Vatican City, 10 Jan. – After the death of Benedict XVI, the Vatican conservatives would be carrying out a secret plan to subject Pope Francis to such pressure that he would resign.
Apparently, the purpose is to force the pontiff’s departure through excessive stress, as an Italian cardinal told La Stampa last week.
"The secret plan will be formulated on several axes and phases, but it will have one objective: to put the pontificate under such tension that Francis would be forced to to resign".
"The opponents of Francis know that they are a minority right now, that they will need time both to win consensus and to weaken Bergoglio," the cardinal said.
Apparently, the most conservative officials consider the supreme pontiff too liberal in matters of homosexuality, abortion, communion for divorced and remarried and the celibacy of priests. Such is the mockery within the Vatican that some refer to the head of the Church as a "communist".
According to the cardinal, some of his enemies will act "from the shadow", while others will be more open in their criticism. Among the latter is Archbishop Georg Ganswein, who for 19 years was personal secretary to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, and who has been very critical of Francis in recent days.
However, there are those in the Holy See who say that there is little chance of Francis throwing in the towel in the short term. " He will resign if he is no longer able to face the challenges of his pontificate, but for now he is going ahead," said German Cardinal Walter Kasper. "For the moment he is not ready to resign. It is obvious that there is a clash between progressives and conservatives, but we must maintain the dialogue between the different points of view," he added. (Text and photo: RT)
