On February
11, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI made history by announcing his resignation of his position.
He made his announcement during what was supposed to be a routine meeting with
the discussion on canonizing three potential saints. He announced that “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 leading the Catholics. His resignation
is to take effect on February 28th.
He also
stated that “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 St. 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.” While the pope is eighty five years of age, his
resignation was apparently a huge surprise to everyone in the Vatican and
everyone in the rest of the world.
The
pope’s plan to retire is to retire in his summer house in Castel Gandolfo and
to return later to a monastery in Vatican City. Pope Benedict has done many
great things in his time as the pope which can all be taken as exhausting but
it is believed that the continuing clerical abuse scandal has played the
biggest part in his decision to resign from the Pope status. Popes usually don’t
retire, they just die and a new one is elected into power. It is extremely uncommon;
I think that I heard that it hasn’t happened for 300 years. It makes me curious
if he really is retiring only due to his old age or whether there is some
ulterior motive. I will be paying attention to the news in the future to see
who will become the next pope and how everything plays out. (329)
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