Big Shot, Scalfari, and the Two Popes. Does He Smell the Scent of Schism?

5 Dicembre 2020 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti

Marco Tosatti

Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, “Big Shot” read with great curiosity the long article that Eugenio Scalfari wrote today at Repubblica, ruminating on the subject of the two popes, Francis and Benedict; and he wonders what motives may have prompted the founder of Repubblica to do it, and in this particular way… Enjoy your reading.

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The Scent of “Alzheimer’s”? Or the Scent and Fear of Schism?

I refer to today’s editorial by Eugenio Scalfari in Repubblica, attached here, and to what, as far as I can tell, is to be deciphered between the lines. (It is a very cryptic message.)

If Scalfari and Joseph Ratzinger were both (let’s say) 30 years younger, I would say that in the Vatican there is a suspicion of schism inspired by Joseph Ratzinger, who is tired of Bergoglio’s behavior.

My hypothesis is that Bergoglio shared this fear with Scalfari, and Scalfari felt compelled to write about it, according to his usual style, giving a “mafiosetto” [gangster] message to who knows who (the people close to Ratzinger), along the lines of: “Be careful about what you are doing if you don’t know who it is that supports Francis….”

Since Scalfari is 96 and Ratzinger is 93, I am also thinking that perhaps this is simply a slip due to old age for the eternal founder of Repubblica (even if I prefer the first hypothesis).

But I propose to reflect on it by analyzing a couple of points in the article.

– In the article Scalfari continues to speak insistently of an “understanding between the two Popes,” explicitly recognizing that there are two popes – he repeats it six times. But exactly what this understanding is, he does not explain; he has never explained what it is. He begins by informing the reader that “In these hours an intellectual agreement of great interest is being confirmed…,” “…an agreement between two Popes…,” “…an agreement of this importance…,” et cetera.

But he never explains what agreement and understanding he is talking about. It seems obvious to me that this is a cryptic message for insiders (if it is not merely the advance of his old age).

– Then all of a sudden he explains that “the decisions that (the two Popes) can take, will have to be agreed upon….” Oh my! Agreed upon decisions? Then he continues with other cryptic messages: “today we succeed in imagining the presence of two Popes who face each other together…”, “…the two Popes will share tasks in the future….”

A strange mystery. Very strange. If we exclude the hypothesis of old age, I propose that we should give weight to two other things that Scalfari says:

– The first, when referring to the decisions that they will have to make in common, he says that this happened in history only “at the time of Boniface, Innocent, Gregory…” [Translator’s Note: Boniface IX, Innocent VII, and Gregory XII were the three Roman popes at the time of the Western Schism from 1389-1415].

That is, the times of the theocratic popes of the Western Schism. A curious reference, no?

– The second is found at the end of the piece, where he writes: “This is the future, let’s not forget the elementary particles that revolve around the prince of Salina.” Wow! And what does Salina have to do with it? The elementary particles in physics are those that are indivisible, ones that are not composed of other simpler particles, that is, they are particles that have their own proper power.

The prince of Salina (in Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel Il Gattopardo) is the symbol of a transformism that is ready to change in whatever way necessary so that everything can stay the same. What then is Scalfari trying to say? Could it be that the “mafiosetto” [gangster] message (given to who knows who) is that in order to take or hold power one must know what matter is made of and what forces hold its components together? Simplifying: There may be two popes, but in order to eliminate one of the two, one will have to first understand who invented and supported it [the “double” papacy], therefore be careful about what you are doing, boys, forget the schism…

Perhaps I have been too “intellectual” in my analysis. Probably we are only dealing with problems of old age, but considering the point at which the church has arrived recently with the “assist” given to the Davos Reset at Assisi and with an encyclical like Fratelli Tutti, it is also possible that what Scalfari fears (suggested to him from inside Santa Marta) is a reaction by Pope Benedict XVI (as he acknowledges no less than six times in the article).

What do you say Tosatti, are we close to the end of the nightmare?

First published at Stilum Curiae, 5 December 2020.