Dear Brothers,I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonisations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. 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.I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with 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 bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.From the Vatican, 10 February 2013BENEDICTUS PP XVI
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Monday, February 11, 2013
PAPA "RESIGNES" ...what's next ? No God ???perhaps GOD will follow ?????!!!
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6 comments:
Good riddance to the old nazi.
Oh, dear Lord. I suspect this means there's a horrible scandal (even more scandal). Pope's don't resign, even when they're at death's door.
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Does he have to put his resignation in writing to God?
Pope Benedict XVI is to step down as head of the Catholic church at the end of this month, the Vatican has announced.
The move, which came without warning, will take place on 28 February and leave the papacy vacant until a successor is chosen.
The pope announced his decision in Latin on Monday morning during a meeting of cardinals. He informed them of "a decision of great importance for the life of the church".
According to a Vatican statement, Benedict, 85, said he was resigning due to his age and declining strength. "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.
"For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of bishop of Rome, successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new supreme pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is."
Benedict, who became the 265th pope in 2005, has arthritis, particularly in his knees, hips and ankles. He had been due to travel to Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world, in July for a youth festival, but concerns had been raised among Vatican observers about whether he was well enough.
A voluntary papal resignation is rare – certainly in recent centuries. Pope Celestine V exercised his right to abdicate in 1294.
In Germany, Angela Merkel has given her reaction to the resignation of Pope Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927. Merkel thanked the pope for his work as head of the Catholic church, Kate Connolly reports from Berlin, and said his decision to resign was to be given "the absolute highest respect".
Benedict, she said, "is and remains one of the most important religious thinkers of our time". She added that if he was too weak to fulfil his duties, that had to be respected. "In an age like ours when people live ever longer, many people will understand that even the pope has to come to terms with the burdens of ageing."
My first thought too: some journalist has finally got hold of something too damaging for even this appalling organisation to talk its way out of. But my second thought was more depressing: how does one shame a man who thinks that the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children is a trivial matter compared with the prestige of his institution - and who is evidently part of a whole generation of men who think the same thing? Although it is high time that people who knowingly covered the tracks of abusers are held equally responsible, since even if they may not have carried out the abuse in person, they effectively handed children over to their abusers and remorselessly enabled the abusers to continue destroying young lives.
I imagine that college of cardinals is now so thoroughly staffed by right-wingers and extreme conservatives that he knows he can resign without any danger of anyone with the slightest trace of liberal principle being elected as his successor.
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