Catholic world rocked by Pope bombshell
With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope has done in more than half a millennium, stunning the world by announcing his resignation and leaving the already troubled Catholic Church to replace the leader of its one billion followers by Easter.
Not even his closest associates had advance word of the news, a bombshell that he dropped during a routine meeting of Vatican cardinals yesterday. And with no clear favourites to succeed him, another surprise likely awaits when the cardinals elect Benedict’s successor next month.
“Without doubt this is a historic moment,” said Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, a protégé and former theology student of Benedict’s who is considered a papal contender.
“Right now, 1.2 billion Catholics the world over are holding their breath.”
The February 28 resignation allows for a fast-track conclave to elect a new pope, since the traditional nine days of mourning that would follow a pope’s death does not have to be observed.
It also gives 85-year-old Benedict great sway over the choice of his successor. Though he will not himself vote, he has hand-picked the bulk of the College of Cardinals – the princes of the church who will elect his successor – to guarantee his conservative legacy and ensure an orthodox future for the church.
The resignation may mean that age will become less of a factor when electing a new pope, since candidates may no longer feel compelled to stay for life.
Benedict said as recently as 2010 that a pontiff should resign if he got too old or infirm to do the job, but it was a tremendous surprise when he said in Latin that his “strength of mind and body” had diminished and that he could not carry on.
“All the cardinals remained shocked and were looking at each other,” said Monsignor Oscar Sanchez of Mexico, who was in the room at the time of the announcement.
As a top aide, Benedict watched from up close as Pope John Paul II suffered publicly from the Parkinson’s disease that enfeebled him in the final years of his papacy. Clearly Benedict wanted to avoid the same fate as his advancing age took its toll.
The Vatican said Benedict would live in a congregation for cloistered nuns inside the Vatican, although he will be free to go in and out.
Much of this is unchartered territory. The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said he was not even sure of Benedict’s title – perhaps “pope emeritus”.
Since becoming Pope in 2005, Benedict has charted a very conservative course for the church, trying to reawaken Christianity in Europe where it had fallen by the wayside and return the church to its traditional roots, which he felt had been betrayed by a botched interpretation of the modernising reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
His efforts though, were overshadowed by a worldwide clerical sex abuse scandal, communication gaffes that outraged Jews and Muslims alike and, more recently, a scandal over leaked documents by his own butler.
There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner - the same situation as when Benedict was elected after the death of John Paul.
As in recent elections, some push is expected for the election of a Third World pope, with several names emerging from Asia, Africa and Latin America, home to about 40% of the world’s Catholics.
The Pope has clearly slowed down significantly in recent years, cutting back his foreign travel and limiting his audiences. He now goes to and from the altar in St Peter’s Basilica on a moving platform to spare him the long walk down the aisle. Occasionally he uses a cane.
His 89-year-old brother Georg Ratzinger said doctors recently advised the Pope not to take any more trans-Atlantic trips.
“His age is weighing on him,” Mr Ratzinger told the dpa news agency in Germany. “At this age, my brother wants more rest.”
Benedict emphasised that to carry out the duties of being pope, “both strength of mind and body are necessary – strengths which in the last few months, have deteriorated in me”.
“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 the demands of being the Pope, he told the cardinals.
Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were too old or sick to continue.
“If a pope clearly realises 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 in the 2010 book Light Of The World.
The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said Benedict decided to resign after his March 2012 trip to Mexico and Cuba, an exhausting but exhilarating visit where he met fellow octogenarian Fidel Castro and was treated to a raucous and warm welcome.
Although popes are allowed to resign, only a handful has done it – and none for a very long time.
The last to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism, a dispute among competing papal claimants. The most famous resignation was Pope Celestine V in 1294 – Dante placed him in hell for it.
