red. Pope Benedict XVI is to resign at the end of this month after nearly eight years as the head of the Catholic 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”, the Holy Father said today. In gratitude, we entrust him and all of us, the pilgrim church, as well as the one to be elected to be the future Pope, to the Mother Thrice Admirable and to our prayers and capital of grace on our pilgrimage towards 2014.
DECLARATIO
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 barque 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
The Holy Father’s decision is a personal testimony of great humility, of recognizing that his physical limitations may hinder his apostolic fruitfulness. We should give thanks for what he gave to the Church in the almost 8 years of his pontificate and pray that the cardinals will be guided by the Holy Spirit and the signs of the times as they elect his successor.
Our Holy Father’s decision to resign his office should also wake us up. Let us pray for him, drawing him into our covenant of love every day, but also pray for guidance in the choice of his successor. We have had great Popes in the last centuries, holy Popes. May God in his mercy continue to guide his Church through similar men.