POPE BENEDICT TO RESIGN, CITING AGE AND WANING ENERGY
Anthony Faiola and Debbi Wilgoren,
Video: The Vatican announced on Monday that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning at the end of February. The 85-year-old pontiff said he can no longer keep up with his responsibilities.
Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that he will resign at the end of February because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, news services reported.
Benedict, 85, is the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years. His decision means that for the first time in centuries, there will be a living former pope looking on as his successor leads 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,” Benedict said in a statement issued by the Vatican at midday in Rome (6 a.m. Washington time).
In order to lead the world’s 1 billion-plus Catholics, Benedict said, “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.”
“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,” said Benedict, who has been pope for eight years.
In accordance with church tradition, a conclave of cardinals will be convened to select the next pope. The Associated Press reported that the conclave will likely take place in mid-March.
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, a soft-spoken, conservative theologian born in Bavaria, was elected pope in 2005. At 78, he was the oldest person to be elected pope since the 18th century.
In December, he surprised some church-watchers by launching the first ever papal Twitter account, a modern day twist on a church that prides itself on adherence to the ancient tenets of its faith.
In a visit to Washington three years after becoming pope, Benedict was welcomed at the White House by President Bush and cheered by thousands of flag-waving spectators as he visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Northeast Washington.
He officiated at a Mass for tens of thousands of Catholic faithful at Nats Park, and addressed Catholic college presidents at Catholic University.
During his visit to Washington, Benedict addressed the sexual abuse of minors scandal that has rocked the U.S. Catholic church in recent decades. He said the abuse of minors by members of the clergy was “evil” and “immoral” but had to be eradicated in a broader attack on the degradation of modern-day sexuality.
Most modern popes have felt that resignation is unacceptable except in cases of an incurable or debilitating disease — that paternity, in the words of Paul IV, cannot be resigned, said Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center.
In addition, church leaders feared that the option of papal resignation could open the door for competing factions within the church to pressure popes to resign prematurely.
Still, the code of canon law does allow for the resignation of a pope.
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