His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, had gathered in a consistory (an assembly of cardinals convoked by the pope) including members of the Papal Household, and the College of Cardinals, for the canonization of the martyrs of Otranto.
He chose that occasion, according to ANSA Italian News, to announce in Latin a decision that left the assembled churchmen in “deepest silence and confusion.” Pope Benedict declared that he was retiring from the ministry of Bishop of Rome (his position as pope) for the reason of “ingravescentem aetatem” (advanced age); he said that his “strength of mind and body were no longer adequate to continue.”
Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, 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 recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill 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.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said in a news conference later that his holiness “took a little surprise.” the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo, called the resignation a “bolt from the blue.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Igor
Benedict may simply have found himself too old and feeble to deal with the extensive corruption and rot within the church. The best he could do now would be to abandon the old pretext that the church must be saved in spite of it's sins.
Besides the horrible and ongoing crimes of child exploitation and coverup, it's past time to deal with the churches heavy Nazi involvement, sordid Nazi history, and ongoing political crimes. The catholic church is the center of Naziism around the world.
2 - Baronius
I've never heard him called "God's Rottweiler" except by left-of-center critics in the press. He's sometimes referred to as the German Shepherd.
Igor's comments are demonstrably false.
3 - Igor
Pope Pius said persecution of jews in germany was none of the church's business. His attitude prevailed even in America (tho we hated catholics we hated jews even more) where the SS St. Louis was turned away, dooming hundreds to death.
After the war the Vatican enabled nazis to escape consequences, especially from the Russians, of defeat and the naked craziness and viciousness of nazism. It was known as "The Vatican Highway" that enabled the escape from Europe, of nazis, creation of new identities and passports, and money.
The Vatican even enabled return of nazis to germany for social and family affairs, and even to find a nice new nazi bride (Mengele did that in 56, IIRC). And that was current at least until the 60's.
4 - Baronius
Quotes and facts without context.
There were a lot of Catholics in Europe during the war, and they did a lot of good things and bad things. The French bishops stayed quiet when they knew better. The worst deeds in Croatia were committed by Catholics. Spain took in a lot of Jewish refugees, and priests around Europe saved as many as they could. Anti-Semitism in Poland was terrible among the Catholics, and I can't fairly defend them as a group, but there were many heroes, such as Maximilian Kolbe and the man who would become Pope John Paul II.
There's a difference between anti-Semitism and Nazism. Don't confuse the two. You can criticize Poland, for example, for their anti-Semitism but you can't call them supporters of the Nazis.
Pius XII said and did as much as he could, living in an Axis country. He personally rescued thousands of Jews in Rome, and his people coordinated similar protection around Italy. Check this document, written by the Pope in 1937 and read from every pulpit in Germany on Palm Sunday. It's an unambiguous denouncement of Nazism. The Catholic Church in Germany was a thorn in Hitler's side, never supported him, and constituted the only major domestic resistance to him.
5 - Glenn Contrarian
Baronius -
Regardless of what Pius did to denounce Nazism, he also beatified Stepinac, the leader of the Catholics in Croatia under the Ustase regime (ruled by Ante Pavelic) during WWII, during which hundreds of thousands of non-Catholics were killed by Catholics, and hundreds of thousands more were exiled. I really do not understand his rationale when he could have beatified Stepinac when it was under him that an honest-to-goodness genocide was committed by Catholics against non-Catholics.
Here is a Wiki page listing some of what happened.
6 - Baronius
I did single out Croatia as the site of the worst actions by Catholics in WWII. Cardinal Stepinac seems to be that rare case of naivete in in Yugoslavian politics, which is something that will get you killed. He was beatified, but by John Paul II, not Pius XII, long after the war, long after Stepinac had denounced that pro-Nazi government's policies, then was imprisoned by the next government.
7 - Baronius
I read the section of that Wikipedia article about Stepinac. It says that he didn't come out against forced conversions - but those conversions were the only thing saving people's lives. He did endorse fake conversions for people's safety, the only time I know of when a Church official did so.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Baronius -
Please don't get me wrong - I'm not saying anything here to hurt anyone. It's just that if Stepinac were as strongly against the genocide as you seem to imply, he could have threatened everyone involved with excommunication - and he had the authority to back up that threat, especially given the fact that Pavelic and his cronies were strong Catholics. That, and it makes it seem as if Stepinac felt it was less important to make a public stand to protect the people than it was to stay alive and in his position of authority.
If a genocide were in progress among your people, would you risk your life to stop it, especially if you were in a position of real authority? Of course you would - I know you would. But Stepinac didn't. That's why I take the more cynical view.
9 - Igor
"All great men are evil men", said Lord Acton. He was right. Evil seeks out the powerful. It's sad, but true. You can't get too attached to your heroes, it won't be long before they disappoint you.
10 - Irene Athena
From the 11th century: Benedict is suggested by the penultimate papal prediction of St. Malachy.
The 268th: "At the limits of persecution of Rome's Sacred Church, the bishop, Peter of Rome, will nourish his sheep through many tribulations, and when these are accomplished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the formidable judge will judge his people. THE END"
21st century bookies are looking at Francis of Arinze of Nigeria and Peter Turkson of Ghana as the two most likely choices, with odds near 2-1.
12/21/12 turned out to be a bust. Here we go again, but we only have a couple of weeks to look forward to it.
11 - John Lake
Prophecy of St Malachy
Interesting. There are several references to the Prophesies of Malachy. This one seems legitimate enough. Yes, after some discussions of the prophesies in general, and some dispute as to their authenticity (The Jesuits may have conceived some deception) we do indeed see the second to last prophesy which says a Benedict will bring peace, an olive branch is mentioned, and the last and final prophesy which is short and sweet, and interprets (loosely) as “the end.”
12 - Baronius
The final prediction could be read as "this is the last pope", sure, and it could be a prediction of the end times. I always thought of it as more a capstone, how the Church sees itself: there will always be a pope leading the Church through hard times until the end of the world. Note that since all popes have been the Bishops of Rome, and successors to Peter, "Peter of Rome" is a pretty generic description.
On the other hand, it could mean that there will never be another pope until the last one. Could the Church continue without one for any length? Conceivably a generation, but no longer. The machinery of decision-making, even for the assignment of bishops, shuts down when there is no pope in office.
Of course, the most reasonable answer is that the prophecy is wrong. The Church has never required belief in private revelations of this kind. And while the Malachy prophecy has been good through some stretches, there are other periods that don't match up too well.
13 - Dr Dreadful
"Peter of Rome" is a pretty generic description.
Add to this that Cardinal Turkson, if he is elected, is unlikely to take Peter as his papal name.
Of course, the most reasonable answer is that the prophecy is wrong.
You don't say.
14 - Baronius
Doc - You may not realize that the Catholic default position is skepticism in these matters. When a private revelation is claimed, or when a cause of sainthood is taken up, the null hypothesis is that no such thing occurred. A miracle could be witnessed by thousands, but it doesn't become an article of faith. A message may be found acceptable, or a pilgrimage beneficial, but such things are rarely if ever endorsed beyond that. We're the Show-Me Religion.
15 - Glen Contrarian
David Horsey of the LA Times has just set the odds for where the next Pope will come from - it's amusing, if a bit snarky.
16 - Dr Dreadful
Baronius, the Catholic Encyclopaedia takes an entirely credulous tone, but then again it was published in 1913 and a number of chastening things have happened to the Church since then!
As I understand it, the general consensus is that the prophecies are a 16th century forgery, which accounts for their astounding accuracy up to that point in time and their equally remarkable vagueness after it.
17 - Baronius
Entirely credulous? This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia, I believe from the 1913 edition:
They were first published by Arnold de Wyon, and ever since there has been much discussion as to whether they are genuine predictions of St. Malachy or forgeries. The silence of 400 years on the part of so many learned authors who had written about the popes, and the silence of St. Bernard especially, who wrote the "Life of St. Malachy", is a strong argument against their authenticity, but it is not conclusive if we adopt Cucherat's theory that they were hidden in the Archives during those 400 years.
18 - Dr Dreadful
Baronius, that's the only sceptical sentence in that whole entry.
19 - Baronius
And I can't think of a single chastening thing that's happened to the Church in terms of its approach to private revelation in the past 100 years.
Particularly interesting is the series of visions at Fatima a few years after the Encyclopedia was published. In 1917, three children in backwater Portugal claimed to see visions of Mary informing them about the end of the great war, a possible larger war following it, and the need for the conversion of Russia (before the Revolutions). Thousands of people witnessed the "miracle of the sun". Popes and bishops have gone to the site and professed their belief in the message of Fatima of prayer and conversion, but the Church has only said that the visions are worthy of belief, not that they have any authority.
20 - Baronius
Much discussion about whether they are forgeries isn't sceptical enough for you? Remind me sometime to add one sentence in one of my political rants about how there's been much discussion as to whether President Obama is a genuine American or born in Kenya. We'll see how that goes. Oh, and that his autobiographies are "attributed" to him.
21 - Dr Dreadful
The Encyclopaedia acknowledges that there has been "much discussion". It indulges in none of that discussion itself, except for, as I said, that single sentence mentioning the silence of theologians and papal historians on the subject. The longer second and third paragraphs of the entry on the Malachite prophecies discusses them entirely as if they were true.
22 - Dr Dreadful
Popes and bishops have gone to the site and professed their belief in the message of Fatima of prayer and conversion, but the Church has only said that the visions are worthy of belief, not that they have any authority.
Calling something "worthy of belief" doesn't sound all that sceptical to me.
23 - Baronius
We're spinning our wheels here. I can hear the difference. If you can't, believe me, a Catholic can. And if you can't believe me that a Catholic can, then we're definitely spinning our wheels here.
24 - Dr Dreadful
Yes, we should probably stop. Your #23 has placed images in my mind of the last 8 popes high-kicking in a Can-Can line...
25 - Glen Contrarian
Does that mean this comments thread is getting canned?