After six centuries a Pope renounces the Holy See

E. Weerapperuma

For the first time after 600 years in the Catholic Church history we are to witness the election of a new Pope in view of the resignation of the present Pope Benedict XVI, at the end of this month.

Holy Father Benedict XVI will add a new chapter to the Church History and to the World Human History with His resignation from the Apostolic See of Vatican, the Sovereign Head of the Universal Church and the Head of the State of Rome on February 28, the last day of the second month of the year 2013.

The Pope elected by the College of Cardinals at the Conclave held on April 19, 2005 and took the name “Benedict XVI” to guide the destiny of the Church, will renounce the throne as the Sovereign Head of the Universal Church after serving 7 years, 8 months and 9 days knowing fully well, His inability to govern the Church any longer due to ill-health and advanced age.

Addressing the Cardinals present the Pope said: “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 strength due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine Ministry.

The Pope said, "Today's world that, subjects to many rapid changes in relation to the past, are particularly difficult, both because of the speed as well as the number of events and problems that arise that, therefore, need a vigour, perhaps stronger than in the past”.

The phrase: '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.’

Freely and properly

Canon Law states: "If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone.

The Pontiff will vacate the post on February 28 and will move on to the Castle Gandolfo with the Archbishop Georg Gänswein, His Secretary and the Prefect of the Prefecture of the Papal Household and he will stay with Pope Benedict XVI, carrying out both roles and at the monastery that the Pope will retire to after his resignation from the Papacy.

The papal household or "memores", which has served the Holy Father during these past eight years, will also move to the same monastery Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., Director of the Holy See Press Office informed the media at the press briefing held on February 13. It has been the custom so far that once elected to this post called “Papacy” one assuming the office of the Holy See, is expected to govern the Church faithfully until His death. But this time it is not to be so. For Benedict XVI is an exception to those expectations and He has thus blown to the winds ‘the idea that once elected one should remain as the Supreme Pontiff until He breathes his last breath’.

It is hoped that the Church would have a new Pope elected before the Easter festival of Resurrection as there is no observances of traditional mourning time that normally would have followed the death of a Pope.

It will be a new experience to observe as to what happens to the ‘Ring of the Fisherman’ worn by the Pope which was made very simple and symbol of power and authority to govern the affairs of the Church.

Perusing the pages of the Church history turn the pages of the period of Great Western Schism we read that the Ecumenical Council in Constance was successful as that Council had taken meaningful steps to end the Schism of the West involving competing rival claimants to the papacy.

We also read that Pope Gregory XII elected as Pontiff on November 30, 1406 and assumed office on December 19 of the same year vacated voluntarily the Apostolic See of Rome on July 4, 1415 to elect His successor and put an end to schism that was tarnishing the good name of the Church and the smooth running of the Church with anti-popes operating from three places. He died October 18, 1417.

Although Pope Gregory XII was the legitimate Pope elected by the College of Cardinals in line with the regulations, He was humble enough to step down from the post He held for He loved the Church founded by Jesus Christ, more than anything else.

Renounce the See

Pope Benedict XVI announced His decision to renounce the See of Vatican and not to be any longer the Head of the Universal Church, in similar fashion though the situation is far different from that of late Pope Gregory XII had to face, approximately 600 years ago. Pope Benedict XVI decided to renounce the Papacy to which He was duly elected by the College of Cardinals in 2005 and the Pontiff will vacate the See this February 28 paving the way for an election of a new Pope.

Hearing the decision of the Pope to retire, Georg Ratzinger, his own 89 year old brother had told a news agency: “His age is weighing on him. “At this age my brother wants more rest.”

With the announcement of retiring of the current Pope on February 28, John Moody, the Executive Vice President of the Fox News and the former Vatican Bureau Chief for Time Magazine, had said that the “Pontiff had shown courage by accepting that the rigors of the papacy had become too much for him”.

"I think it is one of the bravest things I’ve ever heard of," said Moody, the author of a 1996 biography of Pope John Paul II. "Nobody gives up power willingly. Nobody gives up power without fore -thought. For this man, who really the world hasn’t gotten to know very well, despite the fact that he’s been around as Pope for seven years, to do this, speaks volumes about the kind of man he is and the kind of leader of the church that he insisted on being."

The current Head of the Church instead of turning to be a stumbling block in the process of smooth governing of the Church, after deep prayer and meditation voluntarily decided to make room for another to shoulder the burden of taking the Church forward as designed by God, the Supreme Giver of Life and the Guide of the Church found by Jesus Christ.

On February 28, the last day of His pontificate, Benedict XVI will meet with members of the College of Cardinals in the Clementine Hall and will travel by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo. With the vacating of the post, the period known as ‘sede-vacante’ begins on March 1 and simultaneously begins the period for the Congregations of Cardinals to prepare for the Conclave, the Vatican Information Service (VIS) reported quoting Rev. Fr. Federico Lombardi S J, the Director of the Holy See Press Office.

Quoting him further the VIS informed the public that “the Congregations of the Cardinals have a number of juridical requirements to meet along with serving to exchange viewpoints regarding the problems to be addressed, the situation of the Church, etc, so that each of the members of the College of Cardinals might develop his criteria regarding the election of the new Pope.

For this reason, the regulations provide that the beginning of the Conclave be established between 15 and 20 days from the beginning of the Sede-Vacante. "If everything goes normally, it could be envisioned," Fr. Lombardi said, "that the Conclave begins between 15 and 19 of March. At the moment, we cannot give an exact date because it falls to the Cardinals to determine it.

Quoting him further the VIS reported that the Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Prefecture of the Papal Household and Secretary to Benedict XVI, will continue to carry out both roles and will thus accompany the Pope during his stay at Castel Gandolfo and at the monastery that he will retire to after his resignation from the papacy.

Sede Vacante

The papal household or memores which has served the Holy Father during these past eight years will also move to the same monastery, Fr. Lombardi had said addressing a media conference on February 13.

Fr. Lombardi also clarified that the cardinals arriving in Rome before March 1, the official start of the Sede Vacante, will not reside in the Casa Santa Marta residence until that date. The Director had also told the media that neither the Pontiff's fall during the trip to Mexico last year (2012) nor the report of the Commission of Three Cardinals (Julian Herranz, Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi), which the Pope instituted last April to carry out an internal investigation on the leak of documents, were determining factors in his decision to renounce the Petrine Ministry.

Fr. Lombardi clarifying that the number of Cardinal electors said it was independent of the date of the Conclave. “In fact, this number is independent of the date that the Conclave begins because John Paul II's Apostolic Constitution "Universi Dominici Gregis", regulates the Conclave, established in No. 33, that Cardinals who have reached their 80th birthday before the day when the Apostolic See becomes vacant, will not be cardinal electors. But those who turn 80 after that date will have the right to vote as electors.

The period in between the vacation of post and until the time of electing a new Pope the responsibility of looking after the affairs of the Church and State will fall on the College of Cardinals headed by the Secretary of State Cadinal Tarsicio Bertone SDB who was appointed to this post by retiring Pontiff Church, headed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, as the cardinal camerlengo or chamberlain. He was appointed to this post by the present Pope on April 4, 2007.

Responsibility lies with him to conduct and supervise the whole election process, with secret voting being held four times a day inside the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Although it is a Cardinal among those attending Conclave elected as Pope, any outside Catholic male could be elected as the New Pope. But this is hardly heard of within the past few centuries.

Although the Italian Cardinal Angelo Sodano is the Dean of Cardinals, he will not have the opportunity of casting vote this time being overage. He is 85 and hence the senior Cardinal-elector, Giovanni Battista will act in his place taking the responsibility of convoking the Conclave.

Among the Cardinals eligible to vote this time 67 are appointed by the outgoing Pope Benedict XVI and 50 by his predecessor John Paul II (now The Blessed). From the current electors 61 are Europeans, 21 are Italians. There are 19 Latin Americans and 14 North Americans along with 11 Africans, 11 Asians and one cardinal from Oceania.

Sri Lanka will have the opportunity once more to cast Sri Lanka vote to elect a new Pope through His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo. He will be the second Sri Lankan and Sinhalese to have the privilege to cast a vote at a very crucial moment of the Church and the World.

The Servant of God Thomas Carnal Cooray was the First Sri Lankan-Sinhala Cardinal to hold the privilege to cast his vote to elect Pope Paul VI successor, the 33 day Pope John Paul One in 1978. Mrs. Sirima Dias Bandaranaike was the and William Gopallwa was the Governor of Sri Lanka. While it is too early and naive to predict who will be the next Pope, the Catholic World trust in the intervention of God in choosing the right man at the right time.

Benedict XVI: Joy of the Council

Following are ample extracts from the Holy Father’s warm and friendly chat yesterday with the clergy of Rome, which was held in the Paul VI Hall.

“We went to the Council not just with joy, but enthusiastically. There was an incredible expectation. We hoped that everything would be renewed, that a new Pentecost, a new era in the Church, had truly arrived, … rediscovering the bond between the Church and the world’s best elements, to open humanity’s future, to begin real progress.

We began to get to know one another ... and it was an experience of the Church’s universality and of the Church’s concrete reality, which wasn’t limited to receiving orders from on high but of growing and advancing together, under the direction of the Successor of Peter naturally.”

The questions put to the Council Fathers dealt with “the reform of the liturgy, ... ecclesiology, ... the Word of God,Revelation, … and, finally, ecumenism.”

“In retrospect, I think that it was very good to begin with the liturgy, showing God’s primacy, the primacy of adoration.

The Council spoke of God and this was its first act: speaking of God and opening everything to the people, opening the adoration of God to the entire holy people, in the common celebration of the liturgy of the Body and Blood of Christ. The principles came later: comprehensibility, so as not to be locked in an unknown and unspoken language, and active participation. Unfortunately, sometimes these principles are misunderstood. Comprehensibility does not mean triviality because the great texts of the liturgy?even when they are, thanks be to God, in one’s mother tongue? are not easily understandable. Ongoing formation is necessary for Christians to growand enter more deeply into the mystery so they might understand.”

“The second theme: the Church. We wanted to say and to understand that the Church is not an organization, not just some structural, legal, or institutional hing? which it also is?but an organism, a living reality that enters into my soul and that I myself, with my very soul, as a believer, am a constitutive element of the Church as such.