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Benedict XVI

represented a "decisive element of stabilization and détente", reflect in the Vatican those who knew him well.

"Among those who were inspired by him and oppose Francis, the death of Joseph Ratzinger could have two opposite effects. Either further pacify, which is unlikely. Or, more likely, cause great instability, both in the Vatican as in the universal Church".

From the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, Benedict XVI was exemplary in terms of what was once called the

sensus Ecclesiae

(the meaning of the Church).

The Pope is the Pope, for a Catholic you cannot choose as a reference the one that is closest to your ideas.

A lesson that Ratzinger gave on February 28, 2013, when he addressed the cardinals before his resignation from the papacy became effective, without being able to know who his successor would be: "Among you, among the College of Cardinals, there is also the future Pope, to whom I already pledge my unconditional reverence and obedience."

The same words that he repeated to Francis when the new Pope called him to Castel Gandolfo on the afternoon of his election.

Thus, for 10 ten years, through his writings or confidences to biographer Peter Seewald, Ratzinger's words have checked the most obvious centrifugal forces.

And it's not just about the extreme wing or the

various conspirators who never forgave him for his resignation

or imagined that it was invalid and that Benedict had been forced by who knows what powers: "All of that is nonsense. Nobody tried to blackmail me. I didn't even do it. would have allowed", explained the emeritus.

A certain discontent has been growing, with the United States as the epicenter of the opposition.

There has long been talk of the schism of the

American Catholic right, hostile to Bergoglio

and rich in funding and networks, which has hovered like a specter for years, a threat to which Francis already responded calmly but dryly, in 2019, speaking to journalists: "I pray that there will not be a schism, but I am not afraid: there have been many schisms in the Church."

The landscape is varied.

The most extreme and picturesque side is represented by the former nuncio in New York Carlo Maria Viganò, a retired archbishop who already called for Francis's resignation in 2018 and who has since accused him of being "on the side of the Enemy", that is, of Satan.

There is also the ultra-conservative Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, formerly a friend and later rival of Steve Bannon.

And the less explicit but more insidious resistance should not be forgotten: in November, the American bishops elected by majority Timothy P. Broglio, archbishop, military and distant from Francis, as the new president.

Those who have never digested Bergoglio's pontificate are organizing themselves, and it is no mystery that they are already

thinking about the next conclave

.

The reference of the most conservative wing, in the Vatican, is the Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah, 77 years old.

At the opposite extreme is the other feared "schism",

the "progressive", which has Germany

and the Synod of the German Church as its reference, with discussions about the female priesthood, the possibility of blessing homosexual couples, the revision of the compulsory priestly celibacy ("for some priests, it would be better if they were married", observed the German Cardinal Reinhard Marx), in short, a series of issues debated above all among the faithful in northern Europe.

In between are Spain, France and even Italy, discontented with

silent episcopates that have not yet emerged.

All this Francis knows.

The Synod that will meet in October 2023 is approaching, and it is no coincidence that he wanted to extend the deadlines and foresee a second part in 2024, to allow the growing tensions to calm down.

The Pontiff wants the Church to reflect on itself and find new ways of speaking to the world, without barricades or fleeing forward.

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