Pope Benedict XVI (Reuters / Tony Gentile)
The 85-year-old is due to step down on February 28. The Pope said he is “fully aware of the gravity of this gesture” but that he lacks the strength to govern Church due to age, according to Vatican's spokesperson Federico Lombardi.
In a statement released by the Catholic Church, Benedict VXI said that “after having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”
A reproduction picture shows Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in front of Petersdome in Rome, 1996 (Reuters / KNA-Bild)
A conclave of cardinals will meet in March 2013, to elect a new pope after his departure.The Pope will not participate in the election of his successor.
In 2010, the 265th Pope said that he would not hesitate to become the first pontiff to retire willingly from his position in more than 700 years, if he felt unable, “physically, psychologically and spiritually” to run the Catholic Church any longer.
Georg Ratzinger said that the Pope's doctor had recently told him not to make transatlantic trips for health reasons. However, his resignation is not due to any specific illness, according to a spokesperson. Following his departure, he will voyage to a Papal summer residence near Rome, and will then move in to a cloistered residence in the Vatican.
The last time a pope resigned was in 1415.Back then Pope Gregory XII pronounced the resignation, which the cardinals accepted. However, the last time a Pope resigned voluntarily, was Celestine V in 1294.
Pope Benedict XVI has been in office since19 April 2005.
Since his assumption of the title, he has been embroiled in the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal, in which his former butler was accused of stealing confidential information, and leaking it to journalists. The leaked data, which surfaced in January 2012, contained detailed exposes of the institution, revealing the power struggles, factional fighting and personal finances of the Papacy.
The reports also described competing churchmen initiating homosexual smear campaigns against each other and revealed a number of blocked reforms geared towards the transformation of the Vatican Bank – an institution already infamous for its lack of transparency.
The Pope emerged from the scandal as frail, indecisive, and remote, and concerned only with the spiritual side of affairs while blind to earthly misdemeanors around him. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone – the Vatican’s administrative head – emerged as a figure gaining increasing power as Benedict’s health weakened.
Paolo Gabriele, the butler involved, said that he "was sure that a shock, perhaps by using the media, could be a healthy thing to bring the Church back on the right track," going on to explain his feelings that the pope was not adequately informed of problems the letters outlined.
Benedict hasreportedly been critical of his predecessor, John Paul II, for remaining in the position as he became too old and incapable to fully cope with its demands.
Israel’s chief Rabbi has praised the Pope's inter-religious outreach, and has wished him good health, according to a spokesman.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is also expected to respond to the news later today, on account of the Pope’s German roots. He is the sixth German to serve as Pope, and the first since the 11th century.
Pope Benedict XVI sits during a mass in Santiago de Cuba on March 26, 2012 (AFP Photo / Osservatore Romano)
Pope of the digital age
Elected on this post in 2005 upon the death of Pope John Paul II, 78-year-old former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became one of the oldest new popes in history.Pope Benedict XVI is seen as a religious conservative, in line with his predecessor’s policies.
During his Papacy, Benedict XVI was actively involved in social media. He is online everywhere these days — from tweets on his @Pontifex account to daily YouTube videos to a new app dubbed 'The Pope App', launched just recently.
The five-star application received extremely positive reviews from those who downloaded it.
Pope Benedict XVI entered history as the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to join the Twitter microblogging website in December 2012.
Pope Benedict XVI posts his first tweet using an iPad tablet after his Wednesday general audience in Paul VI's Hall at the Vatican December 12, 2012 (Reuters / Giampiero Sposito)
World’s oldest electoral tradition
Popes are elected by a conclave of the entire body of Catholic cardinals. Since 1274 the officials are sequestered and not permitted to leave until the new Pope is elected, a rule aimed at preventing the Holy See from being left unoccupied for a long period of time. Papal conclaves are now held in the Sistine Chapel.A candidate must be under 80 years old on the day the Holy See becomes vacant and must win the support of two-thirds of the College of Cardinals, consisting of up to 120 clergymen. Dozens of ballots may be cast over the day, if the electors cannot come to an agreement.
The results of election rounds held on a given day are announced to the people assembled in St. Peter’s Square, when the ballots are burned. Black smoke indicates that the election failed to produce a result, while white smoke signals that a new pope has been chosen.
It is customary for a pope to select a new name. The tradition stretches back to the time before succession of the Holy See was institutionalized. Pope John II, who became the leader of the Catholic Church in 533, felt that his given name Mercurius, honoring the Roman god, was inappropriate for his position, so he had it changed.
The procedure for selection of a new Pope was first formalized in 1059, which makes it the oldest method of choosing a leader of an institution still in use. The rules evolved, however, with details refined over the centuries.
http://rt.com/news/pope-benedict-resign-vatican-921/
Pope resigning on Feb. 28, conclave in March
Updated:
02/11/2013 08:01:42 AM EST
Pope
Benedict XVI waves as he delivers the Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the
world) Christmas Day message from the central balcony of Saint Peter's
Square at the Vatican in this December 25, 2011 file photo. Pope
Benedict will step down as head of the Catholic Church on Feb. 28, the
Vatican confirmed on February 11, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/Files
(ALESSANDRO BIANCHI)
More
Text of pope announcement he will resign Feb. 28This lovely Last Supper sculpture in York sits in St. Mary's chancel St. Mary's Church product of 19th-century York County language wars
Conewago Chapel mother church of Roman Catholics, west of Susquehanna River.
The church of St. Patrick: A church without a steeple, by design
Text of pope's Christmas Day message
Six degrees of Pope Benedict XVI
The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.
He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope—the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide—requires "both strength of mind and body."
"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.
"However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary—strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."
The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.
Benedict called his choice "a decision of great importance for the life of the church."
The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn't have to be observed.
There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner—the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.
When Benedict was elected pope at age 78—already the oldest pope elected in nearly 300 years—he had been already planning to retire as the Vatican's chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final years writing in the "peace and quiet" of his native Bavaria.
Contenders to be his successor include Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican's office for bishops.
Longshots include Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Although Dolan is popular and backs the pope's conservative line, the general thinking is that the Catholic Church doesn't need a pope from a "superpower."
All cardinals under age 80 are allowed to vote in the conclave, the secret meeting held in the Sistine Chapel where cardinals cast ballots to elect a new pope. As per tradition, the ballots are burned after each voting round; black smoke that snakes out of the chimney means no pope has been chosen, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
Popes are allowed to resign; church law specifies only that the resignation be "freely made and properly manifested."
Only a handful have done so, however and there's good reason why it hasn't become commonplace: Might the existence of two popes—even when one has stepped down—lead to divisions and instability in the church? Might a new resignation precedent lead to pressures on future popes to quit at the slightest hint of infirmity?
Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue on in 2010, when he was interviewed for the book "Light of the World."
"If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign," Benedict said.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had an intimate view as Pope John Paul II, with whom he had worked closely for nearly a quarter-century, suffered through the debilitating end of his papacy.
Pope Benedict XVI stepping down
Pope
Benedict XVI announced Monday he would resign Feb. 28, the first
pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a
conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
- The official text of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation letter from the Vatican: en.radiovaticana.va/m_artic...
- The Pope is hardly the first person to lose interest in their real job so soon after joining Twitter.
- I think that we may have a much younger Pope from an ethnic background we have never seen before , and we may be in for some new theological changes within the Roman Catholic Church .
- Pope Benedict XVI is resigning at the end of the month! What is this world coming to?... seriously. Who will be next to lead our church ? All we can do is pray.
- We will miss you Holy Pope. May the Spirit of God lead you rightly. Happy Resignation.
- The Pope to resign. I didn't know that "God" could resign. Interesting. Most think the Pope is God on earth. He is not GOD. This revelation should tell people something about the position of "Pope."
- Pope retires wow I'm shocked. Brave decision, will be interesting to see what direction the Church takes with his replacement
- Crazy isn't it ? we have homework about the Pope, and the day its due, the Pope decides he's going to resign... Coincidence ?
- List of popes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor a graphical representation of this list, see List of popes (graphical).
- We will have a new Pope soon. Let's pray for our Pope Benedict. :-) good health and long life.
- POPE RESIGNING??? Not a good sign for the Catholics... The last pope who resigned from office was Pope Gregory if "my history" is correct because of a rift among the cardinals...
- The date of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation is Feb 28. In the 1962 missal, it is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. As a child and young man, Francis Possenti was well liked by his peers and had a reputation for great charity and piety. He was also known for the great care he took with regard to his appearance and would spend hours in preparing himself for parties. Francis could be a difficult child and was liable to bouts of anger. Francis was deeply involved with the social scene of Spoleto and soon earned for himself the nickname of "the dancer".[3] He had several romantic involvements and on the night he left for the monastery there were still hopes that he might become engaged to a local girl. He was educated first by the Christian Brothers and then by the Jesuits in the town’s college and there excelled, particularly in Latin. In 1851 Francis became desperately ill and promised to enter religious life if he recovered. Once he had recovered, his promise was soon forgotten. The same thing happened when he narrowly escaped a stray bullet during a hunting expedition with friends[4] His brother Paul had died in 1848 and his brother Lawrence committed suicide in 1853 after becoming involved with a Masonic organisation. In 1853 Francis again fell ill, this time afflicted with a throat abscess. He attributed his healing to the recently beatified Andrew Bobola, SJ. Once more he had promised to enter religious life upon his recovery and this time actually set the process in motion. He applied to join the Jesuits, but for some unknown reason never proceeded. Tragedy struck again when his sister, Mary Louisa, who had cared for Francis after their mother’s death, died of cholera. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabri...
- I heard that Pope Benedict is resigning. I just heard on the news. I heard that the reason is that he is too old? Good Grief! Please God send us a Shepherd who can unify the sheep!
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