In the video linked below at the 1 hour, 55 minutes, and 20 seconds mark, His Excellency Bishop Richard Williamson acknowledges that the arguments put forth by those who accept Benedict XVI as the current true pope are serious and that he is not saying that Francis is certainly pope. How is it that a False Resistance bishop can acknowledge and say these things and yet not one True Resistance clergy member can publicly admit the same? Instead, what we hear from the True Resistance clergy is that they accept Francis as the current true pope and that they will wait for the Church to decide otherwise or that to accept Benedict XVI as the current true pope is nonsense. True Resistance clergy and faithful, please look seriously into this issue. The identity of the current true pope is an issue of critical importance. To acknowledge Francis as the current true pope is, objectively, an act of schism! Why? Because Benedict XVI, as the supreme head of the Church, decided what the nature of his “resignation” would be, and that is that it would be only a renunciation of the exercise of the active ministry. That’s it! As I mentioned in a previous post, if it can be shown that Benedict XVI intended to keep even one iota of the office (munus) of the papacy, he would remain pope. Read his Declaratio. It is clear that he did not renounce his office (munus) entirely and without qualification. As a matter of fact, he did not renounce his office (munus) at all. What he renounced was an exercise of a power that belongs to the office of the papacy (see this diagram). Therefore, he is still the current true pope.
