Substantial error on Barnhardt’s part…
Benedict XVI’s Mysterious Resignation:
A Reply to Ann Barnhardt
On Nov. 17, 2018, the colorful blogger Ann Barnhardt, a Resignationist since 2016, released a video presentation in which she tries to convince her audience that “Pope” Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013 was invalid because he is, so she argues, in “substantial error” about the Papacy, and substantial error renders a resignation invalid according to Canon 188 of the 1983 Novus Ordo Code of Canon Law (this same law is also found in the 1917 Catholic Code of Canon Law; see Canon 185). Ergo, Barnhardt reasons, the resignation was not valid and Benedict XVI is the Pope, albeit, so she says, the worst Pope in history.… READ MORE