Italian Archbishop Says the Old Papal Critics Have Become ‘Hyper-Papists’

This is a very revealing, although short, interview with Archbishop Luigi Negri and not just because of his opinion on why Pope Benedict resigned. Unfortunately this good prelate has just retired after reaching the age of 75. He is the only Bishop in Italy to march in the annual Pro-Life crusade in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI, as I am sure our readers know, was not the first pope to resign. His namesake, the vile and ambitious Benedict IX, perhaps the worst of the bad popes of the 10th and early part of the 11th centuries (made pope through bribery in 1032 when he was only 20) abdicated his office twice. Saint Peter Damien rejoiced publicly with prayers and thanksgiving when Benedict IX abdicated, encouraging Gregory VI to make necessary reforms in the papacy and condemn simony. Peter Morrone, Pope Saint Celestine V, resigned the papacy in 1294 after serving just five months, and then Pope Gregory XII who resigned in 1415 in order to end the Great Western Schism.

LifeSite News: An Italian archbishop close to Pope Benedict XVI says the former pope decided to resign as a result of “tremendous pressure.”

Archbishop Luigi Negri who says he has visited Pope Benedict “several times” since his resignation in 2013, is the only Italian bishop to have ever participated in the annual pro-life march in Rome. Negri resigned as archbishop of Ferrara-Comacchio in February after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. Read more here.