will resign on Feb. 28, The Associated
Press reported. The 85-year-old
pope announced the decision on
Monday, and cited health concerns as
the reason for his departure.
Here's more from The Associated
Press:
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict
XVI announced Monday that he
would resign on Feb. 28 because he
was simply too infirm to carry on —
the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600
years. The decision sets the stage for
a conclave to elect a new pope
before the end of March.
The 85-year-old pope announced his
decision in Latin during a meeting of
Vatican cardinals on Monday
morning.
He emphasized that carrying out the
duties of being pope — the leader of
more than a billion Roman Catholics
worldwide — requires "both
strength of mind and body."
"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," he
told the cardinals. "I am well aware
that this ministry, due to its essential
spiritual nature, must be carried out
not only by 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 St.
Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both
strength of mind and body are
necessary — strengths 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."
The last pope to resign was Pope
Gregory XII, who stepped down in
1415 in a deal to end the Great
Western Schism among competing
papal claimants.
Benedict called his choice "a
decision of great importance for the
life of the church."
The move sets the stage for the
Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a
new pope by mid-March, since the
traditional mourning time that
would follow the death of a pope
doesn't have to be observed.
There are several papal contenders
in the wings, but no obvious front-
runner — the same situation when
Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005
after the death of Pope John Paul II.
When Benedict was elected pope at
age 78 — already the oldest pope
elected in nearly 300 years — he had
been already planning to retire as
the Vatican's chief orthodoxy
watchdog to spend his final years
writing in the "peace and quiet" of
his native Bavaria.
Contenders to be his successor
include Cardinal Angelo Scola,
archbishop of Milan, Cardinal
Christoph Schoenborn, the
archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal
Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of
the Vatican's office for bishops.
Longshots include Cardinal Timothy
Dolan of New York. Although Dolan is
popular and backs the pope's
conservative line, the general
thinking is that the Catholic Church
doesn't need a pope from a
"superpower."
All cardinals under age 80 are
allowed to vote in the conclave, the
secret meeting held in the Sistine
Chapel where cardinals cast ballots
to elect a new pope. As per tradition,
the ballots are burned after each
voting round; black smoke that
snakes out of the chimney means no
pope has been chosen, while white
smoke means a pope has been
elected.
Popes are allowed to resign; church
law specifies only that the
resignation be "freely made and
properly manifested."
Only a handful have done so,
however and there's good reason
why it hasn't become commonplace:
Might the existence of two popes —
even when one has stepped down
— lead to divisions and instability in
the church? Might a new resignation
precedent lead to pressures on
future popes to quit at the slightest
hint of infirmity?
Benedict himself raised the
possibility of resigning if he were
simply too old or sick to continue on
in 2010, when he was interviewed
for the book "Light of the World."
"If a pope clearly realizes that he is
no longer physically, psychologically
and spiritually capable of handling
the duties of his office, then he has a
right, and under some
circumstances, also an obligation to
resign," Benedict said.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
had an intimate view as Pope John
Paul II, with whom he had worked
closely for nearly a quarter-century,
suffered through the debilitating
end of his papacy.
___
Daniela Petroff contributed from vatican city
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