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Dear father,
I need your help urgently.
What to respond to a heretic who states that Benedict XVI would have renounced the ministerium and not the munus, thus not renouncing the pontificate? 

Priest’s answer

Dearly beloved,
1.I don’t think anyone can be called a heretic who claims that Benedict XVI, in renouncing the pontificate, only renounced the ministerium and not the munus.

2. Meanwhile, for the benefit of our visitors, let’s see what is meant by munus and what is meant by ministerium.
The munus is the task, the office, the task that one receives.

The ministerium is the use of this office and consists mainly in the government of the church, in shepherding the souls that Jesus Christ has entrusted to him.

3. The question that was asked while Benedict XVI was alive was the following:
Has Pope Benedict renounced being Pope or is he still Pope?

Did he renounce the munus and the ministerium or did he keep the munus and renounce the ministerium? Did he renounce the task and the government or did he keep the task and renounce the government?

4. But more deeply: can the Pope renounce the munus?

If one thinks that the cardinals entrusted him with that munus,  he can renounce it.

But if we keep in mind that the Lord gave him that munus through the election of the cardinals then it cannot be taken away.

In fact, the Pope does not carry out the Petrine exercise by mandate from the cardinals, but by the authority that comes to him from Jesus Christ.
Invested with this authority, he cannot take it away on his own initiative.

Through the voice of the cardinals, the Lord told him Tu es Petrus (You are Peter) and Peter remains forever.

5. There is no problem in there being a Pope Emeritus, who continues to have the Petrine munus, but who has renounced the exercise.
This is what Benedict XVI intended to do, and he continued to be called Pope, although emeritus.

He did not return to being a cardinal or even a simple bishop.

He remained Pope, but emeritus, that is, without the power to govern.

6. Equally there is no problem in there being a Pope who retains the Petrine munus without exercising it and another Pope who has the Petrine munus and exercises it, similarly to the bishop emeritus who continues to be bishop, even if he no longer governs the diocese.

7. If this case occurred, as was the case in the period in which Pope Benedict was Pope Emeritus while Pope Francis was Pope in the full exercise of his office, there would not be two popes to obey, but only one, the one in office.

This is what Benedict XVI intended to do by being the first to publicly give all his obedience to the new Pope, in whom he recognized the presence of the Petrine munus and at the same time the exercise of this ministry.

I bless you, I remember you in prayer and I wish you all the best.

Father Angelo