Prominent Catholics urge bishops, cardinals to declare Francis has ‘lost the papal office’ if he refuses to resign

May 7, 2024 by Dave Doveton

From: Lifesitenews.

The lengthy statement presents a summary of Pope Francis’ interactions and dealings with a number of high-profile figures in the Church, such as Cardinals Godfried Danneels, Reinhard Marx, Theodore McCarrick, Wilton Gregory, and Víctor Manuel Fernández.

A group of 17 scholars and activists have released a lengthy statement calling for Pope Francis to resign or to be formally asked to resign by the College of Cardinals.

Stating that Francis has “caused an unprecedented crisis in the Catholic Church” by his words and actions, the 17 signatories attested that the Pope has “done great harm to the Church and the whole world” since assuming the papal throne in March 2013. (Full statement is below, with a downloadable PDF here).

In a statement released late on May 2, the signatories stated that “the members of the hierarchy of the Church have a duty to act in order to prevent Francis from causing further harm.” They added:

We therefore call for Pope Francis to resign the papal office, and to repent and do penance for his actions. If he does not do this, we request that the cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church ask Pope Francis to resign the office of pope.

If this eventually should not take place, then the signatories called on the cardinals and bishops to declare that Francis has somehow lost the papacy:

If he refuses to resign or recant the heresies that he has upheld, we ask that they declare that he has lost the papal office.

The signatories attribute the aforementioned “unprecedented crisis” to two things:

Pope Francis has committed criminal acts gravely damaging to the Church and to individual believers.

He has shown that he rejects the Catholic faith, and has worked to destroy the faith of other Catholics.

Read here.