In a recent sermon, prominent Italian priest Father Giorgio Maria Faré said that he believes Francis is not a true pope because Pope Benedict XVI did not fully resign his office. 

During the October 13 sermon, Faré claimed Benedict did not properly resign from the papacy and remained pope until he died in 2022.

The priest also suggested that Pope Francis was doubtfully elected and that Benedict intentionally didn’t resign. 

LifeSite News reports: Faré opened his sermon by explaining that in recent years, he has spent a great amount of time discerning the state of the Church and after much prayer and reflection, he has come to an uncomfortable conclusion.  

“[A] priest must choose whether to preach what Sacred Scripture and the Church have always taught or to adhere to what the so-called Pope Francis teaches in his ordinary magisterium. Yes, you understood correctly. I said the so-called Pope Francis. What I am telling you today… is that for over eleven years, a man recognized as Pope by the majority has been sitting on the Chair of Peter, but he is not, however, the legitimate Pope,” Faré said. 

Benedict’s resignation was invalid   

Faré then dove into why he believed Pope Benedict’s resignation was invalid, namely that it was a declaration, not a formal abdication, and it lacked the act of resignation. 

 “The formula: ‘I declare to renounce,’ in legal terms, is not the same as saying, ‘I renounce.’ The Pope [Benedict] should have said, ‘I declare to renounce, as in fact, I renounce,’ or a similar formula. As it was pronounced, Benedict XVI’s declaration is, in fact, only a declaration, not a legally valid act, nor was it followed by any ratification.”  

 The priest then underscored that Benedict chose the title Declaratio, or “Declaration,” for his official resignation instead of “resignation” or “abdication.” 

Faré added that Benedict’s resignation lacked the will to renounce the papacy. The priest highlighted that in his original Latin declaration, Benedict used the term ministerium, which refers to the visible execution of the papal office. But, citing Canon 332 §2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, Faré claims that for the resignation to be valid, he would have needed to resign from the munus, the “office” of the papacy.