- When a law was put to the king of Belgium to liberalize abortion, Danneels advised the king to sign it.
- He called same-sex #mowwidge a "positive development".
- He tried to silence a victim of clerical sex abuse.
During the interview, he revealed that he was part of a cabal of clerics that was organized for the express purpose of stymieing the efforts of then-Cardinal Ratzinger and later to lobby for Cardinal Bergoglio. They called themselves both the Sankt-Gallen group and the "Mafia". Isn't that telling?
Their efforts failed that time as Cardinal Ratzinger was elected to be Benedict XVI. Both LifeSiteNews and Edward Pentin have more details. The report states that the group got another chance because "unexpectedly Pope Benedict resigned". Well maybe that resignation wasn't so "unexpected" after all.
Last month Eponymous Flower put up a post detailing an eyewitness account of other skulduggery to sabotage Benedict's papacy. Pope Benedict was told by some renegade clerics that they had gathered thousands of signatures to petition for his resignation and that if he did not comply, then leading clerics would break away from the Church. As we know, Pope Benedict did resign shortly thereafter. Did this threat of schism influence his decision? Was this group of renegade clergy also the "mafia" described by Daneels? If not, did the two groups have members in common?
Ann Barnhardt put up a piece to remind one and all that any cardinal elector who engaged in canvassing during the election incurred the penalty of automatic excommunication and such canvassing would result in the election being invalidated. The question remains, "did some of the cardinal-electors do any lobbying for specific candidates for the papacy?" To be clear, lobbying did occur. Cardinal McCarrick admitted to the same, but he was not an elector. If electors were lobbying, Pope Francis' election would seem to be invalid.
Many theories have been circulating around the internet to that effect. Regrettably, Cardinal Danneel's admission along with that of Cardinal McCarrick seven months ago lends basis to the claim that the last papal election was invalid. I do not believe these two admissions by themselves constitute irrefutable proof of the election's invalidity so for now I must assume its validity. But no one can gainsay that there are reasonable doubts regarding the validity, for if prelates could scheme so vigorously and unethically to engineer the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, why should we assume that they'd have any scruples against lobbying for a specific outcome in the papal election?
Update - The blog "From Rome" had published some information regarding "team Bergoglio" in February, lending more evidence regarding the charges of conclave-lobbying.
Ann Barnhardt put up a piece to remind one and all that any cardinal elector who engaged in canvassing during the election incurred the penalty of automatic excommunication and such canvassing would result in the election being invalidated. The question remains, "did some of the cardinal-electors do any lobbying for specific candidates for the papacy?" To be clear, lobbying did occur. Cardinal McCarrick admitted to the same, but he was not an elector. If electors were lobbying, Pope Francis' election would seem to be invalid.
Many theories have been circulating around the internet to that effect. Regrettably, Cardinal Danneel's admission along with that of Cardinal McCarrick seven months ago lends basis to the claim that the last papal election was invalid. I do not believe these two admissions by themselves constitute irrefutable proof of the election's invalidity so for now I must assume its validity. But no one can gainsay that there are reasonable doubts regarding the validity, for if prelates could scheme so vigorously and unethically to engineer the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, why should we assume that they'd have any scruples against lobbying for a specific outcome in the papal election?
Update - The blog "From Rome" had published some information regarding "team Bergoglio" in February, lending more evidence regarding the charges of conclave-lobbying.
