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.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
All sadness or shock on my part is, of course, a selfish reaction to this morning's news. God bless our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI!
10 comments:
Shocked, as there was no indication during the last few months that he might resign.
I hope there was no medical problem recently, that brought this on unexpectedly.
I will really miss Pope Benedict's smile and happy attitude.
John Blake.
God bless Pope Benedict!
I am indeed blessed to have seen 2 great popes and a saint in my lifetime, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict and Mother Teresa!
Praise be to our Lord Jesus Christ !
Peter
Well...I am shocked but...I probably shouldn't be.
He actually publicly discussed the possibility of Papal resignation before becoming Pope, at one point he even said that one can make a reasonable argument that a Pope resigning when he realized he was too sick to continue would be a heroic act, and then he said that he doesn't think that the fact that one Pope resigns due to old age or illness would have to establish a precedent that all Popes must resign.....
In retrospect, he did everything short of saying 'I myself intend to resign when I feel I'm too old'
So maybe I shouldn't be surprised...
Devastated.
Wow, I am also shocked. Timothy your blog was the first I looked at his morning and this news caught me completely off guard!!! God bless Pope Benedict and the tough decision that he had to make. Today the pope has to be very mobile (unlike in the past), and I am sure that all the travel and his very busy itinerary finally wore him out.
Now is the time for the parish musical directors around the world to dust off the old hymn, "God Bless Our Pope".
http://youtu.be/ftkljReYeaA
I want to hear this hymn at Mass at my parish several times over the coming weeks (instead of tripe like "Sing A New Church" or "Lord of The Dance").
I have often heard criticism toward the song "Lord of the Dance," but I've never really heard why. Can somebody please explain this to me?
I'm not sure the proper form for this situation...
The King will (has) abdicate(d), long live the King!
Despite all of his excellently written books, audiences and encyclicals, this is probably the most intelligent thing he's ever done.
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