Pope Benedict XVI announced
Monday that he would resign on Feb. 28 because he was simply too infirm to
carry on. Benedict is the first pontiff do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the
stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
The 85-year-old pope announced
his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.
He emphasized that carrying out
the duties of being pope the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics
worldwide requires "both strength of mind and body."
"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," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware
that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out
not only by 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 St. Peter and proclaim the
Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary strengths 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."
The last pope to resign was Pope
Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism
among competing papal claimants.
Benedict called his choice
"a decision of great importance for the life of the church."
The move sets the stage for the
Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the
traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn't have to
be observed.
There are several papal
contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner the same situation when
Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.
When Benedict was elected pope at
age 78 already the oldest pope elected in nearly 300 years he had been already
planning to retire as the Vatican's chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final
years writing in the "peace and quiet" of his native Bavaria.
Contenders to be his successor
include Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Christoph
Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian
head of the Vatican's office for bishops.
Longshots include Cardinal
Timothy Dolan of New York. Although Dolan is popular and backs the pope's
conservative line, the general thinking is that the Catholic Church doesn't
need a pope from a "superpower."
All cardinals under age 80 are
allowed to vote in the conclave, the secret meeting held in the Sistine Chapel
where cardinals cast ballots to elect a new pope. As per tradition, the ballots
are burned after each voting round; black smoke that snakes out of the chimney
means no pope has been chosen, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
Popes are allowed to resign;
church law specifies only that the resignation be "freely made and
properly manifested."
Benedict himself raised the
possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue on in
2010, when he was interviewed for the book "Light of the World."
"If a pope clearly realizes
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.
The former Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger had an intimate view as Pope John Paul II, with whom he had worked
closely for nearly a quarter-century, suffered through the debilitating end of
his papacy.
This as, a Vatican spokesman said that a new
pope will probably be elected by the end of March.
Benedict said he would step down on
Feb. 28 and would not take part in the conclave to elect a new pope, Father
Federico Lombardi told reporters at the Vatican.
After resigning, the former pope will move to
a summer residence near Rome. After that, he will live in a former monastery
within Vatican territory, Lombardi said.
Father Lombardi mentioned that the 85
year-old pope's decision was not due to an illness but to a progressive decline
in his strength which was normal in a man of his age.
"In the last few months he has
seen a decline in vigor, both of the body and spirit," Lombardi told reporters.
"It was his personal decision taken with full freedom, which deserves
maximum respect," he added.
In the wake of the announcement, a wave of reactions followed both on the international and local levels. To read the full article please click on this
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LBCI/REUTERS/AP