Pope Benedict was an old man when Pope Francis was picked by the cardinals while Benedict was still alive. Scholars share this while others point out that Benedict warned about what will soon happen to Christians.
An interesting article out of Italy claims that Pope Benedict did not abdicate his title to the cardinals and was the true pope till his death.
The article translated from Italian says:
Let’s remember one of the last messages of Pope Ratzinger: “You can believe, or not believe; the answer is the in the Book of Jeremiah.” And in this book, ad vocem the word “sleep” comes out: “With poison I will prepare a drink for them, I will inebriate them so that they become stunned. They will fall asleep in a perpetual sleep and they will never wake up again.”
This is clear. After all, the Mordkomplott [murder plot] that came out providentially with Vatileaks, which Marco Lillo wrote about in Il Fatto Quotidiano, spoke precisely about a plan to kill Pope Benedict. If he had died, the conclave that would have followed his death would have been valid. But instead, Pope Benedict acted in such a way that anyone who would be elected after him would not be a true pope…
…In a previous article we demonstrated to you in a scientific and incontrovertible way how Pope Benedict XVI never abdicated and remained the only pope until the end of his life: he renounced the ministerium, the exercise of power, just as Benedict VIII did – exactly 1000 years earlier in 1013 – with the difference that Ratzinger did it in full power. This happened not by his own desire, but because of the fact that the cardinals, not having understood the Declaratio, convened another conclave behind his back, even though he had not abdicated. In this way they dethroned him and sent him into a “totally impeded see” (see canon 412). This is the only canonical situation, in fact, in which the pope may lose his ministerium while retaining his munus. In an impeded see, the pope remains pope and, if a new “pope” is elected, this man is an antipope.
Brietbart reported that Pope Benedict asked that his final book not be published until after his death. Benedict was concerned with a murderous clamor after him whenever he dared to speak out.
Each of the essays comprising the 190-page volume was written after Benedict’s 2013 resignation and they cover a broad range of topics, from the nature of religion to Christian-Islamic dialogue to an important essay on monotheism and tolerance.
According to theologian Elio Guerriero, to whom Benedict entrusted the publication of the work, Benedict directed that the essays be published but only after his death, citing the “murderous clamor” that accompanied the publication of other writings after his resignation.
“The fury of the circles that oppose me in Germany is so strong that the appearance of the slightest word of mine immediately provokes a murderous clamor on their part,” Benedict wrote in a letter to Guerriero…
…In the second chapter of the book, Benedict addresses “the growing intolerance” toward Christianity in the West, often carried out in the name of tolerance itself.
“The intolerance of this apparent modernity towards the Christian faith has not yet turned into open persecution,” he wrote. “But it presents itself in an ever more authoritarian manner, aiming to achieve, with the legislation that follows, the extinction of what is essentially Christian.”
Benedict warned of a “radical manipulation of human beings” and “the distortion of the sexes by gender ideology,” all in the name of tolerance.
There is no doubt that these are dark times. Pope Benedict pray for us.