Did Benedict XVI Call the Cardinals Criminals?

David Martin | The Daily Knight

By now most informed Catholics are aware of the infamous clique of cardinals that tried to prevent the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and who continued to persecute him until his death in December 2022. The objective of this criminal coalition, known as the Vatican “Dome of Demons,” was to dethrone Benedict XVI and to place on the Chair of Peter a Marxist agent for the ruination of the Church.

It was this clique of cardinals that Pope Benedict referred to on the day of his inauguration, when he said, “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.” (April 24, 2005)

Through the years, Pope Benedict told his biographer Peter Seewald that he was forced to step down from the Chair of Peter. While it is generally believed that poor health was the reason for his “resignation,” Benedict clarified to Seewald that his poor health was brought on by extreme pressures being placed on him to resign. Using threats and extortion, these apostate cardinals forced Benedict to vacate the papal throne, though he never relinquished his office.

Benedict Used Latin to Ensure No Mistakes Were Made

On the morning of February 11, 2013, in the presence of the cardinals gathered for the consistory to announce his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI read aloud in Latin a document that he called Declaratio. In 2016, Peter Seewald asked Benedict in a book-length interview to explain the choice of Latin.

Seewald: When and by whom was the text written that announced your resignation?

Benedict: I wrote it. I cannot say exactly when, but at most two weeks prior.

Seewald: Why in Latin?

Benedict: Because one does such an important thing in Latin. Furthermore, Latin is a language I know well so that I can write it in an elegant manner. I could have also written in Italian, of course, but there was the danger that I would make some mistakes.

Hence, Benedict affirms that he wrote his Declaratio in Latin because this statement was so important that he dared not risk making any mistake in it. In his Declaratio, Benedict more than insinuates that the Vatican cardinals were a band of criminals. 

Declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae . . . mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commissum renuntiare . . .

“I declare that I renounce, to my own detriment [mihi], the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, on account of the crime [per…commissum] of a band of Cardinals on April 19, 2005 . . .” April 19, 2005, was the day of Benedict’s election, at which time this band tried to block his election.

Benedict opens his Declaratio by telling the cardinals that he gathered to tell them about a decisio that he had made. The modern reader of Latin would normally equate “decisio” with a “decision” or “choice,” and thus understand Benedict to say, “I have gathered you today to inform you of a decision I have made.”

However, this is not what Benedict said. “Decision” is not the primary classical meaning of the third declension noun decisio.

Benedict’s “Resignation” Beheaded the Church

In BAdW · Thesaurus linguae latinae, we find that the first and most common synonym for decisio is decollatio, signifying a beheading, followed by partitio – a division into sections. This beheading would divide the Church into two sections, the orthodox and the heretical.

This also ties with pactio – agreement – and deminutio – as in a diminution of light. The first sentence of the Declaratio takes on a new meaning in light of this:

. . . vos convocavi . . . ut vobis decisionem magni momenti pro Ecclesiae vita communicem.

“I have gathered you so that I may communicate to you a division – a beheading – a diminution – in the life of the Church.”

In other words, Benedict was saying that his resignation (ouster) was bringing about a beheading of the Mystical Body, thus diminishing and almost murdering the life of the Church. We indeed witnessed this after the “election” of Pope Francis. The forces of Antichrist continue today with all the more ferocity to impose Francis’ revolution against the Faith.

Even so, there must not be a formal schism from the Church as some are hoping for. There are Catholics today who think that they are the sole heirs of Catholic tradition and that their place of worship is the only authentic place of worship, but this doesn’t work. Pope Leo must be enlightened about his many errors and must disavow these errors, but in the meantime, we must pray for him and do what we can to nurse the main body of the Church back to life. We can’t just cut 1 ourselves off from the main body of the Church. As Jesus said, the wheat and the cockle must grow together (Mt. 13:25-30). Christ himself will make a formal separation of the sheep from the goats at his Second Coming, but for now we must hold the ailing Barque of Peter afloat until help arrives from Heaven.

1. That is, we can’t just leave our parish churches. However, we must not take part in any of the novel changes of the modern church. This would include the use of the new missal.