It's devastating to realize that ten days from now, we can no longer use the prayer above for Benedict XVI as Pope. But without referring to him as Supreme Pontiff, we can still continue to pray daily the first invocations for Joseph Ratzinger:
May the Lord preserve him, give him long life.
make him blessed upon the earth,
and may the Lord not hand him over
to the power of his enemies.
Benedict XVI's renunciation:
Humility isn't glamorous or dramatic
but it makes for quite a legacy
By Stephen P. White
After Pope John Paul II died in 2005, hundreds of thousands thronged into St. Peter's Square, chanting, “Santo subito!” (“[Make him] a saint now!”) There will be no such chants in the piazza on the day Pope Benedict XVI relinquishes the office of Bishop of Rome.
[Not 'Santo subito', obviously - he has not died - but other chants of affection and acclamation. I would carry a streamer and start a chant like, 'BE-NE-DET-TO, SEI SEMPRE BE-NE-DET-TO' (Benedict, may you always be blessed!) or 'SEI GIA DOTTORE DELLA CHIESA' (You already are a Doctor of the Church), though it doesn't scan as a chant.]
For all the drama and surprise of the news of his impending resignation, Pope Benedict’s reign will end in relative anticlimax. At 8 p.m. on Feb. 28, he will simply stop being Pope and move into a simple dwelling in the back garden of the Vatican.
If John Paul II was a Pope of dramatic, grand gestures, then Benedict XVI has been a Pope of understatement. Yet one should never confuse a lack of flair for a lack of substance.
On the substance, the teachings of this seven-and-a-half-year pontificate are remarkable. Benedict’s three encyclicals — “God is Love,” “Saved in Hope” and “Love in Truth” — along with his hundreds of homilies, lectures, letters and speeches, reveal an intellect both subtle and incisive. Most importantly, they reveal Pope Benedict’s beautifully compelling love for Jesus Christ and His Church.
That love defines the man under the white zucchetto and is the key to understanding everything he says and does. It is also why this Pope has so often confounded observers who tried to fit him into our usual pre-existing political categories.
At the Second Vatican Council, he was considered part of the “liberal,” reformist wing. Since then, self-described liberals and progressives have come to see Benedict as an arch-conservative, bestowing on him the unflattering nickname, “God’s Rottweiler.”
Pope Benedict knows that he is only a custodian of the faith, not its author. It is not within his power to invent truth; he can only to teach it, clarify it and defend it.
Anyone who thinks that the Church’s teachings on women’s ordination, homosexual marriage or contraception would change if only “conservatives” would get out of the way of progress badly misunderstands the Church. It’s not “conservatives” who stand in their way — it’s the Catholic faith itself.
Political conservatives chafed when Pope Benedict fired one of his broadsides against the excesses and abuses of global capitalism. Yet he spoke always as a pastor, not a politician, and his criticisms always reflected a simple truth to which we all, conservatives especially, must nod: Markets, like governments, cannot of their own accord make men good. If we are to live well together, our goodness must be drawn from some deeper source.
Untethered from certain truths about ourselves and the world — the kind of truths found in the Declaration of Independence, for example — justice is reduced to mere convention.
If we don’t know the worth and dignity of a person, how can we know what we owe to one another? In such a moral universe, only arbitrary willfulness remains, and the difference between being wrong and being bad is lost. When that happens, freedom itself is in danger, for a difference of opinion is tantamount to a crime, and merits only proscription. Pope Benedict calls this the “dictatorship of relativism.”
During this papacy, the Roman Curia has been rocked by a series of scandals — including questions about its handling of sexual abuse cases — and is widely seen to be in disarray. Whether Benedict himself is a poor manager or whether he delegated responsibility to men unequal to the task is probably beside the point.
The next Pope will face an enormous task in wrestling the Roman Curia out of dysfunction.
[And has that not been said of every Pope in the post-WWII era? Pius XII in 19 years, Paul VI in 15 years, John Paul II in 26 years, failed to make any headway (although, of course, the Curia has become much larger and more international after the 1950s), but if John Paul II hadn't been who he was - and moreover, considered 'untouchable' and almost irreproachable by MSM and public opinion - don't you think it would be reasonable to say: Why expect Benedict to have done in less than 8 years what his predecessors failed to do in over some six decades, and his immediate predecessor in almost half of that time?
And reasonable men of faith will realize that like his predecessors and his immediate successor, John Paul II who has the most to 'answer for' in terms of duration, chose to be Mary instead of Martha, in the emblematic story of the two sisters of Lazarus. The Pope's mission is overwhelmingly spiritual and moral, not administrative - i.e., running the household, as Martha did, which is worthy but secondary to the mission of announcing Christ, preserving the faith and confirming his flock in the faith].]
In light of these difficulties, many people have looked to find an ulterior motive for Pope Benedict’s resignation. Conspiracy theorists are making hay.
Consider this, though:
Only one Pope in history, over two millennia - Leo XIII - has ever lived past the age of 90. [And he lived at the 19th-century fin de siecle, when Popes still lived out of the public eye, and were known to the flock only through their decrees and writings.]
The simple fact — a fact quite obvious to most people — is that the world today runs at a faster, if less civilized pace. People, including Popes, tend to live longer.
Most bishops in the world are required by canon law to submit their resignation upon reaching the tender age of 75. No one over the age of 80 is allowed to vote in conclave for a new Pope. At 85 years old, Joseph Ratzinger is already among the oldest men ever to serve as bishop of Rome.
[And why doesn't anyone remark that while there is a growing trend in the West, despite the longer lifelines, towards an earlier retirement age for their civilians - now 65 in most countries, it is down to 62, I think, in France - clergy have to turn 75 before they retire? Yet there are mindless 'taking heads' on TV (whose viewers at any one time may far outnumber the total of those who come during the whole year to St. Peter's to see the Pope) who say things like. "What does it take to be Pope anyway?" (meaning he has so little to do it makes no sense to 'resign') or that Benedict is 'the slacker Pope', or openly bemoan the "dramatic contrast between this Pope and his predecessor Pope who chose to stay on till the end despite a degenerative ailment". You can tell by what they say that many supposedly intelligent persons who are seen as role models in this cock-eyed society are either totally ignorant about the Church and won't even bother to read up on it before spewing nonsense, and how shallow the faith is in those among them are nominally Catholic (the last two examples I cited are from TV anchors who are supposed to be Catholic). They may be outstanding human beings by any other criteria, but they should be outstanding enough to respect their role as media purveyors, enough to seek to be as responsible and informed as they can be with the statements they make, not just coast along with the mindless convention unwisdom of our time.]
Pope Benedict’s last act as bishop — his resignation — may turn out to be his greatest long-term legacy. The Church of the 21st century needs to be fully dedicated to its one and only mission: spreading the Gospel. As the demands of apostolic life increase, we may see more and more Popes following Benedict’s example, and, when old age robs them of their strength, humbly stepping aside for the sake of the Church’s mission.
Humility isn’t glamorous or dramatic, but it makes for quite a legacy.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/02/2013 22:12]