Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he is resigning, effective Feb. 28.
Archdiocese of Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory held a press conference this afternoon in Smyrna to address questions and concerns.
“This announcement has sparked widespread surprise but also a great outpouring of prayers and affection for the Holy Father. His stated reasons for resigning are his frailty as a result of age and his desire to make sure that the Church has a Pontiff with the energy and stamina to carry on the heavy burdens that come with the Office of Pope. Characteristically of the Holy Father was the humility of the statement and the pastoral love expressed for the Church that has prompted his decision,” stated Archbishop Gregory.
Calling for prayer, Archbishop Gregory said, “I ask all Catholics in the Archdiocese of Atlanta to keep the Holy Father in prayer and the College of Cardinals who will be summoned to Rome to exercise their unique function in electing a new Pope according to a time-frame that will be announced.”
The pope's resignation letter reads in part:
"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... 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..."
Pope Benedict XVI, born in 1927 in Bavaria as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, is the 265th pope. The last pope to resign was Gregory XII, in 1415.
How do you feel about Pope Benedict XVI's resignation? What impact will this have on your life?
Some say that his inability to travel extensively was a major factor in his decision, e.g. World Youth Day is coming up this Summer in Brazil, and he might have felt that the Pope HAD to be there. I would have loved to see him serve until a holy death, but I am sure he has good reasons for his decision.
Je vous aime toujours?? I don`t think so....
Today, papal authority is but a wistful whimsy except for the desperation of its African sheep. The Vatican, having protected – even encouraged – misogyny, boy-diddling, Jew-baiting, and gay-bashing under the guise of “tradition”, or “larger-picture, or the convenient reading Leviticus and other sick rants, is to no one’s mind but the chained anything but a preposterous prank. We pray, O Heavenly Father, that but for the war, famine, and plague, Your intercession is again manifest, and that this time you finish the job. Write the final chapter to the pretense of papal dignity, decency, and design, cast into The Darkness these pretenders to piety and the institutions erected to smith their halos, open the hearts of your Faithful Servants to Your Word alone, and protect us from these idolatries of human construction. Your Faithful Servant et cetera, et cetera, et cetera
Scholars of Church history tend not to regard the events of 1415 as "resignation"; this because Gregory XII's was a forced abdication; not a voluntary resignation. The abdication was concocted to bring closure to The Western Schism of 1378-1415, a schism that boasted two (and for a brief period, three) rivals to pretense. Still, I won't quibble. Incidentally, upon Celestine's resignation, he quipped that no man could be both "good" and "pope" at the same time. His successor, Boniface VIII was, quite naturally, rather piqued by this parting bon mot. Further, because Celestine was a genuinely pious (rather than political) animal, his acclaim only increased upon his resignation. The Bonney Boniface, piqued and now jealous, threatened and feeling totally insecure, had Celestine (now again merely Pietro da Maronne) hunted down, arrested, and imprisoned. His suspicious death shortly thereafter, convenient as it was to Boniface VIII, attracted a great deal of finger-pointing. Poor Boniface... a political hack, red in tooth and claw, waving his crosier like some talisman of Grace and Purity, had a rather unhappy reign. Dante, much to his credit, placed Boniface in the Eighth Circle of Hell (between Violence and Treachery)... Dante, I would aver, was being generous.
At least until they register themsleves with the USAG as agents of a foreign power. In all, stop its mantra promoting "immigration" even when serving, as it does, the export of labor for profit, and, by the church, uninvestigated disguise for colonization.
Similarly, the MxGov's allied Latino governments.
Correct. I was astonished by the media's claim that (though not refering to it particularly) that abdication was a "resignation." "Still, I won't quibble." The Church has an unprecedented dilemma on its hands. Thus the College of Cardinals will be called to convene but not necessarily to quickly elect a new Pope as it appears the Vatican may require time to study its theological body of law. What is alarming is the report of "the theft of documents from the Pope's desk by a trusted butler." And thus the suddeness of the resignation? Could the info of those documents have been incriminating? Requiring, as it has been reported probable, the isolation of the Pope in a cloister within the Vatican?
"Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with Church dogma must be burned without pity." - Pope Innocent III
First, the butler-purloined documents; then Benedict’s declaration that papal resignation is canonical (a pointed nod to the fact that papal resignation is suspect in canon law), and then - trumpets blaring "Lo and Behold" - the resignation. What is in those purloined documents? Perhaps Lindsey Graham can hold new papal election hostage until those docs are produced. Perhaps…
That’s the really interesting thing about Benedict’s “resignation”, isn’t it? First, the butler-purloined documents; .then Benedict’s declaration that papal resignation is canonical (a pointed nod to the fact that papal resignation is suspect in canon law), and then - trumpets blaring "Lo and Behold" - the resignation. What was in those purloined documents? Perhaps Lindsey Graham can hold new papal election hostage until those docs are produced. Perhaps…
Benedict, as Ratzinger, was in on Mahoney's boys-for-priests sex syndicate... every sordid, depraved step of the way. http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/pope-benedict-stepping-down-shocking-abdication
I would also point out that, but for the Popes' defense of Christian doctrine through the centuries, most of the crimes that you impugn them with (diddling, etc.) would not be considered crimes at all. It's hard for us to look at the Church with an objective eye, because we often take for granted all of the gifts received through its safeguarding and nurturing of Western Civilization.
You are a very uninformed person, especially for a troll....
Holy Mother the Church was a pederastic sex syndicate. Mahoney and Ratzinger made sure that, by stealth, the sordid and depraved destruction of young lives could perpetuate itself. Pity the children. Let the law dispatch with the crime bosses. Let Dante dispatch with Cardinal and Pope.
Overly PC, I've been having to consider the media being unessarily polite. That "the resignation" is actually a forced abdication.
I had to do an i-net search; for starters goto: Vatileaks scandal - "He claimed to have stolen the documents to fight 'evil and corruption' and put the..."
A German (digital) news broadcast yesterday showed the Vatican spokesman, Lombardi, saying that ex-Pope Benedict had started speaking about "resigning" upon his return to the Vatican from Mexico last March where Benedict did not meet with abuse victims (as he did for others during trips abroad) despite knowing, as Cardinal Ratzinger, about the numerous complaints against "Father Marcial Maciel, founder of Legionaries of Christ.'" The MxGov and Mexico's bishops didn't want those meetings. Mexico's image must always be unblemished. And thus thier apparently having their pedophile priests removed from Mx (via the LA ArchBishop) to the states; and, of course, their wanting, in lieu of Benedict's original election and still, the election of their "Lord Cardinal Rivera Carrera."