Dear Brothers,There have only ever been two ways out of the Papacy, death or resignation, and in this new age of slow deaths and quick news it really makes a lot of sense that we should see resignations happening a lot more often. This is the classy way out and good news.
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.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Fratres carissimiEnglish
Non solum propter tres canonizationes ad hoc Consistorium vos convocavi, sed etiam ut vobis decisionem magni momenti pro Ecclesiae vitae communicem. Conscientia mea iterum atque iterum coram Deo explorata ad cognitionem certam perveni vires meas ingravescente aetate non iam aptas esse ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum.
Bene conscius sum hoc munus secundum suam essentiam spiritualem non solum agendo et loquendo exsequi debere, sed non minus patiendo et orando. Attamen in mundo nostri temporis rapidis mutationibus subiecto et quaestionibus magni ponderis pro vita fidei perturbato ad navem Sancti Petri gubernandam et ad annuntiandum Evangelium etiam vigor quidam corporis et animae necessarius est, qui ultimis mensibus in me modo tali minuitur, ut incapacitatem meam ad ministerium mihi commissum bene administrandum agnoscere debeam. Quapropter bene conscius ponderis huius actus plena libertate declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commissum renuntiare ita ut a die 28 februarii MMXIII, hora 29, sedes Romae, sedes Sancti Petri vacet et Conclave ad eligendum novum Summum Pontificem ab his quibus competit convocandum esse.
Fratres carissimi, ex toto corde gratias ago vobis pro omni amore et labore, quo mecum pondus ministerii mei portastis et veniam peto pro omnibus defectibus meis. Nunc autem Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam curae Summi eius Pastoris, Domini nostri Iesu Christi confidimus sanctamque eius Matrem Mariam imploramus, ut patribus Cardinalibus in eligendo novo Summo Pontifice materna sua bonitate assistat. Quod ad me attinet etiam in futuro vita orationi dedicata Sanctae Ecclesiae Dei toto ex corde servire velim.
Ex Aedibus Vaticanis, die 10 mensis februarii MMXIII
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Dear Brothers,posted by elpapacito at 6:21 AM on February 11 [3 favorites]
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.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
Oh man, I'd love the see the shit storm that develops after they put up a black pope.Imagine a world in which the phrase "Is the pope black?" is a frequent quip.
It had been believed for many years that bishops were basically on their own, dealing with these matters as they saw fit. That was the fiction that Rome had advanced. But it turns out that, to defrock a priest, you had to go to Rome. Only a pope can do that. Those issues went to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who ran an organization called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—formerly known as “the Inquisition.” In 2001 Pope John Paul II decided to give Cardinal Ratzinger all the authority on all sexual abuse cases.posted by ericb at 7:19 AM on February 11 [5 favorites]
So when will his trial begin?If past Papal history is any indication, nine months after death.
2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "over-zealous" treatment. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decisions should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
2279 Even if death is thought imminent, the ordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.I fully expect that a lot of people on MetaFilter will explain how this teaching, too, is bad and wrong and reactionary and short-sighted because it is not precisely where they would draw the line on the morality of end-of-life care, but the idea that the Church teaches that people have to be put on life-support forever and ever amen is just a fiction.
She [the Roman Catholic Church] may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s.posted by shothotbot at 9:13 AM on February 11 [2 favorites]
Macaulay, On Ranke's History of the Popes
US will have unprecedented voice in electing new pope.Pope The Situation I
I would like to congratulate Pope Benedict on his wise decision to retire before the very worst of what has been going on is discovered. I appreciate his alluding to some of it in his statement and assure him The Most High forgives those who can faithfully say they did wrong.posted by ericb at 9:45 AM on February 11 [13 favorites]
The church had been brought into dreadful disrepute by lies and blasphemies against The Holy Spirit. Benedict’s greatest achievement is this act of retiring. There is a chance now for the church to be re-built and made fit to house The Holy Spirit.
This Pope has been widely regarded as a conservative leader. His comments on atheism and secularism have frustrated many humanists, seeming as they do to contain a willful misunderstanding of individuals who find meaning and value outside of religion....posted by audi alteram partem at 9:52 AM on February 11 [1 favorite]
We note that a great many people around the world who define themselves as Catholic nevertheless reject much of the authoritarian 'moral' dogma from the Vatican. As a humanist I have no part in the church, and the internal workings of the church are no business of mine. However, the influence and behaviour of the Vatican impacts on millions of lives. And even as a humanist I can hope – though it may be a vain hope – that the next Pope might better reflect the diversity of opinion within the Catholic laity, let alone the wider world in the twenty-first century.
I remember being an altar boy fondly.Really, almost seven hours and nobody made a joke with that?
posted by hal9k at 9:36 AM on February 11 [+] [!]
The film also highlights the case against a Mexican priest, Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, who founded the controversial Legionnaires of Christ and who was highly influential in the Vatican hierarchy because of his group’s impressive financial contributions. Maciel, who died in 2008, was a known pedophile who was accused of sexually abusing up to 20 seminarians. He was also a documented philanderer who fathered several children with various women. He was protected for years by the Vatican’s former secretary of state, Angelo Sodano, who was able to keep Maciel shielded from criminal prosecution as long as the money kept rolling in. (Sodano has disavowed any cover-up; in 2010, he dismissed such allegations as “petty gossip.”) *Alex Gibney:
As for Rome, starting in 2001, all cases of clerical sex abuse in the church were forwarded to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. So he may be the most knowledgeable man in the world about clerical sex abuse. Yet even though he saw the parade of horrors of child abuse, did Ratzinger as cardinal, or later as Pope Benedict, mandate reporting to civil authorities? No. When he had a chance, as Pope, to defrock Marcial Maciel, one of the world’s most brutally abusive clerics, did he do it? No. He and the curia around him are unwilling to confront the issue in a serious way. In that sense, it’s a systematic global cover-up of crimes.posted by ericb at 4:55 PM on February 11 [7 favorites]
... The case of Maciel (told in the film) is instructive. By all accounts, Cardinal Ratzinger wanted to bring Maciel to justice but was unwilling to challenge his protectors, Vatican secretary of state Angelo Sodano and Pope John Paul II. When John Paul was dying, Ratzinger commenced an investigation into Maciel’s monstrous behavior, but when he became Pope, he willingly abandoned the canonical trial to defrock Maciel. What kind of message does that send? And what kind of message did it send that the announcement of the trial’s end came from Sodano? *
No Pope has resigned his position since the 15th century. But if some critics had their way, that's exactly what Pope Benedic would do. Holy Week for him has been one of defending the Vatican — and himself — against allegations that he knew about, and failed to act on, sexual abuse by priests years ago. In one major scandal, his role may have been far more complicated than that.He didn't do anything for six years!
As the Onion said, "Resigning Pope No Longer Has Strength To Lead Church Backward".Someone on BBC World News yesterday said that he hoped that the cardinals would elect someone "who could drag the church into the Twentieth Century".
Pope Benedict XVI was troubled by "some great challenges" during his time in office -- including allegations of corruption within the church that were illegally exposed by his former butler and his relationship with a controversial Catholic brotherhood -- the pontiff’s brother said Tuesday.posted by ericb at 7:55 AM on February 12
... Benedict’s stated reason is his waning strength, but that hasn’t stopped the rumors. As Cardinal, Ratzinger was John Paul II’s enforcement officer — he rode herd on the many sex scandals and their “containment.” Was he involved in crimes of concealment? Almost certainly, but there’s little direct public evidence. Is there new explosive documentation that could lay the dead cat of scandal at his personal door? Nothing has been revealed so far that’s worse than what we’ve seen (search for “Munich”), and Ratzinger has weathered those storms.posted by ericb at 8:53 AM on February 13 [1 favorite]
Still, why so sudden? Is there something about the timing?
At that point in our discussion [WNHN talk show host] Arnie [Arnesen] pointed me to a couple of links I hadn’t seen involving a Rhode Island court case against the so-called “Legion of Christ,” a Catholic group with very close ties both to John Paul II and Ratzinger, and its notorious (and sexually prolific) founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel. I bring up Arnie Arnesen because she personally knows one of the principals in the lawsuit and has additional information. I’ll add her contribution below the news pieces.
So what’s the news regarding Maciel? This isn’t complicated, but it has a couple of pieces.
Those are:■ Who is Marcial Maciel and why is he notorious?I’ll deal with each piece in order so you can put them together easily. As I say, it’s not complicated, I promise. [continues...]
■ What are his ties to John Paul II and to Ratzinger (both before and after his election as Benedict XVI)?
■ What is alleged in the lawsuit against Maciel?
■ What’s going to happen on February 15? (Yep, a deadline, and just around the corner.)
"The swiftness with which the pope accepted [U.K.'s Cardinal Keith] O'Brien's resignation, before the cardinals had even met to elect a new pope, reveals how much the Vatican is deathly afraid of how the gay issue will play out. If the allegations against O'Brien are true, the story would expose to the world the hypocrisy and self-loathing of powerful men who condemn homosexuality -- and blame the ills of the world on it -- while they may be secretly gay themselves."posted by ericb at 1:11 PM on February 26
Sullivan isn't exactly alone in his suspicions. He points towards a book by Angelo Quattrocchi (playfully titled "The Pope is Not Gay") that he felt reached similar conclusions. In addition, former Benedictine monk-priest and author Richard Sipe claims to have spoken to a number of Roman clerics and members of the Roman press corps who were "convinced" that Benedict XVI was gay.posted by ericb at 10:13 AM on February 28
Of course, it doesn't help the rumors that Ganswein has become something of a star in his own right. He's been dubbed the "The George Clooney of the Vatican,” and appeared on the cover of the Italian Vanity Fair under the headline “It’s no sin to be good looking.” Donatella Versace has even dedicated a menswear collection to him.
In 2006, the archdiocese agreed to pay $17 million to settle a California lawsuit with 10 victims of two Milwaukee priests who were relocated there after Milwaukee church officials learned of their sexual misconduct with minors. Of the $17 million, insurance companies paid $8.75 million of the tab and the archdiocese announced it would sell the Cousins Center to pay a large part of the debt.posted by drezdn at 5:23 PM on February 28 [1 favorite]
Later, as part of the bankruptcy in Milwaukee, the archdiocese claimed it had never owned the property. Instead, it has been listed on financial statements since 2004 as being owned by the De Sales Preparatory Seminary Inc., the separate entity that had operated a now-defunct high school at that location. The archdiocese told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it pays about $650,000 a year in upkeep but does not pay rent on the property.
Around the same time, then-Archbishop Dolan transferred $55 million to a trust fund to oversee the care of eight cemeteries the archdiocese owns. Another $74 million was moved into a restricted fund for parishes. While Kelley said "arguably there was something 'fishy' about the transfer" of the parish funds, the claimants could not sue to recover the money.
It seems pretty obvious to me – as it does to Angelo Quattrochi, whose book is reviewed by Toibin – that the current Pope is a gay man [...] At times, it seems to me, his gayness is almost wince-inducing. The prissy fastidiousness, the effeminate voice, the fixation on liturgy and ritual, and the over-the-top clothing accessories [...] I would like to return to the world where this kind of speculation was disgraceful, unnecessary and blasphemous. But when this Pope has already enabled the rape of children, has covered up the crimes of many priests, when he has responded by blaming gay men for the moral failings of his own church, when he has publicly demanded that gay Catholics remain in the closet, i.e. lie about themselves as a sacred duty … then such deference becomes much more difficult.So, he wouldn't normally accuse someone of being gay, even when their "prissy fastidiousness" and "effeminate voice" are "almost wince-inducing", but in this case he'll make an exception. Because of the children.
Alert Swiss Guards rumbled him because his vestments were wrong and because they noticed his purple sash was really a scarf and he was also wearing an odd looking fedora hat...posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:48 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]
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More information on the history of papal resignations. Fun fact: the last to step down was Gregory XII, almost 600 years ago.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:17 AM on February 11 [4 favorites]