There’s a battle of the Popes happening at the Vatican.

Pope Benedict, who served from 2005 – 2013, and then stepped down to make way for Obama’s Pope Francis due to so-called “health reasons,” is battling progressive Pope Francis behind the scenes.

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Benedict is a Catholic traditionalist and Francis is a modernist and the two are always at odds.

While Pope Francis works hard to change the Catholic religion and make it more “modern,” Pope Benedict is using his influence to push back and keep the Catholic religion grounded in tradition.

Author Lynda Telford – writer of ‘Women of the Vatican: Female Power in a Male World’ – Benedict is the main reason the church has not modernized.

Francis and Benedict have endured a difficult relationship during their time at the Vatican, with observers claiming the more liberal views of Francis have been stifled by the traditional sensibilities of Benedict. In the past, many have felt that Francis would have pushed a more progressive agenda to make the church more accessible to modern day worshippers. The recent relaxing of confession laws as Italy is gripped by the coronavirus were seen by some as a move that showed Francis’ liberalism and many had hoped aspects of Catholicism such as celibacy and contraception could be next on his agenda.

[…]

Many have argued that while he is still alive, Pope Benedict is able to exert an unusual amount of authority over those in the higher echelons of the church, which has led to Pope Francis being unable to fulfil his modernisation mandate.

And this is a major concern for Ms Telford.

She told Express.co.uk: “Pope Benedict – who has also had his own issues as he has been in the role – is very much a traditionalist who basically took the church back beyond the level of Paul VI. [Express]

The battle between the two is over Benedict taking the church back to its traditional roots and Francis desperately trying to erase that and move the church in a new progressive direction.

Basically, Francis is being Pope-blocked by Benedict.

Telford says, “Instead of allowing the changes that John Paul I desperately wanted to bring, Pope Benedict took the church back I fear, and now Pope Francis is desperately trying to get it back. You simply have to. Everything has to progress.”

No. We don’t need to turn the Catholic Church into a modern-day church. Absolutely not. If anything, we should be even more traditional.

This piece was written by Missy Crane on April 5, 2020. It originally appeared in WayneDupree.com and is used by permission.

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