Dr. Edmund Mazza: "So it forces us to figure out what does he mean by “function” And what does he mean when he says that the munus enters into your very being. You see were back to ontology"
And the other strange thing about Pope Benedict’s renunciation, if you want to call it that is that he takes the title Pope Emeritus. Now what is that supposed to mean? Well its got something to do with what Ganswain is talking about and its got something to do with what Benedict just said in the line I quoted from his declarazio. That the papacy is not only carried out by words and deeds, it’s carried out by prayer and suffering. So on some ontological level, He’s telling us in his declarazio, that he is still papal in some ontological sense. And so I’d like to go into more…
Patrick Coffin:
So ontology, so the being-ness of it. The Pope as existing as such. That’s what you mean by the ontological?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Exactly!
Patrick Coffin:
Okay so something that’s rooted or grounded transcendentally, not by human acclimation that can be removed?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Precisely,
precisely. Now is there any other information besides his declarazio
that would give us this idea? Well, the fact that he wears white, the
fact that his official title is His Holiness, the fact that he actually
issues apostolic blessings in his own name. Can you and I go and do
that? I mean, no, we’re not the pope. So how can two people in Rome do
that?
Patrick Coffin:
No Cardinal can do that.
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Exactly.
Patrick Coffin:
If a Cardinal wore a white hat he would be instantly reprimanded, right?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
And
then when he was interviewed about it and they said why did you
continue to wear white. He said oh we couldn’t find a black cassock, you
know?
Patrick Coffin:
There’s another thing. I couldn’t
find…what? So they just didn’t have a black cassock at hand, there were
no nearby closets? Doesn’t Rome have 50,000 cassocks within walking
distance?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
So it’s funny stuff. But I’ll
tell what made the light bulb go off over my head, was when I read the…
There’s been several book-length interviews between the German
journalist Peter Seewald and Pope Benedict. I mean going back to when he
was Cardinal Ratzinger, but…
Patrick Coffin:
You just stole my next quiver question arrow. Yeah, go ahead. Yes
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Great
minds think alike and fools seldom differ, but ok. It was published in
2017 and there’s a chapter, well it’s basically an interview and so
Peter Seewald puts this question to Pope Benedict. He says is a slow
down in the ability to perform, reason enough to climb down from the
chair of Peter? And Instead of saying yes, next question. Benedict
responds “One can of course make that accusation, but it would be a
functional misunderstanding. The follower of Peter is not merely bound
to a function. The office enters into your very being. In this regard
fulfilling a function is not the only criterion.” What misunderstanding
and what is all this about function? He repeats the word three times. A
simple “yes” would do. But Benedict doesn’t give a yes or no answer to a
simple question. All the more bizarre, since his answer in fact must be
a “yes”. Otherwise he’s contradicting the very reason he gave for
stepping down in his official resignation speech, if you follow me. So
something is off.
Patrick Coffin:
Take
another pass at that. The stated reason is declining health, doesn’t
have the physical energy to exercise and ministry and all the
administrative stuff. That’s understandable, which oddly or additionally
provides a pretty good reason for John Paul II resigning years before
he did, but he didn’t. That’s kind of a side bar. So where’s the
contradiction?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Do you want to rephrase, I missed that last part.
Patrick Coffin:
Benedict
stated that reasons of health and declining strength and energy were
the rationale for stepping away and then the question is raised, is that
enough of a reason?
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Right, and then he says, one can make that accusation. What do you mean “accusation”?
Patrick Coffin:
Yeah.
https://www.patrickcoffin.media/is-benedict-xvi-still-the-pope/
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
It
would be a functional misunderstanding. What do you mean
“misunderstanding”? You gave us that excuse, for leaving the papacy. So
it forces us to figure out what does he mean by “function” And what does
he mean when he says that the munus enters into your very being. You
see were back to ontology again, if we haven’t lost anybody.
Patrick Coffin:
I
wonder if people to properly understand when a priest is laicized;
properly laicized, he’s not exercising priestly ministry. Maybe he gets
married. He is by virtue of holy orders been configured in his soul to
Jesus Christ, the high priest. That can never go away. In heaven or
hell, he will always be a priest according to the order of the priest
Melchizedek, right? So no one says father emeritus.
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Exactly.
Patrick Coffin:
So… But no one say, “Father Emeritus”.
Dr. Edmund Mazza:
Exactly, Exactly. So as I understand it, this is my Mazza hypothesis 3.0 [
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