Pope Benedict Resigning

[KnightofChrist]

It's still hard to understand why he is resigning. But perhaps (but perhaps not) this is a way for him to avoid being put on the fast track to sainthood right after his papacy ends. All the post-Vatican II Popes save for Benedict are either Blessed, Venerable, or on the road to sainthood. Traditionally Popes aren't sainted so quickly. Perhaps he wants to discourage the fast track for sainthood and encourage the traditional time line, give some pre-Vatican II Popes like Pius XII a chance at sainthood.

[add]

Pope Benedict celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services

the crowd yelled  "Viva il papa!" as he arrived at St. Peter's Basilica.

 

To assure the transition goes smoothly, Benedict made an important
appointment Wednesday, naming the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican
city state, Monsignor Giuseppe Sciacca, as a legal adviser to
the camerlengo.

The camerlengo, or chamberlain, helps administer the Vatican
bureaucracy in the period between Benedict's resignation and the
election of a new pope. The current camerlengo is Bertone, the Vatican
secretary of state.

He and the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
will have a major role in organizing the conclave, during which the 117
or so cardinals under the age of 80 will vote on who should
succeed Benedict.

 

[franciscanheart]

It's still hard to understand why he is resigning. But perhaps (but perhaps not) this is a way for him to avoid being put on the fast track to sainthood right after his papacy ends. All the post-Vatican II Popes save for Benedict are either Blessed, Venerable, or on the road to sainthood. Traditionally Popes aren't sainted so quickly. Perhaps he wants to discourage the fast track for sainthood and encourage the traditional time line, give some pre-Vatican II Popes like Pius XII a chance at sainthood.

Or maybe he's resigning for exactly the reasons he stated.

I KNOW: TOO OBVIOUS.

[KnightofChrist]

Or maybe he's resigning for exactly the reasons he stated.

I KNOW: TOO OBVIOUS.

Perhaps, perhaps not. He doesn't and doesn't have to tell us everything, until a few days ago I had no idea he was a fellow member of the zipper chest club, aka had heart surgery.

Even it has nothing to do with his reasoning it may be good to stop rushing to saint all the post-vii Popes.

[homeschoolmom]

Perhaps, perhaps not. He doesn't and doesn't have to tell us everything, until a few days ago I had no idea he was a fellow member of the zipper chest club, aka had heart surgery.

Even it has nothing to do with his reasoning it may be good to stop rushing to saint all the post-vii Popes.

People are either saints or they aren't whether they are recognized as such or not. The Church doesn't "saint" people.

[Debra Little]

Words can't express how much I would loooove to see Cardinal Arinze as Pope Benedict's successor.  His age is somewhat problematic but he is wonderful!  I think he would be good for the Church both inside and out.  To the non-Catholics, they might see it as "progress" that the Church would have their first black Pope (even though ultimately the only thing that matters is his devotion to the Church).  Plus he is very orthodox and very charismatic at the same time.  I actually see him as a balance between JPII and our current Pope.

 

his love for our Lord just oozes from him.

[Aloysius]

maybe they'll pick Arinze hoping he'll retire, and then another older guy, and another, just to see how many ex-popes they can get living in the Vatican monastery at one time... perhaps it's a conspiracy to create a reality TV show?  

 

really makes you think, right?  :P

[Nihil Obstat]

maybe they'll pick Arinze hoping he'll retire, and then another older guy, and another, just to see how many ex-popes they can get living in the Vatican monastery at one time... perhaps it's a conspiracy to create a reality TV show?  

 

really makes you think, right?   :P

As Pope Arinze steps out to the balcony, he looks back at everyone first and goes "guys, maybe stick around a bit before you buy your plane tickets.........." Then winks. :P

[Brother Adam]

"Since assuming the papacy, Benedict has called for a counter-witness to the bloody persecution of Christians by Islamic authoritarian regimes in Africa and the Middle East, to the church-outlawing police states of China and North Korea, and to the soul-decaying secularism of Western Europe and, increasingly, the United States of America.

Benedict has countered the sexual revolution with an Augustinian view of the meaning of human personhood. A human person, he has reminded the world, is not a machine. We are not merely collections of nerve endings that spark with sensation when rubbed together. Instead a human person is directed toward a one-flesh union, which is personal and spiritual. Destroying the ecology of marriage and family isn’t simply about tearing down old “moralities,” he has reminded us, but about a revolt against the web of nature in which human beings thrive.

And Benedict has stood against the nihilism that defines human worth in terms of power and usefulness. He has constantly spoken for those whose lives are seen as a burden to society: the baby with Down syndrome, the woman with advanced Alzheimer’s, the child starving in the desert, the prisoner being tortured. These lives aren’t things, he has said, but images of God, and for them we will give an account. When society wants to dehumanize with language: “embryo,” “fetus,” “anchor baby,” “illegal alien,” “collateral damage,” and so on, Benedict has stood firmly to point to the human faces the world is seeking to wipe away.

As Protestant Christians, we will disagree with this pope, and with the next one, on all sorts of things. Here we stand, we can do no other; God help us. But let’s pray the next pope, like this one, will remember what it means to be human, and will remind the rest of us when we forget.

Just a short extract from an article in FIRST THINGS by Russell Moore, a Southern Baptist Professor of Theology.

[qfnol31]

I think I was about the least-surprised person when I heard about Pope Benedict's resignation the other day. I know he had talked about it and I remember reading somewhere that he had a heart attack or something like that (which if he has a pacemaker in him I'm almost positive he's probably had that along with the stroke).

 

I think that since before he even began his papacy he has been transforming our understanding of what the papacy is to conform with the teaching of Vatican II and to address the concerns of the modern world (for instance, the fact that people can live for years after they've been hit with crippling diseases much easier than would have been the case centuries ago). If you look at his episcopal appointments and the way that he addresses the bishops, you can see how strongly he has been emphasizing Apostolic ministry in the college of bishops, distinct from the Petrine ministry (though not separate from it in any sense). I think he has been pushing away from an ultramontanist view of the papacy, a monarchical view that followed Vatican I, and has made Vatican II his own in a very real way.

 

In other words, I think that this is Pope Benedict's ultimate words on what the papacy is and should be in the world today, and though he is driven by his concern for the Church and his acknowledgment of his own health, he is still redefining how the papacy will be viewed and understood by the Church henceforth, though he is doing so in light of tradition and not in contradiction to tradition. I think his entire papacy has been working to this point and all his teachings have been directing us to this moment, if we go back and look through them, and for that reason I haven't really been that surprised. I think that Pope Benedict did more in eight years of his papacy to bring in Vatican II on the Church than anyone had prior.

[franciscanheart]

I think I was about the least-surprised person when I heard about Pope Benedict's resignation the other day. I know he had talked about it and I remember reading somewhere that he had a heart attack or something like that (which if he has a pacemaker in him I'm almost positive he's probably had that along with the stroke).
 
I think that since before he even began his papacy he has been transforming our understanding of what the papacy is to conform with the teaching of Vatican II and to address the concerns of the modern world (for instance, the fact that people can live for years after they've been hit with crippling diseases much easier than would have been the case centuries ago). If you look at his episcopal appointments and the way that he addresses the bishops, you can see how strongly he has been emphasizing Apostolic ministry in the college of bishops, distinct from the Petrine ministry (though not separate from it in any sense). I think he has been pushing away from an ultramontanist view of the papacy, a monarchical view that followed Vatican I, and has made Vatican II his own in a very real way.
 
In other words, I think that this is Pope Benedict's ultimate words on what the papacy is and should be in the world today, and though he is driven by his concern for the Church and his acknowledgment of his own health, he is still redefining how the papacy will be viewed and understood by the Church henceforth, though he is doing so in light of tradition and not in contradiction to tradition. I think his entire papacy has been working to this point and all his teachings have been directing us to this moment, if we go back and look through them, and for that reason I haven't really been that surprised. I think that Pope Benedict did more in eight years of his papacy to bring in Vatican II on the Church than anyone had prior.

You've a way with words, sir. This. Exactly this. Thank you.

[KnightofChrist]

I think I was about the least-surprised person when I heard about Pope Benedict's resignation the other day. I know he had talked about it and I remember reading somewhere that he had a heart attack or something like that (which if he has a pacemaker in him I'm almost positive he's probably had that along with the stroke).

 

I think that since before he even began his papacy he has been transforming our understanding of what the papacy is to conform with the teaching of Vatican II and to address the concerns of the modern world (for instance, the fact that people can live for years after they've been hit with crippling diseases much easier than would have been the case centuries ago). If you look at his episcopal appointments and the way that he addresses the bishops, you can see how strongly he has been emphasizing Apostolic ministry in the college of bishops, distinct from the Petrine ministry (though not separate from it in any sense). I think he has been pushing away from an ultramontanist view of the papacy, a monarchical view that followed Vatican I, and has made Vatican II his own in a very real way.

 

In other words, I think that this is Pope Benedict's ultimate words on what the papacy is and should be in the world today, and though he is driven by his concern for the Church and his acknowledgment of his own health, he is still redefining how the papacy will be viewed and understood by the Church henceforth, though he is doing so in light of tradition and not in contradiction to tradition. I think his entire papacy has been working to this point and all his teachings have been directing us to this moment, if we go back and look through them, and for that reason I haven't really been that surprised. I think that Pope Benedict did more in eight years of his papacy to bring in Vatican II on the Church than anyone had prior.

 

I hope you're wrong. I hope it is another 1500 years before another Pope resigns the papacy. Also your reasoning is contradictory. He cannot both be redefining the papacy and acting in light of tradition. 
 

[Winchester]

He cannot both be redefining the papacy and acting in light of tradition.

What a very sad thing for you to believe.


And anyway, you skipped some of his words.

[KnightofChrist]

What a very sad thing for you to believe.


And anyway, you skipped some of his words.

Too bad. Redefining something changes what it was into something else, not what it was but something new. That is novelty not tradition. The Pope has always been a monarch, that should not change, abdication should be very rare and only for grave reasons.

[Winchester]

Too bad. Redefining something changes what it was into something else, not what it was but something new. That is novelty not tradition. The Pope has always been a monarch, that should not change, abdication should be very rare and only for grave reasons.

Like I said, you're skipping words.