Question:
Based on all going issues since Benedict XVI resigned from ministerium and not from munus, how one can consider Bergoglio and Prevost were/are true popes?
Canon 332 §2 of the 1983 Code states plainly:
Si contingat ut Romanus Pontifex muneri suo renuntiet, ad validitatem requiritur ut renuntiatio libere fiat et rite manifestetur, non vero ut a quopiam acceptetur.
"If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his munus, it is required for validity that the resignation be freely made and properly manifested, but it is not necessary that it be accepted by anyone."
The canon uses munus — not ministerium, not officium, not any other term. Munus in the canonical tradition carries the weight of the office itself: the ontological reality, the gift-and-burden of the Petrine charge, not merely its active exercise.
On February 11, 2013, Benedict XVI declared in Latin:
...declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV …More
"If a postman does not deliver the mail, he is not a postman." And for the mail he did deliver, he did right.
@brhenry, On the earth, that are the bishops. So, as a good Catholic, and according Can. 212 §3, you too, can go and ask them to do their very important job. Which is given to them by God himself. Which they consciously, voluntarily and without coercion have accepted.
Because, THIS is not just some small, unimportant question.
@Ivan Tomas Excellent response. Patiently remaining subject to the Pope and Bishops in the Ark, while "asking them to do their important jobs." Amen!
@Ivan Tomas Who, on earth, has the legitimate authority to make a definitive judgement on these questions?
Certainly no one on this web site. The Modernist heresy has been going on for decades. It will likely take a very long time to resolve.
No worries. I like the quote Bishop Athanasius Schneider used in Limerick recently:
“Let nothing be innovated that has not been handed down.” -Pope Saint Stephen I
"since Benedict XVI resigned from ministerium and not from munus"
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That's a false presumption.
That he wanted the see vacant on February 28, 2013 - this is what he explicitly said in his declaration as its intention and desired effect/result.
For example, if I said: I terminate my services as a plumber in such a way that the agreement X expires on day so and so, it would be tantamount to saying: I hereby terminate the agreement X. The will and intention is clear enough.