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Pope Benedict XVI announces
his resignation at end of month
February 11, 2013
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Source Vatican Radio |
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Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. 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 barque 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. From the Vatican, 10 February 2013 BENEDICTUS PP XVI ------------------------------------ (Vatican Radio ) In a surprise announcement Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans to resign from the papal office on February 28th at 8 pm. From then on one can speak about there being a so called " sede vacante". After this date the Pope himself will reside at his residence at Castelgandolfo until the conclave . Five years into this pontificate historian Norman Tanner granted Veronica Scarisbrick an interview focusing on this lapse of time. In the interview Professor Tanner describes the Pope as: "... a man of prayer , a man of deep Christian life, a man who is open to every dimension of human existence, the intellectual , the personal , the humorous too". A leader of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; 16 April 1927) is the 265th Pope, a position in which he serves dual roles as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and leader of the Catholic Church. On 11 February 2013, Benedict XVI announced that he would resign the papacy, effective 28 February, due to age and ill health, becoming the first pope to resign since 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since 1294. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was elected as the successor to Pope John Paul II on April 19th 2005. On April 24th, 2005 he celebrated the Papal Inauguration Mass in St. Peter’s Square, during which he was invested with the Pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman and took possession of his cathedral, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. A native of Bavaria, Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. During his Papacy Pope Benedict XVIth has undertaken 24 apostolic journeys abroad. The first was to Cologne in Germany in occasion of the 20th World Youth Day in August 2005. The most recent to Lebanon in September 2012. He has travelled to countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, to the USA and has been welcomed as a guest at the United Nations in New York. He has also undertaken 30 apostolic visits within Italy. His 1st Encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est”, was release on December 25th 2005. The 2nd, “Spe Salvi” on November 2nd 2007; and the 3rd, “Caritas in Veritate” on June 29th 2009. Pope Benedict XVIth published books and completed “Jesus of Nazareth” trilogy on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in November 2012. The second volume of the trilogy is the first book authored by Benedict after his ascension to the papacy, and it was published in 2007. Pope Benedict XVI has written four Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortations: “Sacramentum Caritatis”, an Exhortation on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit on the Church’s Life and Mission in February 2007; “Verbum Domini”, an Exhortation on the Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church in September 2010; “Africae Munus” on the Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace in November 2011; “Ecclesia in Medio Oriente” on the Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness in September 2012. It was a surprise announcement this morning via media that Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans to resign from the papal office on February 28th at 8 pm. Pope Benedict XVI says that "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." Many are Hope and prayers for his comfort and peaceful reside at his residence at Castelgandolfo.
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