, Old Testament professor at Yale Divinity School, warned in a Daily Beast column earlier this month.

Hubert Wolf, a church historian at the University of Münster, echoed those thoughts in comments reported by a leading German newspaper last week, when he said there were worries that “around Francis and Benedict XVI, two competing power centers could come into being in the (Roman) Curia, with pope and anti-pope at the top of each.”

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2. Conspiracy theories won’t die

Good luck telling that to some Catholics and conspiracy-lovers, who have propounded a number of theories they say undermine Francis’ claims to the papacy.

Among them: Benedict used incorrect Latin in his formal resignation letter, so it is invalid; alternately, they say, the cardinals in the March 2013 conclave that elected Francis violated certain procedures, so his election is null and void.

The speculation was so insistent that on the first anniversary of his resignation last February, an exasperated Benedict publicly called notions that he was still pope “simply absurd.”

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4. And talks like a pope …

When Benedict retired, he said he would remain “hidden to the world,” living in seclusion in a monastery inside the Vatican walls. But Francis has encouraged Benedict to come out once in a while, and the former pope has not only taken part in some public events but also made his views known in letters and other communications.

No surprise, not all of his views seem to be in sync with those of Francis, which raises alarms among some, and hopes among others.

The latest example was when an edited volume of Benedict’s theological writings was published and it turned out he had deleted a key part of a 1972 essay in which he advocated a way for divorced and remarried Catholics to take Communion — a proposal that Francis has put on the table, to the intense displeasure of many conservatives.

Benedict’s redaction was seen as thwarting any effort to enlist him on the side of the reformers, and it placed him squarely in the center of the latest controversies.

In the end, it seems far-fetched to think Benedict would become an actual anti-pope or foment a real schism.

For one thing, at 87, he is too frail to take any active role in church governance. Moreover, nothing in his past record or his post-retirement statements gives any hint that he would even contemplate such a divisive step.

The problem is, it’s really not about Benedict; it’s about his followers. Their passion is likely to outlast the ex-pope himself.

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