New rejection of the Pope.

It is necessary to distinguish whether an ordinary person or a priest rejects it, claims the church lawyer

“I do not recognize this pope. Francis is not the real pope,” echoes from Catholics on the Slovak Internet as well. What is the problem?

The rejection of Pope Francis by some Catholics is no longer unusual. However, a report from Italy at the turn of the year shows how far the fierce opposition to the Argentine pontiff can go. 

It was Sunday, December 31, 2023, when pastor Ramon Guidetti celebrated mass in his church on the anniversary of the death of Benedict XVI.

Roughly in the middle of the sermon, he recalled: “the lightning that struck the dome of the Basilica of St. Peter on the night when Benedict XVI. announced his resignation.” Subsequently, the 48-year-old priest narrated the incident with another lightning, which allegedly took place last December 17 in a sanctuary near Buenos Aires. 

Father Guidetti added that he “will not name” who the archbishop of that city was, and then went on to say that lightning struck the statue of St. Peter there and burned two things – the halo and the keys. 

“Peter is not a saint, and he no longer has the keys. Indeed, Peter is not a saint because there is a Freemason, a Jesuit Freemason connected to the powerful globalists, a usurping antipope. He doesn’t have the keys, because good Benedict holds them,” Catholic priest Guidetti said at the mass.

The video of the sermon is available on the Internet, not only that. The decree on the excommunication of this priest was also published. 

The Diocese of Livorno in Tuscany issued a decree on January 1, in which it announced to the faithful that the priest Ramon Guidetti “publicly committed a schismatic act” during Mass and ipso facto earned “latae sententiae excommunication, “i.e., automatic excommunication.

Bishop Simone Giusti informed that Catholics should not participate in any Mass celebrated by an excommunicated priest; otherwise, they also “expose themselves to the severe penalty of ex-communication.”

The bishop referred to Canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law, which defines schism as “the refusal to submit to the Supreme High Priest or the refusal to unite with the members of the Church who are subject to him.”

According to local newspapers, the bishop met with the priest Guidetti before Christmas to discuss his controversial views. It proceeded to issue an official decree of ex-communication after what happened on December

Former priest Alessandro Minutella comes from Sicily and has been excommunicated since 2018. He calls the current pope invalid and, like Guidetti, claims that Freemasons control the Catholic Church.

According to Minutell, whose videos are watched by tens of thousands of people in Italy, attending Mass in unity with Pope Francis is a grave sin.

Minutella gathered around him several excommunicated or suspended priests from different countries. His followers are also in Slovakia; they meet in Šaštín. Former Slovak Salesian Róbert Benko leads them.

He was expelled from the religious order in December 2021, and, according to the Salesians, he is currently administering the sacraments illegally, without spiritual effect, since “a priest who was expelled from the religious order and who was subsequently not accepted (incarnated) by any bishop into his diocese may not perform acts of sacred status, i.e., nor administer the sacraments.”

A former Salesian leads a group of believers that does not recognize Pope Francis.

Slovak believers do not avoid stiff resistance, even outright rejection of Pope Francis. 

On one traditionalist blog, the author of which identifies himself as a Catholic, one can read the following statements from him: 

“Currently, Rome is occupied by a non-Catholic group of heretics, the anti-Church of the Last Days (Fornication of Babylon), which is not the Catholic Church. Francis is not Pope because he is not Catholic: and as traditional Catholic teaching and the teaching of all the Fathers explains, a non-Catholic cannot be elected Pope or hold any other office in the Church.”

And in another place on the same website: “He is an apostate antipope.” The Church teaches that heretics cannot hold offices in the Church.”

Social networks on the Slovak Internet are also examples of anti-papal statements and attitudes. The following statements (which took a few minutes to find) come from discussions on the Facebook social network under the texts of the World of Christianity: 

“Bergoglio will destroy the church from within!”

“That can’t be a real p are wars, disasters, and earthquake aches everywhere.”

“For me, the only pope in this world was John Paul, I don’t recognize the others…”

“This installed Francis is anything but a holy father.”

Ecclesiastical lawyer: It makes a difference whether an ordinary person or a priest rejects the pope

As the example of Reverend Ramon Guidetti showed, the question of rejecting the Pope is directly related to canon law. 

Ecclesiastical lawyer and priest of the Bratislava Archdiocese, Radoslav Šaškovič, points out that excommunication is perhaps the most severe punishment in canon law. 

“Although a person under such censorship does not go to prison or pay a fine, he is forbidden to have any active participation in the celebration and reception of sacraments, shrines and other ceremonies of the liturgical cult, to perform church offices, tasks, services, and functions,” Šašković explains for the World of Christianity. 

However, the excommunication does not have to be definitive; after fulfilling the prescribed penance, the person’s excommunication can be lifted.

In the case of the priest from Italy, the bishop mentioned “latae sentence ex-communication.” What does it mean? 

Ecclesiastical lawyer Šaškovič clarifies that canon law distinguishes between the punishments that the relevant church authority imposes at its discretion after executing the criminal procedure and the punishments that the guilty person falls into by committing the crime itself.

In the first case, the relevant ecclesiastical authority, within the limits of the law, will issue its judgment, lat. ferendae sententiae, while in the second case, he establishes the previously given judgment, lat. latae sententiae.

“Each judgment is issued in written form. The publication of the decree on the excommunication of the priest also has an informative and pastoral character,” adds Šaškovič.

In other words, the mentioned priest himself was excommunicated for his act, while after a proper investigation of the case, the bishop only stated this fact.

Since we also see similar expressions in the Slovak environment, when some – Catholics – express themselves about Pope Francis as someone who is not the Pope, the question is whether they are committing an act that would lead to ex-communication.

“If any Catholic lives in the error that the duly elected Holy Father is not the true pope, it is useful to patiently try to lead him out of this error,” responds the church lawyer.

At the same time, he emphasizes that when assessing whether someone falls into excommunication, one must always keep in mind a specific person and ask why they think or acts in a way that appears to be close to schism. 

“It also makes a difference whether a person who brings us mail or drafts beer thinks and acts this way, or a person who serves us the sacraments and thus bears a greater degree of responsibility. In addition, canon law recognizes many mitigating circumstances and emphasizes moderation in the application of punishments,” says Šašković.

According to him, being a member of the Catholic Church means actively living in unity with its earthly head, i.e., the incumbent Pope. 

“If someone has difficulty with that, they have the right to freely decide to join another church. It would be more honest than having to worry about the internal rejection of the Pope for a long time,” Sašković thinks, adding that even freely leaving the membership in the Catholic Church automatically results in falling into pre-declared excommunication based on one’s own choice. 

In this context, it is also essential to perceive the difference between the rejection of the Pope and a critical view of him. 

“Criticism of the Pope, which does not turn into his rejection, is not the fulfillment of the factual essence of the schism,” states the church lawyer who was contacted. 

However, according to him, if someone believes that the Pope is wrong about something and does not have the opportunity to ask him for an explanation, which is probably the majority of cases, he has the chance to put his doubts into prayer, asking for the grace to understand and know the truth about what and why the Pope speaks and acts.

“Not everyone has a doctorate in theology, so a certain humility is in order here,” he concluded.