Explosive! Benedict XVI Publishes a Posthumous Book

Someone named “V” tweeted the following:  “Yesterday an absolute bombshell was released, something completely unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church. No English speaking news outlets have discussed it, and I believe we are witnessing mass media censorship. Benedict XVI published a posthumous book!”  https://twitter.com/pope_head/status/1617590556028190720?s=20&t=SUxiLC_yJrJX4dUhjGuZQw


It’s a 190-page volume featuring of 16 essays.  Most were previously published, however, 4 are new.  In it, Benedict speaks about “individual bishops, and not just in the United States, who rejected Catholic tradition in its entirety, aiming to develop a kind of new, modern Catholicity in their dioceses.”

The New World Order just took another hit.  In the book he defends the unique character of the Mass and the Catholic priesthood, attacking the rising intolerance in the increasingly atheistic West and it has rocked the Catholic world. 

How explosive?  Dr Taylor Marshall just released a podcast with this title:  “Gay Clubs in the Seminaries.”  Boom. 

BTW, this isn’t a time for us Orthodox to get all triumphalistic, after all, we have our own problems with this issue, especially given the prominence of the Fordhamites and their particular leadership in certain “progressive” areas.

He also talks about the Second Vatican Council which gave the Catholic Church a “beautiful” document on the priesthood, but failed to “face the fundamental question of the difference between Catholic and Protestant understandings of ordained ministry.”

These are all the things he probably wanted to say but couldn’t, given Pope Francis is taking the church in the complete opposite direction.  Given the furor it caused it is understandable why he’d want it published 3 weeks after his death.  

  https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/16449/theologian-explains-why-benedict-xvi-published-posthumous-book

BTW, here’s Marshall’s take on it:

Here’s another podcast by Return to Tradition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnEACbDLwxY

 

Comments

  1. A true Catholic he is if I must say!

  2. I really liked Pope Benedict when I was a RC. I greatly admired his attempt to liturgically turn the Novus Ordo around and also open up availability of the TLM.

    …But…

    Having been Roman Catholic, this news is very far from explosive or shocking. It was almost universally known that seminaries were/are a hotbed of homosexuality. I’ve known a couple of guys that had to leave seminary because they were being “harassed” we’ll call it. I’m also in my early 30’s so this is all relatively recent, not in the distant past.

    Taylor Marshall is not oblivious to this. It was mainstream knowledge.

    This has been going on for decades and is far from being a Francis problem, it was also a problem under Benedict and JPII.

    Benedict, though he may have changed his tune later in life, was also very much in the liberal camp at Vatican 2.

    Francis is taking Roman Catholicism in the logical direction of Vatican 1&2. The Roman Catholic idea of development of doctrine naturally leads to the dogmatic and liturgical aberrations of V2 and leads to things like Pachamama. The next pope will either be the same as, or worse than, Francis. There are 3 reasons for this:

    1) Francis has stacked the deck
    2) JP2 & Benedict failed to “clean house”
    3) The bishops are a product of Vatican 2

    With the RC new fascination with “synodality” I expect RCism to further deteriorate.

    This is why so man Roman Catholics, including myself, see the writing on the wall and jumping ship for Orthodoxy.

    • The phenomenon of the “reformed liberal” is instructive. I’m not a Calvinist but I do believe some waters run deep. Ones genetic susceptibility to emotional reasoning may be immutable. Thus I’m suspicious to the point of marginalization of “reformed liberals”. In my humble opinion, they are not to be trusted for the most part.

      Occasionally, you will find a political convert who shares a zeal for the truth which surpasses their predilection to the lie, but it’s an oddity. Mostly, they are disillusioned and lukewarm in their new association, at best. Almost better if they simply said, “these matters are above my pay grade” and dropped out of the conversation. Often they end up being a drag and retarding force to the truth.

    • As a former longtime Catholic myself, I agree with your analysis. And I once loved B16, may God rest his soul.

      If I remember right, it was Orthodox journalist and former Catholic Rod Dreher who broke the story on seminarian grooming and abuse, when he published first-hand accounts of two seminarians who’d been abused, one of whom I knew after he left seminary.

      Taylor Marshall, whom I liked years ago when still Catholic, has become the Fox News of the Catholic world. Everything is “breaking news” even when not all that shocking and new. It’s how he keeps his viewership up.

  3. Austin Martin says

    Publishing his book after death when he has nothing else to lose. What a coward. He should have done something about it while he had the axe of power.

    Did he say anything anyone didn’t already know? Of course Catholicism has been subverted from the inside. Something like 15% of American priests are homosexuals.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      12 of the 16 essays in the book had been circulated, if not published, before he died.

    • Antiochene Son says

      I have seen far higher estimates than that, in the range of 30-50%, and even higher in certain enclaves. There are bishops and entire bishop’s conferences (Germany) that openly and clearly reject Christian sexual ethics, with zero correction handed down. And why would they be corrected, when most of the bishops are gay themselves?

      We have our problems in the Orthodox Church, but the Fordhamites are a freckle on the backside of the Church as a whole. If you read the lawsuits against Theodore McCarrick and the way young men are systematically abused and blackmailed, it is positively demonic and widespread.

      Benedict may not have been able to turn the tide, but he was a coward for not doing more. The homosexual lobby has made this a public debate, and Benedict left these public sins largely unanswered in public. He was not a fighter and he failed.

      Let that be a message to our bishops: you need to actively and publicly fight for the souls of our people, when the devil is very actively and publicly advertising his way. Encyclicals, private meetings, and soft spoken words are not going to bring about the kind of radical Christianity the world needs now.

      Case in point: on what should have been a triumphant anniversary of Roe v Wade, Elpi was on Twitter screeching about “if you were really pro-life you’d be anti guns”. People like Elpi are in their positions to demoralize people. They must be opposed just as much as the openly gay lobby and anyone who preaches the gospel of this world.

      • If you read the books The Rite of Sodomy and Lucifer’s Lodge, you’ll see how evil it truly gets in the dark, homosexual underbelly of US RCism. I think that the latter is available as a free PDF download through Lulu.

        • There are others, too. Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, written by a former federal investigator, describes sickening details of abuse taken from court records that most people never hear. It is absolutely demonically dark. The former Catholic and recent convert to Orthodoxy, Joseph Sciambra, who’d been seduced by a Catholic priest into the gay lifestyle when young and spent 20 years in the San Fracisco gay community, said the Catholic priests he knew there were far, far worse in their sexual behaviors than any other part of the gay community.

          Having once been an enthusiastic convert to Catholicism, I feel bad for people becoming Catholic now. I understand their enthusiasm – but I hope they are not too disillusioned if or when they find out the real state of affairs behind the scenes. The Orthodox Church isn’t perfect either, we’re all sinners, but man, things here pale in comparison to what I see in the Catholic world.

      • Austin Martin says

        I find it interesting when a Catholic priest comes out as gay and says “I can’t deny who I am” and the diocese says they’ll support him, etc. If you took a vow of celibacy, why would it matter if you have some homoerotic inclination? You made a promise to never do any kind of sex ever for always. What does it even mean for a Catholic priest to come out as gay?

        Regarding LP, if you pretend that the EP doesn’t count as Orthodox, it simplifies a lot of the jurisdictional mess across the world.

  4. Deacon John says

    I personally don’t care what a leader of a heretical sect says. I pay attention only to what the Holy Fathers say and what is taught in the One, Holy,Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Lord says that we must stay on the Narrow Way if we are going to get to the Kingdom of Heaven. Listening to and paying attention to heretics is dangerous and makes it more difficult to stay in the Truth.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      We are not discussing heresies which have to do with the teachings of the Church. Nor is this about listening to heretics espouse heresies.

      We are talking about the parallels between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church with respect to the corrosive outcome of favoring culture over tradition. We can learn a lot from the Catholic Church in terms of what not to do. Pointing out the concerns of Pope Benedict XVI serves as a cautionary tale with respect to the path many are taking in the Orthodox Church today.

      You might find the following edifying: “The teaching of this “royal path” is set forth, for example, in the tenth of St. Abba Dorotheus’ Spiritual lnstructions, where he quotes especially the Book of Deuteronomy: Ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left, but go by the royal path (Deut. 5:32, 17:11), and St. Basil the Great: “Upright of heart is he whose thought does not turn away either to excess or to lack, but is directed only to the mean of virtue.” But perhaps this teaching is most clearly expressed by the great Orthodox Father of the 5th century, St. John Cassian, who was faced with a task not unlike our own Orthodox task today: to present the pure teaching of the Eastern Fathers to Western peoples who were spiritually immature and did not yet understand the depth and subtlety of the Eastern spiritual doctrine and were therefore inclined to go to extremes, either of laxness or over-strictness, in applying it to life. St. Cassian sets forth the Orthodox doctrine of the royal path in his Conference on “sober-mindedness” (or “discretion”)—the Conference praised by St. John of the Ladder (Step 4:105) for its “beautiful and sublime philosophy.” http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/royal.aspx

      • Hey Gail, did you and George get my email? Apologies for it being “rushed,” I was traveling

      • Deacon John says

        Why would one eat fruit from a diseased tree?

      • Deacon John says

        After reflecting on our conversation during my morning shower, I started to understand the point that your making. We learn from the heretics on what not to do but we learn from the Saints to get to the Kingdom of Heaven. Thanks for the morning reflection.

        • Rev Dn, you are right: this is why Gail and I decided to post this article on our blog. And it is also why I put in a parenthetical statement that this is what waits Orthodoxy should we follow the Fordhamites. Truth be told, we are not immune from this, are we? This explains why the Church of Cpole is more aligned the path of globalism.

          • Deacon John says

            For the past few months I’ve switched to the Psalter as my primary prayer book and recently I’ve been studying Revelations with commentary provided by Archbishop Averky and Father Seraphim Rose of blessed memory. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Fordhamites as well as the other enemies of the Church have already lost. God is and always will be triumphant over His enemies. What we have to do is to continually do what the Church teaches us to do. We must stay grounded in the Lord’s Truth and not be afraid to proclaim His Gospel in the face of the enemy. I have more hope now than ever before. I know I’ve said this many times but I am very grateful to the both of you for this blog

            • Thank you, Fr!

            • Correct, Deacon John. Christ has already won, we are simply in the end times which began with His death and Resurrection.

              The true sign of holiness is when you are at peace on the inside regardless of what is happening all around you on the outside. Our job is to keep our eyes on Christ and grow in knowledge of Him, not be cast about by every whim of error and upset, even when looking calmly at things happening in the world.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          🙂

    • Austin Martin says

      Agreed. Several years ago I made a point to not read pope news. Non-Catholics get enraged when the pope said some whatever outrageous thing, or Orthodox Christians get scandalized by whatever liturgical blasphemy. Why does it matter? I don’t hate the pope, because I don’t care about him at all. A pope make up a bunch of gibberish and people following him blindly is nothing new.