Italian priest could be excommunicated after claiming Francis is not the pope

(LifeSiteNews) — Prominent Italian Carmelite priest Father Giorgio Maria Faré, OCD, who recently declared in a viral sermon that Francis is not the Pope, has been given an October 30 deadline by his superior to retract the claim or face excommunication.

In a letter dated October 17, Father Renato Dell’acqua, the commissioner of the OCD’s Lombard province, informed the community that Faré received a letter signed by the order’s superior general, Father Miguel Márquez, on October 15, informing him that he has until October 30 to recant of his position that Pope Francis is not “the legitimate pope” or face excommunication from the Catholic Church and expulsion from the Carmelite Order. 

Comunicato del Rev. do Padre Renato Dall’Acqua, commissario della Provincia Lombarda dell’Ordine dei Frati Carmelitani Scalzi in merito alle affermazioni di P. Giorgio Maria Farè pic.twitter.com/DQLTgbDAjU

— Silere non possum (@silerenonpossum) October 28, 2024

Faré stated in an October 13 sermon that Pope Benedict XVI intentionally did not properly resign from the papal office, and, therefore, Francis is not the Pope.

In the letter, Dell’acqua explained that Faré had made these remarks during a sermon which was broadcast on YouTube and published as a letter to accompany the video. Dell’acqua also emphasized concern that Faré stated in the homily that he could not celebrate the Mass “in communion with Pope Francis.”

“Our Generalate informed on the case, immediately intervened, and I myself have delivered on 15 October to Fr. Giorgio Maria Faré, the canonical admonition signed by our general, Fr. Miguel Márquez,” Dell’acqua wrote.

The priest then summarized the contents of the letter sent to Faré: “Father Faré has 15 days to recant his theses and not incur excommunication and the expulsion of the order. Leaving aside all vain curiosity, let us pray for the repentance of the confrere,” Dell’acqua said.

LifeSiteNews reached out to Faré, but he declined to comment further for the time being.

Faré posited in his October 13 homily that Pope Benedict XVI, having inside knowledge of a plot by the St. Gallen Mafia to elect a liberal pope upon his death, decided to purposely resign invalidly:

The Pope thus found himself at a crossroads: either allow an antipope to be secretly elected upon his death or attempt a strategy to foil the enemies of the Church by issuing a declaration with no legal effect. Incidentally, I point out that – even after the Declaratio – an invalid Conclave could have been avoided. The cardinals who noticed the anomalies in the Declaratio … could have immediately raised the issue and prevented a Conclave from being convened. This did not happen, so it is important to note that the actual responsibility for what happened should not be placed on Benedict XVI but, rather, primarily on those who understood and remained silent in bad faith.

The clues Faré says Benedict left for the cardinals to decipher and take appropriate action on included adopting the title “Pope Emeritus,” continuing to wear his white cassock, and retaining his papal coat of arms.

The priest cited as evidence that Benedict’s resignation was invalid the fact that the Pontiff used the phrase “I declare to renounce” instead of saying “I renounce,” as required. Faré also underscored that in the original Latin text of the resignation, Benedict only resigned from the ministerium, or the visible execution of the office, but for the resignation to be valid, he would have needed to resign from the munus, or the “office” of the papacy, according to Canon 332 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

Therefore, according to Faré, Benedict was pope until his death in 2022, and thus Francis is an antipope.

To read Faré’s full sermon in English, click HERE.

Since Benedict released his Declaratio, several other Catholic prelates and thinkers have suggested that Francis is not the Pope, including Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who has posited that Francis lacked the necessary intention to become Pope. Viganò was declared excommunicate by the Vatican for holding this position earlier this year. 

Others, too, have said Francis’ past statements and promulgations disqualify him from being a true Pope, regardless of the nature of Benedict’s resignation. 

On the other hand, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has stated that “nobody has the power to judge Francis’s status as pope” because previous writings about a pope becoming a heretic, such as St. Robert Bellarmine’s, are only opinions, not doctrine, and that there is no one within the Church who has the power to declare him a heretic.  

“[I]n the case of a heretical pope, the members of the Church can avoid him, resist him, refuse to obey him, all of which can be done without requiring a theory or opinion that says that a heretical pope automatically loses his office or can be deposed consequently,” Schneider wrote. 

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