Andrea Cionci, art historian and journalist, has been conducting since 2020 the most substantial inquiry into the resignation of Benedict XVI ever produced: 1500 articles, 3000 podcasts, 186 lectures, a volume (« Codice Ratzinger ») with 25,000 copies sold, 2 journalism awards, 4 petitions filed with the Vatican Tribunal and one report.
I learned an important piece of news: a few days ago you were received for the second time by the Promoter of Justice of Vatican City. Tell us about this meeting and how it differs from the first one you had last year?
The Vatican Promoter of Justice corresponds to our public prosecutor. After nearly four years of investigation that began on Libero in 2020 (later Sechi and Capezzone deleted everything), in June 2024 I filed a petition with the Vatican tribunal in which I denounced the attempted attack suffered by Benedict XVI in Cuba in 2012 and the issue of his impeded see. Pope Ratzinger never abdicated, but with the famous Declaratio of 2013 he issued a « decisio », a penal decree with which he announced his forthcoming impeded see due to the convocation of an abusive conclave, while he, being non-renunciatory of the munus petrinum, found himself outside the seat of Rome (in fact he was at Castel Gandolfo). The Declaratio was falsified by Cardinal Bertone and Monsignor Gloder attempting to pass it off as an abdication. The « Promoter of Justice » enjoys a certain independence; if he receives a report he is bound to open a preliminary investigation but must be authorized by the pope or the Secretary of State. Now, it is difficult to believe that Bergoglio, out of sheer intellectual honesty, would have authorized the promoter to conduct an investigation into his own illegitimacy. Had this occurred, Bergoglio would in any case have continued to govern from June 2024 while aware of the possibility of not possessing the munus petrinum and with it the assistance of the Holy Spirit. And so too Prevost, equally fully informed of everything. This in my judgment demonstrates, among many other pieces of evidence, that the Holy See, the institution, knows perfectly well that neither Bergoglio nor Prevost have ever been popes. The promoter's office summoned me for a hearing on April 12, 2025, with Bergoglio still living. We can therefore say with certainty that the investigations were definitely open at that date and remain ongoing as shown by a response to my request for access to the records from March 2026. The August 3rd meeting was more relaxed and shorter compared to the previous year. I filed much additional material. My enemies minimize it saying that opening the investigation was a necessary act: in any case the promoter could have filed away everything the next day. Yet he did not: a year and a half of investigations and two hearings. The matter is very serious, far from being a « Dan Brown-like novel ».
Your grand investigation (the so-called « magna quaestio ») is therefore still ongoing? Can you explain to us why the death of Bergoglio and the apparent unanimous consensus on the pontifical nature of the role of Leo XIV has neither healed nor closed the question you raised years ago regarding Bergoglio's pontifical illegitimacy?
The Papacy is a theocratic monarchy regulated by a specific succession of dynasties. The munus petrinum, the title of pope, of divine origin, is like a baton that popes pass to one another throughout history in a two-thousand-year relay. The munus is granted by God only through a legitimate conclave composed of legitimate cardinal electors. The 2013 conclave was abusive as it was convoked with an impeded, non-abdicatory pope regarding the munus, as required by can. 332.2. The 2025 conclave was illegitimate as the sede vacante had not been declared upon the death of Benedict XVI and especially because it was attended by 108 false cardinals appointed during the antipapacy of Bergoglio. Moreover, there were further irregularities: 133 electors, while the maximum permitted is 120, plus a cardinal caught with a cellphone during the opening of the conclave and another who left before its closing. There was also a canonical study by magistrate Angelo Giorgianni sent to the Secretary of State and reported on Il Giornale d'Italia.
How do you assess the actions of Leo XIV to date?
He is an extremely dangerous man, far worse than Bergoglio who, at least, had aroused strong revulsion for his blatant heresies.
Prevost is more skilled and subtle: he seeks at all costs the gnostic « union of opposites »: he appears gentle and welcoming to all, but in reality he is advancing in a muted manner the inversive agenda of his antipapist predecessor.
How can one exit from this impasse that shows surreal, paradoxical and dramatically disquieting aspects according to your analysis?
This usurpation of the Papacy is an event announced for centuries. It is the fractal of an algorithm that has always been the same: 2000 years ago Judas betrayed Christ who sacrificed himself on the cross, then rose in glory. In 2013 the gnostic bishops—successors of Judas—betrayed the Vicar of Christ who sacrificed himself for the salvation of the Church. We await the resurrection of the Papacy. The Church is prepared for this historic appointment and I do not believe much time remains before the « explosion ». I believe that once the investigations are concluded, the Regent will declare the sede vacante upon the death of Benedict, the true cardinals will elect a true pope who will be the « terrible judge » of those who attempted against the life of his predecessor and his throne.
Your approach is founded on canon law and on the dimension of God as Logos according to the Depositum Fidei (the Revelation/Tradition of Catholicism): how do you evaluate the positions of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X (« the Lefebvrians ») and other conservative Catholic groups? Why have they not discussed or supported your investigation?
The tree is known by its fruits. The « sons » of Lefebvre—who died excommunicated—should have been the spearhead of the Catholic reconquista, yet instead they supported the antipope Bergoglio who bought them off by granting them a couple of sacraments. The recent abusive consecration of the 4 bishops at Econe is merely a pretense, a role-playing game where the real objective is to embed in collective consciousness the fact that Leo XIV is the true pope. In fact everything was suspended after the FSSPX challenged the decree of Fernandez written intentionally very poorly. Prevost is not pope, he has no power to excommunicate anyone, yet the FSSPX truly excommunicated itself through an objectively schismatic act, namely ordaining bishops without pontifical mandate. This is a usurpation of the pope's primacy of jurisdiction and goes against the dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus (1870). The FSSPX is therefore schismatic, excommunicated latae sententiae, heretical and anathematized. They have crossed every line.
Now I pose to you a radical question that comes immediately after the acceptance of your thesis: why has the Catholic Church been « neutralized-deactivated » by striking at its apex? and what forces are behind this coup of tragic devastating magnitude that you depict and reconstruct?
It is a final conflict between gnosticism and Christianity. They are two opposing worldviews, an eschatological derby between followers of the devil and those faithful to Christ. It is the final trial spoken of in article 675 of the Catechism: a religious deception that offers man a solution to his problems at the price of apostasy from truth. The globalist powers are completely devoted to gnosis and have managed to seize the « pot » of the papacy, but without the « lid » of its legitimacy. Soon the Logos, applied through canon law, will cast this tares into the fire.
