Der italienische Theologe Msgr. Nicola Bux kritisiert die von Benedikt XVI. in seinem aktuellen Buch beschriebene Konzeption eines emeritierten Papstes als spirituelles Prinzip des Papstamtes mit folgenden bemerkenswerten Gedanken
(Quelle:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/pope ... -of-papacy):
LifeSite reached out to Monsignor Nicola Bux, a Vatican theologian and former collaborator of Pope Benedict XVI as a consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, because he had made in the past some remarks about the “juridical validity of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation.”
After LifeSite had summed up for him the new statement by Pope Benedict as it can be found in this new papal biography, Monsignor Bux answered, saying:
“In my opinion, one of the most problematic aspects would be the idea, implicit in Pope Ratzinger's act, that the papacy is not a single and indivisible office, but, on the contrary, a divisible office that can be 'unpacked', in the sense that a Pope may choose to give up some functions, keeping for himself others, which would not then be passed on to his successor. A clearly erroneous idea.”
In further exchanges with Monsignor Bux, this Italian theologian added the following thoughts:
“The comparison of the papal office with the episcopal office in what regards the abdication of the papal office is not correct. The episcopal office is conferred by episcopal ordination or consecration, imprinting an indelible character on the soul of the bishop. Thus, while he may be relieved of a particular pastoral responsibility, he remains always a bishop. The papal office is conferred by the acceptance of the election to the See of Peter, that is, by an act of the will of the person elected, accepting the call to be the Vicar of Christ on earth. From the moment that the person elected consents he has the full jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff.”
If the person elected is not a Bishop,” Monsignor Bux continued, “he must be immediately consecrated a Bishop because the papacy entails the exercise of the episcopal office, but he is Pope from the moment he consents to the election. If the same person, at a certain point, declares that he can no longer fulfill the call to be the Vicar of Christ on earth, he loses the papal office and returns to the condition in which he was before giving the consent to be the Vicar of Christ on earth.”
Here, the Italian theologian explained the fundamental principle that “the papacy is not conferred by sacramental grace. It does not imprint an indelible character upon the soul. To the one who consents to be Pope and perseveres in the consent, the grace is given, as Our Lord promised, to be 'the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful' (Lumen Gentium, no. 23). Such a grace, by its very definition, is given to only one person at any given time.”
In conclusion, Monsignor Bux writes: “Our Lord gave Peter a single mandate - legal and spiritual at the same time - and asked the Apostles to support him through communion, cum et sub Petro (with and under Peter). Saint Paul explains it as: ‘sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum’ (care of all churches). Therefore, there is no Petrine primacy to share, but two indissoluble principles in permanent communion with one another: the Petrine primacy and the episcopal team-work (collegiality).”