WHAT WOULD THE CHURCH LOOK LIKE TODAY IF THERE HAD NOT BEEN THE ABDICATION AND POPE BENEDICT IN HIS 90'S AND ENFEEBLED?
Five years ago today, the lightening bolt video and English text of Benedict's announcement as it happened: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 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.
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.
7 comments:
To be blunt, this sucks because it meant he didn't have anyone close to him or on his staff he could trust not to much things up behind his back as grew weak.
What I noticed about Benedict not long before he abdicated, was how weak and frail he looked, wondering how much longer he can last continuing the way he was going. Compare videos of when he became pope and those near the end of his papacy, the difference is very dramatic. Benedict had the wisdom to call it quits when he realised his body could no longer give what is needed for the Office.
Watch the eyes of the bishop seated in the bottom right of the video. They dart back and forth from Benedict to the cardinals. I wonder if he's wondering, "Are these guys hearing what I'm hearing?"
Benedict has more class in his little finger than Francis has in his whole body. Watch gang, now the resident papalotor will come in with a slobberfest over Francis
If we should happen to find ourselves once more under the pastoral care of an uncompromisingly Catholic bishop of Rome, we should resolve now not to repeat then the mistake made under JPII and BXVI of tolerating any form of Modernism or its variations among our shepherds. Every faithful Catholic should then make it a point to picket outside of wayward rectories at least once a quarter, and outside episcopal mansions at least once a year. Zero tolerance for anything other than the Apostolic Tradition and the Roman liturgical tradition. Full stop.
I can remember on his last public Mass as pope of Rome, he could barely hold the crosier, but he still managed to do two genuflections at the consecration....May God grant him many years...that said, I'm sure if he knew that Francis would do all the things he's done, he probably would not have abdicated when he did. (Perhaps later on in that year after certain other cardinals retired)
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