BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Only two more days left for us to be able to use the above prayer formally 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:

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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.

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See preceding page for earlier entries on 2/25/13.









Benedict XVI's last Motu Proprio
revises some rules for
the sede vacante and Conclave


Vatican Radio published this unofficial English translation of Benedict XVI's motu proprio modifying and clarifying some rules for the coming sede vacante and the Conclave that will elect his successor:

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“With the Apostolic Letter 'De aliquibus mutationibus in normis de electione Romani Ponteficis' given as a Motu Proprio in Rome on 11 June 2007 in the third year of my pontificate, I established some norms that, rescinding those prescribed in No. 75 of the Apostolic Constitution 'Universi Dominici Gregis' promulgated by my predecessor Blessed John Paul II, have re-established the regulation, sanctioned by tradition, according to which a two thirds majority of the votes of the Cardinal electors present is always required for the valid election of the Roman Pontiff.

Considering the importance of ensuring the best implementation of what, althopugh with a different significance, concerns the election of the Roman Pontiff - in particular a more certain interpretation and execution of some provisions - I hereby establish and prescribe that some norms of the Apostolic Constitution 'Universi Dominici Gregis', as well as what I myself set forth in the above-mentioned Apostolic Letter, be replaced with the following norms:

35. No Cardinal elector can be excluded from active or passive participation in the election of the Supreme Pontiff, for any reason or pretext, with due regard for the provisions of No. 40 and No. 75 of this Constitution.

37. I furthermore decree that, from the moment when the Apostolic See is lawfully vacant, the Cardinal electors who are present must wait fifteen full days for those who are absent before beginning the Conclave. However, the College of Cardinals is also granted the faculty to advance the beginning of the Conclave if all the Cardinal electors are present, as well as the faculty to defer, for serious reasons, the beginning of the election for a few days more. But when a maximum of twenty days have elapsed from the beginning of the vacancy of the See, all the Cardinal electors present are obliged to proceed to the election.

43. From the beginning of the electoral process until the public announcement that the election of the Supreme Pontiff has taken place, or in any case until the new Pope so disposes, the rooms of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, and in particular the Sistine Chapel and the areas reserved for liturgical celebrations, are to be closed to unauthorized persons, by the authority of the Cardinal Camerlengo (Papal Chamberlain) and with the outside assistance of the Vice Camerlengo and the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, in accordance with the provisions set forth in the following Numbers.

During this period, the entire territory of Vatican City and the ordinary activity of the offices located therein shall be regulated, for the period mentioned, in a way that ensures the confidentiality and the free occurrence of all the undertakings connected with the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

In particular, provision shall be made, with the help of the Cleric Prelates of the Chamber, to ensure that no one approaches the Cardinal electors while they are being transported from the Domus Sanctae Marthae to the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

46, 1. In order to meet the personal and official needs connected with the election process, the following individuals must be available and therefore properly lodged in suitable areas within the confines mentioned in No. 43 of this Constitution: the Secretary of the College of Cardinals, who acts as Secretary of the electoral assembly; the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations with eight Masters of Ceremonies and two Religious attached to the Papal Sacristy; and an ecclesiastic chosen by the Cardinal Dean or by the Cardinal taking his place, in order to assist him in his duties.

47. “All the persons listed in No. 46 and No. 55, 2, of this Constitution who in any way or at any time should come to learn anything from any source, directly or indirectly, regarding the election process, and in particular regarding the voting which took place in the election itself, are obliged to maintain strict secrecy with all persons extraneous to the College of Cardinal electors: accordingly, before the election begins, they shall take an oath in the form and using the formula indicated in No. 48.

48. The persons listed in No. 46 and No. 55, 2, of this Constitution, having been duly warned about the meaning and extent of the oath that they are to take, before the start of the election process, shall, in the presence of the Cardinal Camerlengo or another Cardinal delegated by him, and in the presence of two numerary participant Apostolic Protonotaries, in due course swear and sign the oath according to the
following formula:

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I, N.N., promise and swear that, unless I should receive a special faculty given expressly by the newly-elected Pontiff or by his successors, I will observe absolute and perpetual secrecy with all who are not part of the College of Cardinal electors concerning all matters directly or indirectly related to the ballots cast and their scrutiny for the election of the Supreme Pontiff.

I likewise promise and swear to refrain from using any audio or video equipment capable of recording anything which takes place during the period of the election within Vatican City, and in particular anything which in any way, directly or indirectly, is related to the process of the election itself.

I declare that I take this oath fully aware that an infraction thereof will make me subject to the penalty of excommunication 'latae sententiae', which is reserved to the Apostolic See.

So help me God and these Holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand.

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49. When everything necessary for the regular functioning of the election has been prepared, on the appointed day of the beginning of the Conclave established in conformity with the provisions of No. 37 of the present Constitution, the Cardinal electors shall meet in the Basilica of Saint Peter's in the Vatican, or elsewhere, should circumstances warrant it, in order to take part in a solemn Eucharistic celebration with the Votive Mass 'Pro Eligendo Papa'.

This celebration should preferably take place at a suitable hour in the morning, so that in the afternoon the prescriptions of the following Numbers of this Constitution can be carried out.

50. From the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, where they will assemble at a suitable hour in the afternoon, the Cardinal electors, in choir dress and invoking the assistance of the Holy Spirit with the chant of the 'Veni Creator', will solemnly process to the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, where the election will be held.

The Vice Camerlengo, the General Auditor of the Apostolic Camera, and two members of each of the colleges of numerary participant Apostolic Protonotaries, Prelate Auditors of the Roman Rota, and Cleric Prelates of the Chamber will participate in the procession.

51, 2. It will therefore be the responsibility of the College of Cardinals, operating under the authority and responsibility of the Camerlengo, assisted by the Particular Congregation mentioned in No. 7 of the present Constitution, and with the outside assistance of the Vice Camerlengo and the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, to make all prior arrangements for the interior of the Sistine Chapel and adjacent areas to be prepared, so that an orderly election and its privacy will be ensured.

55, 3. Should any infraction whatsoever of this norm occur, those responsible should know that they will be subject to the penalty of excommunication 'latae sententiae', which is reserved to the Apostolic See.

62. Since the forms of election known as 'per acclamationem seu inspirationem' and 'per compromissum' are abolished, the form of electing the Roman Pontiff shall henceforth be 'per scrutinium' alone.

I therefore decree that, for the valid election of the Roman Pontiff, at least two thirds of the votes are required, calculated on the basis of the total number of electors present and voting.

64. The voting process is carried out in three phases. The first phase, which can be called the pre-scrutiny, comprises:
1) the preparation and distribution of the ballot papers by the Masters of Ceremonie - called meanwhile into the Hall together with the Secretary of the College of Cardinals and with the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations — who give at least two or three to each Cardinal elector;

2) the drawing by lot, from among all the Cardinal electors, of three Scrutineers, of three persons charged with collecting the votes of the sick, called for the sake of brevity 'Infirmarii', and of three Revisers; this drawing is carried out in public by the junior Cardinal Deacon, who draws out nine names, one after another, of those who shall carry out these tasks;

3) if, in the drawing of lots for the Scrutineers, 'Infirmarii' and Revisers, there should come out the names of Cardinal electors who because of infirmity or other reasons are unable to carry out these tasks, the names of others who are not impeded are to be drawn in their place. The first three drawn will act as Scrutineers, the second three as 'Infirmarii', and the last three as Revisers.

70, 2. The Scrutineers add up all the votes that each individual has received, and if no one has obtained at least two thirds of the votes on that ballot, the Pope has not been elected; if however it turns out that someone has obtained at least two thirds of the votes, the canonically valid election of the Roman Pontiff has taken place.”\

75. If the votes referred to in Nos. 72, 73, and 74 of the above-mentioned Constitution do not result in an election, a day will be dedicated to prayer, reflection, and discussion. In subsequent votes, in accordance with the procedure established in No. 74 of this same Constitution, only the two whose names have received the greatest number of votes in the immediately preceding ballot will have the passive electoral right.

There can be no waiving of the requirement that a valid election takes place only by a qualified majority of at least two thirds of the votes of the cardinals who are present and voting. Moreover, in these ballots, the two persons who enjoy the passive electoral right lose their active electoral right. [They cannot vote in the two-man ballots.]

When the election has canonically taken place, the junior Cardinal Deacon summons into the Hall of election the Secretary of the College of Cardinals, the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, and two Masters of Ceremonies.

The Cardinal Dean, or the Cardinal who is first in order and seniority, in the name of the whole College of electors, then asks the consent of the one elected in the following words: 'Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?'

And, as soon as he has received the consent, he asks him: 'By what name do you wish to be called?' Then the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, acting as notary and having as witnesses the two Masters of Ceremonies, draws up a document certifying acceptance by the new Pope and the name taken by him.

This document will enter into force immediately upon its publication in L'Osservatore Romano.

This I decree and establish, notwithstanding any instruction to the contrary.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 22 February in the year 2013, the eighth of my Pontificate.[DIM]

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The coat of arms of the Holy See during the sede vacante. The papal tiara over the keys is replaced with the umbraculum (ombrellino, umbrella) which symbolizes both the absence of a Pope and the governance of the Camerlengo over the temporalities of the Holy See.


Feb. 27 - I am so unfocused and turbulent within just now, having watched the last GA this morning, that when I noticed a double post in the preceding page, I eliminated it, which moved up all the posts one notch, so I have merely repeated the lead post for this page above...



Benedict XVI decides 'Vatileaks' report
will be consigned only to the next Pope

February 25, 2013

The Vatican released this statement Monday morning:

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The Holy Father this morning received in audience Cardinals Julián Herranz, Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi, from the Cardinal’s Commission of Inquiry into the leaking of confidential information. They were accompanied by the Commission Secretary, Fr. Luigi Martignani, O.F.M. Cap.

At the conclusion of their mission His Holiness wished to thank them for their fruitful work, expressing satisfaction for the results of the investigation. In fact, their work made it possible to detect, given the limitations and imperfections of the human component of each institution, the generosity, honesty and dedication of those who work in the Holy See at the service of the mission entrusted by Christ to the Roman Pontiff.

The Holy Father has decided that the facts of this investigation, the contents of which are known only to Himself, will be made available exclusively to the new Pontiff.

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The verb 'detect' used in the English translation provided by the Vatican - as if 'the honesty and dedication etc' had to be 'detected', i.e., sought out before it could be observed - rather than something evident, which we should all hope it is. I think a more appropriate verb would be 'demonstrate'.

Vatican calls on contemplatives
for prayers during this 'special time'

February 25, 2013

In recent days, the Cardinal Secretary of State sent a letter to the various monasteries of contemplative life around the world, calling them to a special time of prayer at this moment in the life of the Church. Here is the English version of the letter:

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Reverend Mother,
Reverend Father,

I write to you as the whole Church anxiously follows the final days of the luminous pontificate of His Holiness Benedict XVI and awaits the arrival of the successor whom the Cardinals gathered in conclave and guided by the Holy Spirit will choose, after discerning together the signs of the times of the Church and the world.

His Holiness Benedict XVI has asked all the faithful to accompany him with their prayers as he commends the Petrine ministry into the Lord’s hands, and to await with trust the arrival of the new Pope. In a particularly urgent way this appeal is addressed to those chosen members of the Church who are contemplatives. The Holy Father is certain that you, in your monasteries and convents throughout the world, will provide the precious resource of that prayerful faith which down the centuries has accompanied and sustained the Church along her pilgrim path. The coming conclave will thus depend in a special way on the transparent purity of your prayer and worship.

The most significant example of this spiritual elevation which manifests the most authentic and profound dimension of every ecclesial action, the presence of the Holy Spirit who guides the Church, is offered to us by His Holiness Benedict XVI who, after having steered the barque of Peter amid the waves of history, has chosen to devote himself above all to prayer, contemplation and reflection.

The Holy Father, with whom I shared the contents of this letter, was deeply appreciative, and asked me to thank you and to assure you of his immense love and esteem.

With affection in Christ I send you greetings, united with you in prayer.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Secretary of State

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The retirement of Cardinal O'Brien

February 25, 2013

The Vatican announced that on February 18, Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, as announced and published in L'Osservatore Romano on Monday, Feb. 25. 2

The Cardinal had presented his resignation last November anticipating his 75th birthday on March 17 March 2013, and it was accepted by the Holy Father with the formula 'nunc pro tunc' (now for later).

Cardinal O'Brien issued the following statement:

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Approaching the age of seventy-five and at times in indifferent health, I tendered my resignation as Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh to Pope Benedict XVI some months ago. I was happy to know that he accepted my resignation ‘nunc pro tunc’ – (now – but to take effect later) on 13 November 2012.

The Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013, and that he will appoint an Apostolic Administrator to govern the Archdiocese in my place until my successor as Archbishop is appointed. In the meantime I will give every assistance to the Apostolic Administrator and to our new Archbishop, once he is appointed, as I prepare to move into retirement.

I have valued the opportunity of serving the people of Scotland and overseas in various ways since becoming a priest. Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended.

I thank Pope Benedict XVI for his kindness and courtesy to me and on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Scotland, I wish him a long and happy retirement.

I also ask God’s blessing on my brother Cardinals who will soon gather in Rome to elect his successor. I will not join them for this Conclave in person. I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focussed on me – but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his Successor.

However, I will pray with them and for them that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they will make the correct choice for the future good of the Church.

May God who has blessed me so often in my ministry continue to bless and help me in the years which remain for me on earth and may he shower his blessings on all the peoples of Scotland especially those I was privileged to serve in a special way in the Archdiocese of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh."

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The Anglophone media has been rife with the background story on the cardinal's retirement at this time.

Tuesday, February 26, Second Week of Lent

Photos on the left and right from the Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza.
ST. PORPHYRIUS OF GAZA (b Thessalonica 353, d Gaza 421), Bishop and Confessor
Born on the European mainland, he came to Jerusalem where he was ordained a priest at the age of 40.
Before that, he had spent much time living in the desert and in caves as an ascetic, and had a reputation
for generosity to the poor. At age 45, he was elected unexpectedly by the tiny Christian community in
Gaza to be their bishop. Gaza in the early 5th century was a center of paganism. With patient work,
Porphyrius tended his flock and preached to pagans, and some time in 401-402, he went to Constantinople
to ask the Emperor for a decree ordering the destruction of the pagan temples in the city. He served for
another 20 years. A Life of Porphyrius written by his deacon Mark survives today in modern
editions.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022613.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father, but an important determination has been made. Fr. Federico Lombardi announced that

1) After February 28, Benedict XVI will have the title of Emeritus Pope or Emeritus Roman Pontiff, and will continue to be addressed as 'Your Holiness'.
2) He will continue to wear a white cassock but without the capelet (mozzetta).

Clearly, he will no longer wear the Ring of the Fisherman - his ring bearing his seal will be destroyed after February 28, as it is when a Pope dies. Nor will he use red shoes any more.

Another tidbit from Fr. Lombardi's briefing, according to La Stampa: After 8:00 p.m. February 28, when Benedict XVI will no longer Pope but will already have arrived in Castel Gandolfo, the Swiss Guard will leave Castel Gandolfo, because their service is intended only for the reigning Pope.

Away again for too many hours, but at least, nothing big has developed in the meantime, and this is the only item I have seen in the Anglophone media today that merits special attention... Much of what George Weigel says in this interview is positive and edifying, but there is also implicit criticism of Benedict XVI's Pontificate (although on both points, the criticism applies to John Paul II as well, even if he does not say so).

Weigel has been almost exemplary in his overall 'treatment' of Bendict XVI, starting with his remarkable book 'God's Choice' on the Conclave of 2005. But this interview was conducted in such a way as to make it seem as if, at the end of Benedict XVI's Pontificate, the Church is in 'the worst of times' with hardly any redeeming element at all!

Start with the strange title for the article. You'd think Benedict XVI had not thought for the future at all, that he never got around to 'the business of the future', and never even tried to 're-form' the Church. And yet, the writer and interviewer (she probably was not responsible for the title) is one of the most orthodox of Catholic bloggers and commentators today...

Holy Roman re-forming:
Getting down to
the business of the future
Interview with George Weigel
By Kathryn Jean Lopez

February 25, 2013

George Weigel’s new book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church (Basic Books), seems destined to be a reference point in the papal interregnum that begins at 2 p.m., New York time on February 28, and well into the new pontificate. I caught up with Weigel, who has been in Rome since Ash Wednesday, to pose some questions about the conclave, the state of the Church, and the analysis of Evangelical Catholicism:

By Pope Benedict XVI publicly acknowledging problems inside the Vatican is he giving guidance to the cardinals gathering in Rome this week? [I don't understand why the writer, who has always been so sensible otherwise, suddenly implies that Benedict XVI is only now 'publicly acknowleding problems inside the Vatican' when he has been doing that all along, so I am glad Weigel quickly sets her straight right off the bat!]

The Pope has mentioned these problems more than once, although no one seems to have noticed until the world’s attention suddenly became riveted on Rome and the Vatican.

[If 'no one' seems to have noticed - i.e., enough for public opinion to be actively aware of Benedict XVI's passionate commitment to purifying the Church starting with her own ministers - perhaps that is because they choose not to notice. Especially since he has also been ever careful to say that the Church does not just have sinners but also countless men and women who try their best everyday to be worthy representatives of the faith they profess, as the Vatican mentioned today in its statement about the report from the three cardinals commissioned by Benedict XVI to investigate the system that made Vatileaks possible.]

Benedict XVI has no intention of “giving guidance” to the men who will elect his successor; he is too good a churchman, too humble a man, and too much a respecter of the conclave process to even think of doing something like that.

But there is no doubt, here in Rome, that the dysfunction in the Vatican bureaucracy will be a major topic of the cardinals’ conversations before the conclave is enclosed. Benedict XVI was ill-served by men in whom he reposed trust and to whom he gave great authority, and everyone knows it — except, alas, those who ill-served him.

[Triple alas and alack! These persons - and I can think of one, in particular - will never acknowledge that they ill-served him because after all, they love him and would never seek to harm him! Which was exactly Paolo Gabriele's self-justification! And Weigel's phrase 'those who ill-served him' has to include Gabriele among others far more intelligent than the self-righteous ex=valet, but just as self-deluding.]

Not to be Pollyannaish, but how do Church institutions become worldly and even corrupt? Ought there to be a sanctification there? Can there be? [I have to believe that the apparent naivete of Lopez's questions only means she is trying to articulate questions raised by skeptics and the man on the street who does not know much about the Church.]
The Church is a human institution, and at certain moments in time, the darker aspects of that humanity come into the glare of publicity. As for the situation right now, a distinguished Italian historian said to me, shortly after I arrived in Rome, that Italy had become a “corrupt society and culture” and that, with the deep and broad Italianization of the Roman Curia over the past half-decade [Meaning, under Benedict XVI], similar patterns of incompetence and malfeasance had penetrated the Leonine Wall.

[While I understand that the above may be a perception common to professional Vatican watchers, I would welcome some statistics to show that the Curia is any more Italian now than it was in John Paul II's time, when not just Cardinal Sodano, but also Cardinals Re and Sandri - all bred-in-the-bone ItalianS - wielded actual and real power in the Curia just as much as John Paul II's secretary did. Which Curial official under Benedict XVI has had similar power?

Cardinal Bertone could only command his own men, and they were clearly no match for the far more extensive and ensconced Old Guard left in place by John Paul II's curial plenipotentiaries. And surely, incompetence and malfeasance were already there under the previous regime, perpetrated by the career middle-management satraps of the Curia whose tenure is not dependent on whoever is Pope, and who actually control the levers of Vatican bureaucracy!]

That strikes me as true, and it needs to be said. What also needs to be said is that there are many good and faithful servants in the Roman Curia, men and women for whom service in Rome is a real sacrifice which they undertake out of love for the Church and obedience to the call of their superiors.

These people, who don’t imagine the Curia as a career-boosting ticket-punch but who look forward to returning to their local Churches, are the human model of the curial reform I lay out in Evangelical Catholicism – for that reform will begin with a change of attitude, not merely a change of structures, important as the latter is. [As Benedict XVI has always underscored! Reform must begin with purification, and purification must begin with the individual.]

Why is the Vatican a state? Doesn’t that bring with it all kinds of opportunities for distraction from her mission?
It’s long been understood that the Pope, as Universal Pastor of the Church, cannot be the subject of any worldly sovereignty. Thus the sovereignty of the Vatican City micro-state is protection for the Pope’s evangelical and pastoral mission.

That mission can and must include a critical challenge to the world of affairs, as in Benedict XVI’s remarkable “September Addresses” in Regensburg, Paris, New York, and Berlin (which I describe in the March 11 print issue of NR).

What that mission ought not to include is fooling around in the circus of Italian politics, which has been a weakness of the present cardinal secretary of state and his predecessor.

[Well, thank God Weigel got that out! The vainglory in both Sodano and Bertone has consisted in thinking that the best way for them to assert their position as being, in effect, 'head of government' of the Vatican, is to make a splash or at least affect politics in the secular world of Italian politics, instead of attending to their primary responsibility of running the Vatican, i.e., administering the Roman Curia and all the organisms within the Vatican.

And yet for all the efforts of Sodano and Bertone, their analogs in the Italian bishops' conference = Cardinals Ruini and Bagnasco, respectively - have been far more effective in standing up for the Church in the maelstrom of Italian politics (and even in affecting the way Italian Catholics vote), and doing so because the Italian bishops conference, not the Vatican Secretariat of State, was designated by the revised Lateran Pacts to represent the Church in dealing with the State of Italy.]

What might the priorities of the next Pope be? [Should there even be a different order of priorities than the obvious ones Benedict XVI worked on?]
He’s got to have trifocals: meeting the challenge of an aggressive secularism in the West with the dynamic, affirmative orthodoxy of evangelical Catholicism; encouraging the burgeoning “new churches” of the global South, purifying and deepening their experience of Jesus as Lord and savior and their integration into the rhythms and practices of Catholic life; and defending religious freedom for all, especially against the challenge of jihadist Islam, which exemplifies what Benedict XVI has described as religion unpurified by reason.

Will he be an Evangelical Catholic? What does that mean? How will we know?
The Evangelical Catholicism I describe in that eponymous book isn’t the product of any one man; it’s the result of a lengthy, complex, and difficult process of development in the Catholic Church since the late 19th century.

Vatican II brought that process to a high moment of ecclesiastical drama. John Paul II and Benedict XVI focused the Council’s many-layered teaching and gave it a sharp focus by teaching, with the Council, that to be a Catholic is to be a radically converted disciple in a communion of disciples that lives for mission — for offering others the possibility of friendship with Jesus Christ.

And thus with John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the door has been thrust open to Evangelical Catholicism in its first maturity. That maturation process will continue, because a robustly orthodox Catholicism impassioned about mission is the only Catholicism that has a future.

Why? Because it’s the Catholicism that is answering Christ’s call to mission in the Great Commission, and it’s the only Catholicism that can meet the challenge of aggressive secularism, jihadism — and limp discipleship.

What are the kinds of questions cardinals must be asking themselves and one another as they prepare for the conclave?
As they measure a man for the shoes of the fisherman, the first and obvious question cardinals should ask is: Is this a man of God, who lives out of a depth of faith that can sustain him in an impossible task? And can he communicate that faith, enticing others to consider sharing it, through who he is, not just by what he says?

Another urgent question is: Does this man have good judgment in people? That is, can he draw to himself the collaborators who will give his mission real effect? And is he willing to correct errors in judgment about people when they become clear? [It seems to me this is implicit criticism of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI, each of whom was seriously ill-served by some of the men they named and trusted the most. I choose now to interpret Benedict XVI's intransigent loyalty to Bertone as one more indication he knew he himself was not going to stay on, that the end would come sooner rather than later, so what was the point of changing horses in midstream?]

I describe in some detail other qualities one would like to see in a Pope in the last chapter of Evangelical Catholicism.

Choosing the next Pope is no small thing. How does one even begin to deliberate? [But the Church has been doing it for centuries!]
The first thing the cardinals (including the non-voting cardinals over 80) will do is assess the state of the world Church during what are called “General Congregations.” In that process, men can begin to be measured for those aforementioned shoes.

I would also hope that the General Congregations become a kind of retreat. The elders of the Church need to take stock, in conscience and in prayer, of the ways in which they and others have failed in their own leadership responsibilities. That kind of purification seems even more essential today than before.

[That is precisely the spirit Benedict XVI sought to infuse into the synodal assemblies and the 'day of reflection' he chose to take with cardinals gathered in Rome before each of his consistories to create new cardinals, opening each of them with off-the-cuff meditations that are marvels of spiritual, theological and pastoral exhortations. If he did not do that during the pre-Conclave congregations in 2005, I imagine it was only because he could not presume to speak as primus inter pares (which he was, in fact, as dean) among his brother cardinals. Cardinal Sodano has the advantage this time that he is out of the running as he is over 80, so let us hope he will exercise a prayerful exhortatory direction of the congregations.]

The General Congregations, and the conclave, ought to be far more like a religious community or order discerning its next leadership than like a court choosing its next king or queen.

Can the conclave itself act as a renewing force for bishops and the priesthood?
It can do so by choosing a Pope who will take the reform of the episcopate seriously (and there’s a whole chapter on that in Evangelical Catholicism) and who will continue the reform of the priesthood that began with John Paul II and has been accelerated by Benedict XVI. [That's another implicit criticism of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI - and their predecessors as well - for 'failing to reform the episcopate seriously' while seeking to reform the priesthood, although that criticism ignores the 60-plus bishops who were constrained to resign during Benedict XVI's Pontificate for assorted misconduct.[

It would also be helpful if the new Pope could become, by the vigor and magnetism of his own priestly witness, what Cardinal William Baum once called John Paul II: the “world’s greatest vocation director” (or what the military would call a “great recruiter”). [And weren't John Paul II and Benedict XVI particularly emblematic witnesses to priesthood, long before they became Pope, and who did generate countless vocations during the international WYD gatherings? Who in the current College of Cardinals has been touted in any way as being 'magnetic' in their priestly witness?]

How can — and must — a Pope convey “sacramental seriousness” at a time when holiness is being pushed to the sidelines by a secularism that all too many within the Church have bought into? Can the cardinals convey it in their choice? [Personal holiness is its own best witness - if it is present, it will shine through all the dense miasma of obfuscation and malice that dominates media-imposed public opinion (or 'published opinion', as Georg Gaenswein has called it).]
I think a Pope does that in two ways. If he celebrates the liturgy in a dignified and reverent way, he offers the jaded world an experience of beauty which just might open up a discussion about truth and goodness.

And in his magisterium, he can challenge the soul-withering insularity of secularism by explaining that the world really does have doors, windows, and skylights, and that life is much more noble — and much more fun — if we recognize that rather than hunkering down in enclosed bunkers of self-absorption.

[And didn't Benedict XVI do both exceptionally well? In fact, the faux 'bumper sticker' RE-ELECT RATZINGER is a metaphor to say: Elect someone as close as possible to the ideal shown by Papa Ratzinger, only someone younger and in great physical shape!]

These are men in the conclave. What if they don’t listen to what He says?
Well, it’s been known to happen before. Cardinal Ratzinger himself once said that the role of the Holy Spirit in a conclave is to prevent the cardinals from electing a Pope who would completely wreck the Church. That’s a kind of negative boundary, but, looking back over the relevant history, it has the ring of realism to it.

In the apostolic constitution that will govern this conclave, John Paul II suppressed the methods of electing a Pope by “inspiration” ( a cardinal or cardinals gets up in the Sistine Chapel and proclaims his belief that Cardinal X has already been chosen by God, and at least two-thirds of the others agree — the scenario in Morris West’s novel, The Shoes of the Fisherman) and by “delegation” (the cardinals agree to choose a committee who will choose the new Pope).

John Paul’s view, I think, was that the conclave is a drama of discernment in which every elector ought to feel the full weight of his religious and moral responsibility. That they will do this under the gaze of the Christ of the Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel, rather underscores that point.

Can the Church — from Pope to her priests and all the faithful — re-introduce itself and what Christ proposes through her to a world that has seen much unseriousness and disappointment and even evil from those who call themselves Catholic? [Isn't that what Benedict XVI began to undertake? This re-introduction is precisely what the New Evangelization is about! But no one deludes himself that it can be done overnight - it has to rebuild from the wreckage of five decades of downgrading Catholicism to Protestantism-lite and even outright secularism.]
It has to, and that begins both by acknowledging the failures of the people of the Church (and its leaders) and refusing to be cowed into evangelical silence by those sins and failures. If the Church models a more humane way of life than what’s on offer from others, it will draw the curious and the wounded and all those looking for the Good Shepherd, whether they consciously know that’s what they’re seeking at this moment or not.

Has Pope Benedict set some markers in terms of liturgical reform the next Pope can build on?
As I explain in Evangelical Catholicism, he’s accelerated the reform of the reform of the liturgical reform, and with what seem to me to be notable results. There are exceptions, of course, but the liturgical silly season is over.

Are the reforms that have not been implemented by this Pope an indicator of a failed pontificate? Many, as you know, have said in recent days that his is a failed papacy.
I don’t think it’s a failed pontificate, but the full agenda imagined for it in April 2005 certainly hasn’t been completed. Pope Benedict XVI will be remembered as the greatest papal preacher since Gregory the Great in the sixth century, and his sermons and homilies will be read for centuries for spiritual nourishment. Ditto for his catechetical talks at the Wednesday general audiences. Ditto for the “September Addresses,” when it comes to world affairs and the discontents of contemporary democracy.

What hasn’t been begun, much less completed, is the reform of the Vatican bureaucratic machinery so that it becomes an instrument of, not an impediment to, the Pope’s mission as an evangelical pastor and missionary. [And I must ask why Mr. Weigel, like so many other armchair Popes these days, must place all the burden for reforming the Vatican bureaucracy on Benedict XVI when his predecessors could do nothing about it either.

When, in fact the great and Blessed John Paul II was not interested enough in the administrative machinery of the Vatican - Mr. Weigel himself has been among the first to defend the Polish Pope's deliberate choice to evangelize ad extra, and let his lieutenants take care of internal affairs.

What about the fact that, for a start, Benedict XVI legislated transparency into Vatican finances - a revolutionary action in itself, especially for the Vatican and its much-discredited mystique of secrecy - but why does he not get credit for that? After he has now opened the shutters to let in the purifying glare of sunlight on Vatican finances that arouses the most prurient interest among the media and the public, no successive Pope can close them again.]

At this time of transition, what are you praying for? What ought Catholics be praying for? Can Evangelical Catholicism be a handbook for this moment?
I hope Evangelical Catholicism encourages those who read it to imagine a robust and dynamic, if also challenging, future for the Church. And that’s what we should all be praying for, all the time: the courage to be Catholic, which is the prerequisite to living our lives, in a virtual infinity of ways, as disciples in mission.

You talk a great deal about Leo XIII in your book. What might be his advice to the cardinals and to Catholics of this moment?
I think he’d ask the cardinals, and all of us, to see in postmodernity and its discontents a challenge that can be turned to evangelical advantage, if we have the wit, will, spiritual strength, and intellectual formation for it. I also think he’d be asking us to pray for the protection of St. Michael the Archangel, for we are surely in battle, and the Evil One is having what cricketers would call “good innings” these days.

Everyone else must be asking you these questions: Who do you think the next Pope will be and what are the odds he hails from North America?
I don’t do names; I don’t do odds; but I will say that geography will have little or nothing to do with the selection of the next Pope.

[I certainly hope not. Political correctness has no place in a Conclave. And if any Third World cardinals believe in the conventional unwisdom that it is high time one of them was Pope just because the preponderance of Catholics live in their part of the world - and not because he is really the best man for the job at this time - then they mistake the Church, as the pundits do, for a secular democracy guided by proportional representation rather than the unique institution that it is, founded by Christ to prolong his mission on earth through the ministry of human beings.

Further about the coming Conclave: I have never understood why, in my lifetime, the media tend to think in apocalyptic terms about the Church whenever a new Pope must be elected. It is always 'the worst time for the Church' and, "dear Lord, what are we to do now, the sky is falling in, who can save us"? - which is necessarily a negative judgment on the last Pope, in this case, on Benedict XVI.

They said the same thing after John Paul II died - those who thought he was absolutely irreplaceable - but what is the worst thing they can say of Benedict XVI today? That he 'failed to reform the Roman Curia', as if that was the priority responsibility of a Pope.

What is the worst scandal they can dredge up against him? That his own valet betrayed him. A manufactured scandal in which Benedict XVI, betrayed, has been the only real victim so far, even if not the least venal thing was attributed to him by anyone in the leaked documents (the only accusing finger was from the valet who thought the Pope was uninformed because "he would often ask me questions about things he ought to have known". Really!)

And yet, with the Internet, this has been the most closely scrutinized Pontificate of all time - in real time, 24/7. To emerge in eight years with only the failure to reform the Roman Curia and the Vatileaks mess as the worst they can say of him is achievement enough.

And what about his real accomplishments? What he did for the Church, as well as his own personal distinctions? What Pope, in his lifetime, has been compared to Leo the Great and Gregory the Great for his preaching, and to Augustine and Aquinas for the breadth and depth of his writing?

All this, after succeeding to another Pope who was immediately dubbed 'the Great' upon his death, and being hounded to the end by the uncharitable judgment that he could never be able to fill the shoes of his predecessor. He did not need to, nor want to. It is symbolic he, unwittingly and by media whim, made the papal red shoes his own 'trademark' in the secular world. The only shoes he needed to fill were his own - a perfect fit for him as if they had been the sandals of Peter himself.

His detractors, and even some Catholic circles, now fault him for betraying his 'divine mission' by resigning, for abandoning a sinking ship (a rat, in short, and perhaps somewhere in cyberspace, someone has already dubbed him 'the zinger rat') - making it appear that a truly selfless act of abnegation to make way for someone more able than he is, is somehow the most selfish thing a Pope could do. To the end, he is being demeaned by those in the business of demeaning

As for the apocalyptic tones, when was it ever not the 'worst time for the Church' through the centuries, and why should we think that this time, it is worse than the worst? It's a far from insidious way to seek to undermine the Church at its foundations, but didn't her founder say, "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" against whom "the gates of Hell shall not prevail"?

2/27/13 Weigel has given a similar interview to Vatican Radio, which reproduces some of his answers in textual form below. In this interview, he seems muck more charitable towards Benedict XVI, even indulging in quite a few superlatives.:

'A hinge moment in
the history of the Church'
Interview with George Weigel

February 27, 2013

“I think Benedict XVI will be remembered for many fine accomplishments. He was the greatest papal preacher since Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century. He was a master catechist.”

George Weigel, a leading American Catholic scholar, and author of the new book “Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st Century Church,” shares with Vatican Radio his thoughts about Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy, in the days leading up to the Holy Father’s resignation.

He says Pope Benedict “showed himself a remarkably insightful analyst of the discontents of twenty-first century democracy and the essential moral foundations for any democratic civilisation of the future. He did that in his Regensburg lecture, his address at Westminster Hall in London, his address to the German Bundestag, his address at the United Nations.”

The Holy Father, he says, will also be remembered for his emphasis on the liturgy: “In terms of the Church, I think the Pope asked us to see beauty in the liturgy as a unique path towards a post-modern appreciation of the truth and the good in what the Church proclaims.”

Weigel sees Pope Benedict continuing the work begun by the Second Vatican Council and continued by Blessed John Paul II. “I think he secured the transition of what I call in this book ‘Evangelical Catholicism,’ the transition from the Church of the Counter-Reformation formed in the sixteenth century to the Church of the New Evangelisation which has been brought into being by the Second Vatican Council, John Paul II, and now Benedict XVI.”

He describes the relationship between the papacies of John Paul and Benedict as a kind of “dynamic continuity.”

“These two pontificates, I think, will be viewed historically as two episodes in one great moment of giving an authoritative interpretation to the Second Vatican Council.”

The two Popes “complemented one another in a remarkable way . . . [they] forged a remarkable working relationship that was a real mutual exchange of gifts between two men of supreme intelligence, one a philosopher, one a theologian – two men who had the humility to see in the other something that he lacked and that put together would work for the good of the Church.”

The conclusion of Pope Benedict’s papacy, says Weigel, marks the end of an era. “We are at a real hinge moment in the history of the Church, not simply because of this unprecedented ending of a pontificate but because of the very nature of the life of the Church at this moment in time.”

George Weigel’s interview with Christopher Wells: media01.radiovaticana.va/audiomp3/00359780.MP3C

Wednesday, February 27, Second Week of Lent

On this day last year was the 150th anniversary of the saint's death which was marked
with a year of commemoration at his shrine and burial place in the monastery of Gran Sasso.
ST. GABRIELE DELL'ADDOLORATA (St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows), (Italy, 1838-1862)
Passionist seminarian, Patron of Young People
Francesco Possenti was the 11th of 13 children born to a well-off family in Assisi who later moved to Spoleto. From childhood, he was known for his piety and charity but he also eNjoyed the social scene, partying and girl friends. At least three times when his life was in danger (twice from illness and once when hit by a stray bullet while hunting), he promised to enter the religious life but did not. A number of family tragedies ending with the death of a sister from cholera finally pushed him into carrying out his promise, aided by a brother who was a Dominican friar. At age 18, he joined the Passionist order where he took the name Gabriele dell'Addolorata. However, he contracted tuberculosis and died before he could be ordained a priest. In the monastery of Gran Sasso, he was known for his joyful spirit, even after he fell ill. He was a perfect follower of the Passionist rule, and was an example to his fellow students, for his excellence in studies as well as for his spiritual life. He has left writings documenting his spiritual progress. Soon after his death, his fame for sanctity quickly spread among the people of the Abruzzo and among the Passionists. In 1891, his order initiated his cause for canonization. Present at his beatification in 1908 were one of his brothers, his Passionist spiritual director. and his closest friend at the monastery. He was canonized in 1920 and declared patron of Young People. His cult was particularly strong among the Italians who migrated to the United States in the early part of the 20th entury.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022713.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

Benedict XVI's last General Audience - The Pope's farewell to the faithful was a moving expression of gratitude
to God and to all who have given him their prayers and affection, and lately, acceptance of his decision to retire
for the good of the Church. A message full of faith, hope and love as his Pontificate has been.

The Holy Father's hidden heroism
by John Roselle, S.J.

February 26, 2013

“I only wish I had more to give,” an elderly Jesuit said at a community meeting a few days before he left for the infirmary. One can imagine Pope Benedict having the same sentiments during his last days in office.

Joseph Ratzinger’s time as the Holy Father has come to an end; he is utterly spent. Yet he will always be heroic to me. I do not say this is in a saccharine manner, nor do I expect that everyone have the same impression.

Few would have guessed that the little old man* (I mean that with all respect and affection) elected eight years ago would live up to such a claim. He surely did not either, seeming to choose deliberately the name of a Pope who had already faded into history but who had done what he could for peace in the last century.

Upon assuming Peter’s chair, Pope Benedict XVI told us that we as God’s people would have to accept what Joseph Ratzinger knew he was all along: “a simple, humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.” At the announcement of his stepping down, he requested “pardon” for his “defects.”

Our popular culture reverberates with an expressed desire for the heroic, as evidenced by the endless string of messianic politicians, glorified athletes and blockbusters featuring superheroes.

A superhero Pope Benedict was not, for such do not exist. However, he relentlessly pointed to the real Messiah. In his fidelity, Pope Benedict possessed the essence of Christian heroism: humble, loving sacrifice in the service of Jesus Christ and His people.

Whether as a priest, professor, peritus, protector of Christian doctrine or Pope, Ratzinger’s learned ministry was marked with magnanimity and desire for what St. Ignatius called the magis, “the more” that is conducive to God’s will.

A man known for dialogue and goodwill throughout his life, he showed that these are not soft or flabby qualities but rather strong virtues. They empowered him to contend against what he named “the dictatorship of relativism,” while he spoke with such credibility that a figure like Prime Minister David Cameron of the United Kingdom said that Benedict had caused his country to “sit up and think.”

As we review his life, these virtues were not simply the grace given for the office. They were hard-won and lived for decades before he became Pope.

As a scholar, Joseph Ratzinger was known for patience, understanding, and openness. In a gesture of a longtime friendship, he promptly invited his theological challenger Hans Küng to the Vatican. He called the Society of Jesus to the “frontiers” and affirmed to the Jesuits assembled at the 35th General Congregation on February 21, 2008: “the Church needs you, relies on you and continues to turn to you with trust, particularly to reach those physical and spiritual places which others do not reach or have difficulty reaching.”

As I have replied to some who have denigrated the Jesuits as unfaithful, “Well, the Pope at least believes in us!”

Ratzinger’s life was spent in pursuing and articulating the truth in all of its nuances. He dared to do what no other Pope has ever done, letting himself be interviewed for the length of a book in Light of the World.

After news of his candor broke, I recall a friend of mine who remarked on the “idiocy” of him commenting on condoms. The complicated ethical assessment as Pope was congruent with who he was as a young professor, a man unafraid to speak the truth with love.

Pope Benedict simply smiled when someone informed him that people would run roughshod with his remarks. A hero has a certain self-possession that does not allow the whims or ignorance of others to get the best of him.

As one of my mentors has reminded me, in all of Ratzinger’s life there is practically no one who can say that he personally “lashed out” at them. With aplomb akin to “good Pope John,” he has guided the church with wisdom and sweetness. [That is why I so love the appellative 'Papa Bene' as the counterpart to the 'Papa buono' coined for Blessed John XXIII.]

Ratzinger could have had reason to be prideful since (as St. Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 8:1) “knowledge puffs up,” but instead his life testifies to the reality that “love builds up.”

Knowledge is power, both of which he possessed abundantly. He showed the heroic possibilities of power directed toward the good of the church. His meetings with abuse victims in various countries were particularly moving. One victim present at such a gathering in Malta reported the Pope “wept” there with them.

Ratzinger’s relinquishment of the Petrine office is the consummation of his vocation as “servant of the servants of God.” It seems Pope Benedict’s baptismal name was aptly chosen.

Joseph, the universal Protector of the Church, was a heroic figure entrusted with the Blessed Mother and God’s own Son. Yet Joseph’s heroism was hidden in history; his was a life of diminishment to the extent that Scripture does not even tell us what became of him.

In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius sought to help people answer the “Call of the King,” to live under “the Standard of Christ” even to the point of rejection and to follow God’s Spirit that sends us to do everything for God’s greater glory.

We would do well to contemplate the life of Joseph Ratzinger as we pray for him in his remaining life of prayer and penance. His was not the cool release of power, the act of a noble politician like the Roman dictator Cincinnatus. It is what Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles calls “the act of a saint.”

Joseph Ratzinger is proceeding in obedience to the One who was nailed to a tree, accepting with and in Him a strange humiliation. Surely he recalls that the first Bishop of Rome was publicly hung upside-down.

Many have suggested that Pope Benedict’s was a failed mission. The circumstances of his time in the papacy were not ideal; many goals eluded him. Yet let us remember another Man who at the end of his life was judged a failure. And no servant is greater than his Master.

*I just watched a replay of the 'Habemus Papam' moments from 2005, and I was struck at how Joseph Ratzinger first emerged onto the central loggia of St. Peter's Square, not as a 'little old man', but already quite heroic in stature, literally as well as metaphorically- and how that image was so different from the unprepossessing photographs we saw of him from John Paul II's funeral Mass (and the TV coverage, of course) and the days preceding the conclave (from the General Congregations to the Missa pro eligendo Pontifice and the now celebrated 'dictatorship of relativism' homily) as the elderly and most venerable cardinal who had expected to retire to private life three years before when he turned 75...

But the first images of him as Benedict XVI were markedly different - a literal quantum leap of imagery that, at the time, the word 'transfiguration' occurred to me right away: that being conferred the title Vicar of Christ must transfigure someone from being just another cardinal - no matter how truly eminent, as Cardinal Ratzinger was - into someone who visibly symbolizes his mission.

The intense spiritual radiance and youthfulness that Joseph Ratzinger projected on April 19, 2005, was the visible and supremely indelible expression of that transfiguration - and it was the moment he captured my entire being instantaneously in a way I never imagined a human being could. Knowing very little about him at the time except his basic biodata and having watched him previously and for the first time at all, only at the funeral Mass he celebrated for John Paul II.

In the days and weeks to come, I was to learn with growing wonder how many others were captivated into Benaddiction at the moment that I was - and that many more were blessed to have experienced that epiphany earlier during the funeral Mass for John Paul II....

I had not meant to get into this just now, had I not come across the America tribute above - which I was compelled to post right away - as I was attempting an 'orderly' survey of priority items online, still trying to overcome the emotions from having just watched the last GA and the last Popemobile ride... And I know I will continue to be chaotic erratic in my postings and babbling (and occasionally apoplectic even) in my comments for some time, so forgive me...

P.S. But i must get back to the comments about 'a failed Papacy'? Failed in what way? Failed in comparison to what? To their expectations of what a Pope should be and should do? But what should I care? Those who say that are in no way going to be the arbiters of history...

Thank you to Vatican Radio for not spoiling their initial reports of this farewell with superfluous effusions...



An Italian sign that says 'BENEDICT XVI - Pope again!' is a counterpart to the 'RE-ELECT RATZINGER' stickers -
and for all their whimsy, I find these the most touching signs of affection and attachment for the Pope.

ALWAYS AND EVER - THE POPE OF JOY

Benedict XVI's
farewell to the world

February 27, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI held the final General Audience of his pontificate on Wednesday in St Peter's Square.

Here is Vatican Radio's English translation of the Holy Father's remarks:

---

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood!
Distinguished Authorities!
Dear brothers and sisters!

Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this last General Audience of my pontificate.

Like the Apostle Paul in the biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart the paramount duty to thank God, who guides the Church and makes her grow, who sows His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His people.

At this moment my spirit reaches out to embrace the whole Church throughout the world, and I thank God for the “news” that in these years of Petrine ministry I have been able to receive regarding the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity that circulates in the body of the Church – charity that makes the Church to live in love – and of the hope that opens for us the way towards the fullness of life, and directs us towards the heavenly homeland.

I feel I [ought to] carry everyone in prayer, in a present that is God’s, where I recall every meeting, every voyage, every pastoral visit. I gather everyone and everything in prayerful recollection, in order to entrust them to the Lord: in order that we might have full knowledge of His will, with every wisdom and spiritual understanding, and in order that we might comport ourselves in a manner that is worthy of Him, of His, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).

At this time, I have within myself great trust [in God], because I know – all of us know – that the Gospel’s word of truth is the strength of the Church: it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and lives in charity. This is my faith, this is my joy.

When, almost eight years ago, on April 19th, [2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I held steadfast in this certainty, which has always accompanied me.

At that moment, as I have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart were: “Lord, what do you ask of me? It is a great weight that You place on my shoulders, but, if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the nets, sure that you will guide me” – and the Lord really has guided me. He has been close to me: daily I could feel His presence.

[These years] have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of ​​Galilee: the Lord has given us many days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then] there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the Church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to be asleep.

Nevertheless, I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her: to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It is for this reason, that today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church without His consolation, His light, His love.

We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired in order to strengthen our own faith in God in a context that seems to push faith more and more toward the margins of life.

I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all entrust ourselves as children to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us, even in times of struggle.

I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian.

A beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says, “I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made me a Christian.”

Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most precious good that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every day, with prayer and with a consistent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects that we love Him!

At this time, however, it is not only God, whom I desire to thank. A Pope is not alone in guiding St. Peter’s barque, even if it is his first responsibility – and I have not ever felt myself alone in bearing either the joys or the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed next to me many people, who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me.

First of all you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your counsel, your friendship, were all precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my Secretary of State, who accompanied me faithfully over the years, the Secretariat of State and the whole Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in various areas, give their service to the Holy See: the many faces which never emerge, but remain in the background, in silence, in their daily commitment, with a spirit of faith and humility. They have been for me a sure and reliable support.

A special thought [goes] to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot forget my Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, the consecrated persons and the entire People of God: in pastoral visits, in public encounters, at Audiences, in traveling, I have always received great care and deep affection.

I have loved each and every one, without exception, with that pastoral charity which is the heart of every shepherd, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I carried each of you in my prayers, with the father's heart. I wish my greetings and my thanks to reach everyone: the heart of a Pope expands to [embrace] the whole world.

I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes present the great family of nations.

Here I also think of all those who work for good communications, whom I thank for their important service.

At this point I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world who in recent weeks have sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer.

Yes, the Pope is never alone: now I experience this [truth] again in a way so great as to touch my very heart. The Pope belongs to everyone, and so many people feel very close to him.

It’s true that I receive letters from the world's greatest figures - from the Heads of State, religious leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their heart and let me feel their affection, which is born of our being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church.

These people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with the sense of very affectionate family ties.

Here, one can touch what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all.

To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one’s hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a time in which many speak of its decline.

In recent months, I felt that my strength had decreased, and I asked God with insistence in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me take the right decision – not for my sake, but for the good of the Church.

I have taken this step in full awareness of its severity and also its novelty, but with a deep peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, trying choices, having ever before oneself the good of the Church and not one’s own.

Here allow me to return once again to April 19, 2005. The gravity of the decision was precisely in the fact that from that moment on I was committed always and forever by the Lord. Always!

He who assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and totally to everyone, to the whole Church. His life is, so to speak, totally deprived of the private sphere.

I have felt, and I feel even in this very moment, that one receives one’s life precisely when he offers it as a gift. I said before that many people who love the Lord also love the Successor of Saint Peter and are fond of him, that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world, and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion, because he no longer belongs to himself, but he belongs to all and all are truly his own.

The “always” is also a “forever” - there is no returning to private life. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences and so on.

I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds.

St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God.

I thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have welcomed this important decision. I continue to accompany the Church on her way through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and to His Bride, which I have hitherto tried to live daily and that I would live forever.

I ask you to remember me before God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals, who are called to so important a task, and for the new Successor of Peter, that the Lord might accompany him with the light and the power of His Spirit.

Let us invoke the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the whole ecclesial community: to her we entrust ourselves, with deep trust.

Dear friends! God guides His Church, maintains her always, and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the way of the Church and the world.

In our heart, in the heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near, that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His love. Thank you!

---

Pope recalls joy and difficulties
at his final general audience
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, February 27, 2013 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI basked in an emotional send-off Wednesday from an estimated 150,000 people at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy and also times of difficulty when "it seemed like the Lord was sleeping."

The crowd, many toting banners saying "Grazie!" ("Thank you!"), jammed the piazza to bid Benedict farewell and hear his final speech as Pontiff. In this appointment, which he has kept each week for eight years to teach the world about the Catholic faith, Benedict thanked his flock for respecting his retirement, which takes effect Thursday.

Benedict clearly enjoyed the occasion, taking a long victory lap around the square in an open-sided car and stopping to kiss and bless half a dozen children handed to him by his secretary. Seventy cardinals, some tearful, sat in solemn attendance — then gave him a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

Benedict made a quick exit, foregoing the typical meet-and-greet session that follows the audience as if to not prolong the goodbye.

Given the historic moment, Benedict also changed course and didn't produce his typical professorial Wednesday catechism lesson. Rather, he made his final public appearance in St. Peter's a personal one, explaining once again why he was becoming the first Pope in 600 years to resign and urging the faithful to pray for his successor.

"To love the church means also to have the courage to take difficult, painful decisions, always keeping the good of the Church in mind, not oneself," Benedict said to thundering applause.

He noted that a Pope has no privacy: "He belongs always and forever to everyone, to the whole church." But he promised that in retirement he would not be returning to private life — instead taking on a new experience of service to the church through prayer.

He recalled that when he was elected Pope on April 19, 2005, he questioned if God truly wanted it.

"'It's a great burden that you've placed on my shoulders,'" he recalled telling God.

During his eight years as Pope, Benedict said he had had "moments of joy and light, but also moments that haven't been easy ... moments of turbulent seas and rough winds, as has occurred in the history of the church when it seemed like the Lord was sleeping."

But he said he never felt alone, that God always guided him, and he thanked his cardinals and colleagues for their support and for "understanding and respecting this important decision."

The Pope's eight-year tenure has been beset by the clerical sex abuse scandal, discord over everything from priestly celibacy to women's ordination, and most recently, the betrayal by his own butler who stole his private papers and leaked them to a journalist.

Under a bright sun and blue skies, the square was overflowing with pilgrims and curiosity-seekers. Those who couldn't get in picked spots along the main boulevard leading to the square to watch the event on giant TV screens. About 50,000 tickets were requested for Benedict's final master class. In the end, the Vatican estimated that 150,000 people flocked to the farewell.

"It's difficult — the emotion is so big," said Jan Marie, a 53-year-old Roman in his first years as a seminarian. "We came to support the Pope's decision."

With chants of "Benedetto!" erupting often, the mood was far more buoyant than during the Pope's final Sunday blessing. It recalled the jubilant turnouts that often accompanied him at World Youth Days and events involving his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Benedict has said he decided to retire after realizing that, at 85, he simply didn't have the "strength of mind or body" to carry on.

"I have taken this step with the full understanding of the seriousness and also novelty of the decision, but with a profound serenity in my soul," Benedict told the crowd.

Benedict will meet Thursday morning with cardinals for a final time, then fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

There, at 8 p.m., the doors of the palazzo will close and the Swiss Guards in attendance will go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over — for now.

Many of the cardinals who will choose Benedict's successor were in St. Peter's Square for his final audience. Those included retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, the object of a grass-roots campaign in the U.S. to persuade him to recuse himself for having covered up for sexually abusive priests. Mahony has said he will be among the 115 cardinals voting on who the next Pope should be.

"God bless you," Mahony said when asked by television crews about the campaign.

Also in attendance Wednesday were cardinals over 80, who can't participate in the conclave but will participate in meetings next week to discuss the problems facing the Church and the qualities needed in a new Pope.

"I am joining the entire Church in praying that the cardinal electors will have the help of the Holy Spirit," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, 82, said.

Herranz has been authorized by the Pope to brief voting-age cardinals on his investigation into the leaks of papal documents that exposed corruption in the Vatican administration.

Vatican officials say cardinals will begin meeting Monday to decide when to set the date for the conclave.

But the rank-and-file faithful in the crowd weren't so concerned with the future; they wanted to savor the final moments with the Pope they have known for years.

"I came to thank him for the testimony that he has given the Church," said Maria Cristina Chiarini, a 52-year-old homemaker who traveled by train from Lugo in central Italy with about 60 members of her parish. "There's nostalgia, human nostalgia, but also comfort, because as a Christian we have hope. The Lord won't leave us without a guide."

Pope speaks of 'rough seas'
[but also of joy and light]
of papacy at emotional farewell
By Philip Pullella


VATICAN CITY, February 27 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict bid an emotional farewell at his last general audience on Wednesday, acknowledging the "rough seas" that marked his papacy "when it seemed that the Lord was sleeping."

In an unusually public outpouring for such a private man, he alluded to some of the most difficult times of his papacy, which was dogged by sex abuse scandals, leaks of his private papers and reports of infighting among his closest aides. [The only issue that 'dogged' this Pontificate was the problem of perverted priests and the bishops who covered for them - with almost 100 percent of the cases reported having taken place before Benedict XVI became Pope. An issue media gloatingly revived at the slightest pretext, hardly reporting at all on what this Pope has done about fighting this evil and seeking to purify the Church of it. Vatileaks was a yearlong media itch at its worst, dating from the last days of January 2012 to some time in September when the confessed thief of the Pope's papers was sentenced. JOSEPH RATZINGER/BENEDICT XVI WAS NOT PERSONALLY TO BLAME OR EVEN RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ONE OF THE THREE ITEMS PULELLA LISTS= and that is what media and the public opinion they shape have almost completely ignored. ]

"Thank you, I am very moved," Benedict told a cheering crowd of more than 150,000 people in St Peter's Square a day before he becomes the first pope to step down in some six centuries.

He said he had great trust in the Church's future, that his abdication was for the good of the Church and asked for prayers for cardinals choosing his successor at a time of crisis.

The Vatican said the address, repeatedly interrupted by applause and cries of "Benedict, Benedict" - was the last by the Pope, who as of Thursday evening will have the title "pope emeritus."

"There were moments of joy and light but also moments that were not easy ... there were moments, as there were throughout the history of the Church, when the seas were rough and the wind blew against us and it seemed that the Lord was sleeping," he said.

When he finished the crowd, which spilled over into surrounding streets and included many of the red-hatted cardinals who will elect his successor in a closed doors conclave next month, stood to applaud.

"I took this step in the full knowledge of its gravity and rarity but with a profound serenity of spirit," he said, as people in the crowd wave supportive banners and national flags.

Loving the Church meant, "having the courage to take difficult and anguished choices, always having in mind the good of the church and not oneself," he said.

The Pope says he is too old and weak to continue leading a Church beset by crises over child abuse by priests and a leak of confidential Vatican documents showing corruption and rivalry among Vatican officials [THAT HAS EXISTED SEMPITERNALLY IN THE VATICAN, NOT JUST UNDER BENEDICT XVI.]

He said he was not "coming down from the cross" but would serve the Church through prayer.

Some of those who have faulted Benedict for resigning have pointed to the late Pope John Paul, who said he would "not come down from the cross" despite his bad health because he believed his suffering could inspire others. [And it has. Enough to be a lasting reminder that the world does not need to see re-created over and over.]

Many Catholics and even some close papal aides were stunned by his decision on February 11 and concerned about the impact it will have on a Church torn by divisions. [What 'impact'? Popes come and go because they are mortal, and the Church has gone on. Even as a committed and unregenerate Bennadict, I refuse to turn this development into unwarranted melodrama. He did the right thing for the right reasons. PUNTO E BASTA! My reasons for grieving this development are entirely selfish = I want it to be as it has been for me since April 19, 2005, but God has decided otherwise. Fiat voluntas sua!]

Most in the square were supportive of Benedict, an increasingly frail figure in the last months of his papacy.

"He did what he had to do in his conscience before God," said Sister Carmel, from a city north of Rome, who came to the capital with her fellow nuns and members of her parish.

"This is a day in which we are called to trust in the Lord, a day of hope," she said. "There is no room for sadness here today. We have to pray, there are many problems in the Church but we have to trust in the Lord."

Not everyone agreed.

"He was a disaster. It's good for everyone that he resigned," said Peter McNamara, 61, an Australian of Irish descent who said he had come to the square "to witness history".

The Pope, a theologian and professor, never felt truly comfortable with the weight of the papacy and many Catholics feel that, although he was a towering Church figure, perhaps the cardinals should have chosen someone else in 2005.

"It was clear from the start that he was more at home in a library," [What a meaningless statement! As though anyone of us has ever seen him in a library, and after almost eight years of seeing him 'be Pope' in the most endearing ways possible!] , said Carla Manton, 65. "A very good man but he realized in his heart that this was the right thing to do for himself and the Church and now he will pray, he will pray for all of us."

Benedict will move to the papal summer residence south of Rome on Thursday night and later to a convent in the Vatican.

He will lay aside the red "shoes of the fisherman" that have been part of his papal attire and wear brown loafers given to him by shoemakers during a trip to Leon, Mexico last year. He will wear a "simple white cassock", the Vatican said. [What's this thing about the loafers - you'd think he was going to wear nothing but that the rest of his life!]

His lead seal and his ring of office, known as the "ring of the fisherman", will be destroyed according to Church rules, just as if he had died.

The Vatican said on Tuesday that the Pope was sifting through documents to see which will remain in the Vatican and go into the archives of his papacy and which "are of a personal nature and he will take to his new residence".

Among the documents left for the next Pope will be a confidential report by three cardinals into the "Vatileaks" affair last year when Benedict's former butler revealed private papers showing corruption and in-fighting inside the Vatican. [Yeah, right! It was the first time in 200 years of Church history that anyone had ever heard of 'corruption and infighting in the Vatican'! This odious obsession to pin everything bad about the Church and the Vatican on Benedict XVI - as if all the Popes before him had been flawless and had led perfect Pontificates - is truly pathologic. And all because they are unable to pin anything specifically grave, much less criminal, on Benedict XVI.]

The new Pope will inherit a Church marked by Vatileaks and child abuse scandals involving priests in Europe and the United States, both of which may have weighed on Benedict's decision. {He will also inherit everything Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI did to cleanse the Church of the essential faults and errors embodied in those 'headline' cases that MSM have equated to be the miserable sum total of a literally luminous Pontificate.]

On Thursday, he will greet cardinals in Rome. That afternoon he will fly by helicopter to the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, a 15-minute journey. In his last appearance as Pope, he will greet residents and well-wishers in a small square.

At 8 p.m. the Swiss Guards who stand as sentries at the residence will march off in a sign that the papacy is vacant.

Benedict changed Church rules so that cardinals who start pre-conclave meetings on Friday could begin the conclave earlier than the 15 days after the papacy becomes vacant prescribed by the previous law.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new Pope elected by mid-March and installed before Palm Sunday on March 24 so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter.

Cardinals have begun informal consultations by phone and email in the past two weeks since Benedict said he was quitting.

Both the following articles came out yesterday in the UK Daily Telegraph as soon as Cardinal O'Brien's resignation was announced. One is written by orthodox Catholic Damian Thompson, the other by Brendan O'Neill, editor of the libertarian online magazine SPIKED, who describes himself as "an atheistic libertarian" but criticised opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom in 2010 as 'intolerant and fearmongerin'... What they say about the 'scandal' tends to show that the story is not all that black-and-white, or even grey at all...

Cardinal O'Brien gay sex 'scandal':
A hit job that succeeded beyond
the plotters' wildest dreams
By Damian Thompson

February 26, 2013

Cardinal O'Brien's downfall was carefully planned.

The Cardinal Keith O'Brien Downfall video had been ready to run for ages. The story of three priests and one ex-priest complaining of inappropriate behaviour was timed to break when the Scottish prelate retired at 75 next month. The aim was to expose his alleged hypocrisy.

To quote our blogger Stephen Hough, responding in the comments to his blog post yesterday, "I'm convinced that what he did (if he did it) was harmless enough, but he may not have thought it harmless if he'd caught other priests doing it … at least until this week."

[My P.S.: Someone who has been a friend of the cardinal for over 30 years raised a very pertinent point yesterday: Why did the cardinal's accusers not come out with all this earlier - 1) when he was appointed Bishop of St. Andrew and Edinburgh in 1985; 2) when he was named a cardinal in 2003; 3) when he hosted Benedict xVI during the Pope's state visit to the UK in September 2010, when his first stop was in Edingburgh and Glasgow. All these three decades, not a peep. And suddenly...]

If the scandal had come to light next month, that would have been nicely timed to ruin the Cardinal's reputation just when the media would be running retrospective pieces about him. And, of course, it would throw a spotlight on O'Brien's passionate opposition to gay marriage, effectively silencing the Scottish Catholic Church on this subject, and probably the Church in the rest of Britain, too.

What no one could have guessed is that Pope Benedict would resign, meaning that Cardinal O'Brien would be the only Briton with a vote in the next conclave. The Observer story was brought forward, with devastating results.

The four complainants had the good sense – and, arguably, the courage – to inform the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, of their claims. (Mennini, it should be noted, is not in the pocket of the British bishops to the extent that previous ambassadors have been.) [Did they identify themselves to Archbishop Mennini?]

So the Vatican already had a file on Britain's senior Catholic churchman, and Pope Benedict, on being informed of its contents, decided to bring forward O'Brien's resignation as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh. [Was accepting the cardinal's resignation one of the matters discussed between Benedict XVI and Cardinal Ouellet at their last meeting on episcopal matters at the weekend? ]

In other words, the alleged victims of these inappropriate acts were helped by something that the Church's critics have often refused to recognise: Joseph Ratzinger's determination to purify the Church of sex abuse, right up until the last week of his pontificate.

Cardinal O'Brien's decision not to attend the conclave has thrown the Church into disarray: if he judges himself unsuitable to vote, how can Cardinal Roger Mahony, disgraced by cover-ups in Los Angeles, possibly be fit to do so? B

ut the implications in Britain are equally far-reaching. This country is in the middle of a debate about gay marriage in which, given the support of politicians and the media for the innovation, there is a shortage of public figures prepared to speak for the 50 percent of voters unhappy with the measure.

Until now, the Catholic Church has been given a respectful hearing. But today, with its senior clergyman accused of touching up young men after drink-fuelled "counselling"?

We do not, it should be stressed, know that the behaviour actually occurred. What we do know is that, thanks to this grubby scandal, gay marriage seems even more of an inevitability – and the Catholic Church's freedom to oppose it is suddenly looking more fragile.



The manner in which Cardinal O'Brien
has been deposed is more despicable
than anything he's alleged to have done
By Brendan O'Neill

February 26, 2013

What did Cardinal Keith O'Brien do that was so bad? He is alleged to have made inappropriate advances to young men when he was a teacher of priests in the 1980s.

But it is not a crime to make sexual advances to men over the age of 18. It is not child abuse (despite the best efforts of the press to lump O'Brien together with paedophile priests). Nor is what he is alleged to have done perverted in any way.

It can at best be described as stupid – and if everyone in Britain who has ever done something stupid was thrown out of their jobs, the nation would grind to a halt.

Ah, but O'Brien's alleged behaviour makes him a hypocrite, say his exposers in the liberal press as they desperately scrabble about for a PC justification for why they are depicting adult gay interaction as something sinister and sordid.

Perhaps it does make him a hypocrite, given his current stance on homosexuality. But perhaps not. We know nothing of Cardinal O'Brien's inner spiritual life. For all we know he may have spent the past 30-plus years repenting for that "inappropriate" behaviour in the Eighties, before deciding that, on balance, he thinks that homosexuality is wrong and wicked.

People change. People regret. Would we say St Paul was a hypocrite for criticising those who attacked Christians even though he spent his early life doing the same thing?

Now, what do we know about the allegations against O'Brien?

We know they are being made by anonymous individuals, which makes it impossible for O'Brien to defend himself. In normal justice scenarios, it is paramount that the accused knows whom he is being accused by so that he can prepare his defence.

We know the allegations are unsubstantiated, and will remain so for as long as the accusers are anonymous. They therefore linger in that limbo between rumour and truth.

We know the allegations were leaked by someone – perhaps one of the accusers or perhaps someone in the upper echelons of the Church – to the press, which immediately politicised them, allowing them to be used for the ideological end of getting one over on the Catholic hierarchy.

Thus did O'Brien find himself being subjected not only to anonymous accusations but also to a showtrial with a bigger agenda. We know the allegations have been cynically mashed together with recent paedophile scandals, with the Mirror showing Cardinal O'Brien next to "his friend" Jimmy Savile and the New York Times talking about O'Brien's behaviour in the same breath as the Catholic Church's "paedophilia and other forms of sexual abuse".

And so innuendo attaches itself to the allegations against O'Brien; he's effectively accused, not only of making foolish sexual advances, but of being one of Them: a perverted priest, a Catholic weirdo, an abuser of innocent souls.

In short, a man has been ousted from his job on the basis of anonymous claims that found their way into the press and were then blown out of proportion by people with an axe to grind. There is far more immorality in that than there was in O'Brien's original alleged behaviour.

In my view, Catholics have nothing to be ashamed of in this scandal; their cardinal erred 30 years ago – big deal. The people who should feel ashamed are us secularist democrats, who have allowed, or even partaken in, a fact-lite, innuendo-heavy assault on an individual and his reputation, which is unbecoming of civilised public discourse and better suited to the era of Inquisition.

Worst of all, we have allowed reporters to depict gay interaction between adult men as being akin to paedophilia and priestly abuse of children, which is really insulting to homosexuals.

I was not expecting AP to come out with this sort of article but it turns out to be a fair appreciation of Benedict XVI's personal virtues and even some of what he has achieved in eight years, but unfortunately, it remains persistent about trying to find fault with him over the sex-abuse issue...

Benedict's legacy:
A teacher who returned to Church roots
By NICOLE WINFIELD



This file photo, dated Sept. 6. 2006, was used by AP to illustrate the article.

VATICAN CITY, February 27 (AP) — On Monday, April 4, 2005 a humble priest walked up to the Renaissance palazzo housing the Vatican's doctrine department and asked the doorman to call to the official in charge: It was the first day of business after Pope John Paul II had died, and the cleric wanted to get back to work.

The office's No. 2, Archbishop Angelo Amato, answered the phone and was stunned: this was no ordinary priest asking permission to go upstairs. It was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his boss, who under the Vatican's arcane rules had technically lost his job when John Paul died.

"It tells me of the great humility of the man, the great sense of duty, but also the great awareness that we are here to do a job," said Bishop Charles Scicluna, who worked with Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI, inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In resigning, Scicluna said, Benedict is showing the same sense of humility and duty and service that he showed on that day after the Catholic Church lost the Polish Pope.

When Benedict flies off into his retirement by helicopter on Thursday, he will leave behind a church in crisis — one beset by sex scandal, internal divisions and dwindling numbers. [When has the Church not been 'in crisis' for the media? In my lifetime, they said the same thing when John Paul II died, during his 26-year reign, when he was elected Pope, when his predecessor Paul VI died, during Paul VI's 15-year Papacy, etc. etc. The question is - has the 'crisis' worsened under Benedict XVI at all? I don't think anyone can say that, if only because he went straight to the root of the 'crisis', which is not just of the Church, but of the world - the absence of God from the center of existence, in an increasingly secular and globalized world society which has no use for truth, for the natural law that makes man inherently know right from wrong, and for the fixed values based on that certainty, and no sense of transcendence.

But the Pope can count on a solid legacy: While his most significant act was to resign, Benedict — in his quiet and humble way — also set the Church back on a conservative, tradition-minded path. Benedict was guided by the firm conviction that many of the ills afflicting it today could be traced to a misreading of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

[And what a paradox that the Pope everyone was so ready to brand reactionary - one painted by the progressivists as literally hell-bent on 'restoring the Church of the Counter-Reformation' even if he has been the primary exponent of the authentic letter and spirit of Vatican II - has turned out to be so revolutionary as to defy the tradition that Popes must die with their red shoes on!

Because it is a tradition that is not sacrosanct, after all, but worst of all, it is impractical in today's world for any man who must also deal with the afflictions of age that come to every octogenarian. But Benedict XVIe had the courage and the humility to acknowledge that his diminishing strength has now made him unequal to his enormous responsibility.

Virtually no one saw this resignation coming - even if he had begun to hint at the possibility and desirability of papal resignation in the final years of John Paul II's life. Never suspecting, of course, that he was going to have to apply his theoretical considerations to himself, first of all!]

He insisted that the 1962-65 meetings that brought the Church into the modern world were not the radical break from the past as some liberals painted it but rather a continuation of the best traditions of the 2,000-year-old Church. [Thank you, Ms. Winfield, for getting that right!]

Benedict was the teacher Pope, a theology professor who turned his Wednesday general audiences into weekly master classes about the Catholic faith and the history, saints and sinners that contributed to it.

In his teachings he sought to boil Christianity down to its essential core. He didn't produce volumes of encyclicals like his predecessor, just three: on charity, hope and love. (He penned a fourth, on faith, but retired before finishing it.)

Considered by many to be the greatest living theologian today, he authored more than 65 books, stretching from the classic "Introduction to Christianity" in 1968 to the final installment of his triptych on "Jesus of Nazareth" last year — considered by some to be his most important contribution to the church. In between he produced the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" — essentially a how-to guide to being a Catholic.

Benedict spent the bulk of his early career in the classroom, as a student and then professor of dogmatic and fundamental theology at universities in Bonn, Muenster, Tuebingen and Regensburg, Germany.

"His classrooms were crowded," recalled the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a theology student of Ratzinger's at the University of Regensburg from 1972-74 and now the English-language publisher of his books. "I don't recall him having notes, but he would stand at the front of the class, and he wasn't looking at you, not with eye contact, but he was looking over you, almost meditating."

It's a style that he's kept for 40 years.

"If you hear him give a sermon, he's speaking not from notes, but you can write it down and print it," Fessio said. "Every comma is there. Every pause."

Benedict never wanted to be Pope and he didn't take easily to the rigors of the job. Elected April 19, 2005 after one of the shortest conclaves in history, Benedict was at 78 the oldest Pope elected in 275 years and the first German one in nearly a millennium.

At first he was stiff.

Giovanni Maria Vian, the editor of the pope's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, recalled that in the early days Benedict used to greet crowds with an awkward victory gesture "as if he were an athlete."

"At some point someone told him that wasn't a very papal gesture," Vian said. Benedict changed course, opting instead for an open-armed embrace or an almost effeminate twinkling of his fingers on an outstretched hand as a way of connecting with the crowd.

"No one is born a Pope," Vian said. "You have to learn to be a Pope." [And slowly Benedict learned.

[Ah, so the brilliant professor is a slow learner? Gimme a break. And Mr. Vian, stop it! For an exceptionally intelligent man, and someone who had lived firsthand with the affairs of the worldwide Church for 23 years, it wasn't a learning process 'to be Pope' for Benedict XVI, as it was simply settling into the job. And he seemed to have done that quickly.

Because by the time he went to Cologne in August 2005, four months after being elected, no one - not even the media - found him wanting in the role, Pastor of World Youth Day, that had been invented by John Paul II. In fact, he managed to innovate Adoration at the prayer vigil before the concluding Mass - as the world watched in awe something it had never seen before, a million young people, led by the 'new Pope'. in silent worship of the Eucharist.

He had earlier inspired that youthful crowd by saying the Eucharist produces a series of transformations in man that was like "inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being" so that love triumphs over hatred and over death.

By a simple act of liturgy, he put a stamp on WYD that made it indelibly 'his own' as much as it had been John Paul's, in a crescendo of new enthusiasm for the faith and spiritual devotion that progressed in Sydney and reached a Biblical climax in that nighttime torrent in Madrid. Even as he settled into the job, he was setting example by his own personal witness, teaching more than learning.]

Crowds accustomed to a quarter-century of superstar John Paul II, grew to embrace the soft-spoken, scholarly Benedict who had an uncanny knack of being able to absorb different points of view and pull them together in a perfect, coherent whole.

He traveled, though less extensively than John Paul and presided over Masses that were heavy on Latin, Gregorian chant and the silk brocaded vestments of his pre-Vatican II predecessors. [Surely far better than the Lurex technicolor dreamcoats that were sometimes inflicted on John Paul II by his liturgical MC!]

Benedict seemed genuinely surprised sometimes by the popular reception he would receive — and similarly surprised when things went wrong, as they did when he removed the excommunication of a bishop who turned out to be a Holocaust-denier.

For a theologian who for decades had worked toward theological reconciliation between Catholics and Jews, the outrage directed at Benedict was fierce and painful; he was let down by his aides who hadn't done the simple research to discover the true nature of the bishop.

[And what was so disastrous about that mistake, except in terms of 'PR', which seems to be the master criterion by which the media judge whatever Benedict has done, and political incorrectness (it offended the Jews and touched a raw nerve in all Caucasians/Aryans who feel a collective guilt about the Holocaust), though Williamson's private opinions, however bone-headed, had nothing to do at all with why he was excommunicated and why the excommunication was lifted!

Read the short list of the 'monumental blunders' that the media have constantly attributed to Benedict like a broken record - and each and everyone is not something wrong in itself, but 'PR fiascos', in the words of John Allen and his ilk. Arising from the failure of his subordinates to do simple fact=checking (Wielgus nomination and the Williamson case) and Benedict XVI's truth-telling that ignores the rules of political correctness (Regensburg, condoms and AIDS, condoms and moral responsibility, the beneficial effect of the Catholic faith on Latin America's pre-Colombian cultures). I may have missed one or two but they're probably even less memorable than the last-cited example (from a statement he made to the bishops of Latin America).

The 'sex abuse scandals' are in a category all their own, but equally a manipulated issue - in which the media have dwelt on sins that were committed over the decades before he became Pope, but which they chose to project wholesale onto Benedict for want of a scapegoat, even if he was the first in the Vatican to openly recognize the evil and denounce it - and to do something concrete about it as soon as he was given the authority to do so.]

Benedict was also burdened by what he called the "filth" of the Church: the sins and crimes of its priests.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Benedict saw first-hand the scope of sex abuse as early as the 1980s, when he tried unsuccessfully to convince the Vatican legal department to let him remove abusive priests quickly. [Now I am truly impressed. Is this AP, bringing up this fact that was hardly acknowledged by MSM when it was first brought to light in 2010?]

But it took him until 2001 to finally step in, ordering all abuse cases sent to his office for review. [Too bad Winfield immediately reverts to misinformation. 'It took him until 2001' because it was only in 2001 that he was given the authority to do so! And only because the 'scandal' had erupted to epic proportions with the Boston cases, forcing John Paul II to finally acknowledge that perverted priests and their bishop protectors are a terrible internal scourge that had infested the core of the Church.]

Scicluna, who was Ratzinger's sex crimes prosecutor from 2002-2012, said Ratzinger did undergo a steep learning curve, but that he immediately grasped that men who would sexually assault children were not worthy of the priesthood.

"We used to discuss the cases on Fridays; he used to call it the Friday penance," Scicluna recalled.

But to this day, Benedict hasn't sanctioned a single bishop for covering up abuse.

[Another misleading statement, because he has exerted such sanctions by constraining erring bishops to resign. Last June, Sandro Magister wrote an article about the dozens of bishops who were constrained to resign under Benedict XVI,
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350268?eng=y
in which he names four who did so because they covered up abuses by their priests - "the Irish bishop of Limerick in 2009, an auxiliary of Dublin in 2010, and the ordinary of Maitland-Newcastle, Australia in 2011."

Why did Benedict XVI not sanction Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia and Mahony of Los Angeles? This is a touchy subject. I could only conjecture that he felt himself held 'in estoppel', as it were, from sanctioning these two cardinals, after John Paul II had seemed to reward Cardinal Law with an important position in Rome after he retired. Not that Benedict XVI would have rewarded them in any way, but perhaps the fact that the misconduct by Rigali and Mahony' - both of them made cardinal by John Paul II, as Law was - came to light only when Rigali was on the verge of retiring anyway and after Mahoney had retired, whereas Law was on the job when he was forced to retire, may also be a factor in why no further sanctions have been imposed on them.]

"Unfortunately, Pope Benedict's legacy in the abuse crisis is one of mistaken emphases, missed opportunities, and gestures at the margin, rather than changes at the center," said Terrence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, an online resource of abuse documentation. [Crap! The changes have been done at the center - when John Paul II gave the responsibility to the CDF in 2001. It's the dioceses that have lagged falling into line. Delinquent dioceses and bishops are the inexorable centrifugal forces that tear at the Church, no matter how strong the center is.]

He praised Benedict for meeting with victims, and acknowledged the strides the Vatican has made under his leadership. But he said Benedict ignored the problem for too long, "prioritizing concerns about dissent over the massive evidence of abuse that was pouring into his office." [That is so wrong - and Winfield had the duty to point out where it is wrong. He acted as soon as he had the authority to do it.]

"He acted as no other Pope has done when pressed or forced, but his papacy has been reactive on this central issue," McKiernan said in an email. [He was not pressed or forced as Pope because he had already begun the housecleaning four years before he became Pope. And the Vatican can only be 'reactive' on these issues because someone has to present a charge before the CDF can do anything about it. It's not the task of the Vatican to police the bishops and their priests because each local Church is autonomous and is supposed to do that for itself.]

Benedict also gets poor grades from liberal Catholics who felt abandoned by a pope who seemed to roll back the clock on the modernizing reforms of Vatican II and launched a crackdown on Vatican nuns, deemed to have strayed too far from his doctrinal orthodoxy. {It's a badge of honor for a Pope - who is the primary defender of the faith - to get 'poor grades' from liberal Catholics, i.e., Catholics in name only. It's not for him to adapt the faith to their convenience!]

Some priests are now living in open rebellion with church teaching, calling for a rethink on everything from homosexuality to women's ordination to priestly celibacy. ['Now in open rebellion'? These priests and all other assorted dissenters from Catholic orthodoxy, who expect the Church to follow their way, instead of them following the discipline of the faith, have been in open rebellion since 1965, as if Vatican II had given them an 'open sesame' to contest the faith. Their rebellion didn't start because Benedict became Pope!]

"As Roman Catholics worldwide prepare for the conclave, we are reminded that the current system remains an 'old boys club' and does not allow for women's voices to participate in the decision of the next leader of our church," said Erin Saiz Hanna, head of the Women's Ordination Conference, a group that ordains women in defiance of church teaching. [Go found your own 'church', you women who think you are 'we-men'! Stop trying to impose your weirdness on the Church.]

The group plans to raise pink smoke during the conclave "as a prayerful reminder of the voices of the church that go unheard."

But Benedict won't be around at the Vatican to see it. His work is done. "Mission accomplished," Vian said.

And as the Pope himself told 150,000 people Wednesday in his final speech as Pope: "To love the Church is to have the courage to make difficult, painful choices, always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not oneself." [Thank you anyway, Ms. Winfield, for ending this contentious piece on a positive note that underscores the real message of Benedict XVI's renunciation...

In Winfield's insistence on finding something to blame Benedict XVI for in the sex-abuse issue, I see that AP continues to pursue its malevolent campaign in 2010 to seek to discredit him with any and all decades-old cases that were in any way associated with him - AP came up with three or four, I believe: the Hullermann story in Munich and three in the United States, but even with the parallel efforts of such as the New York Times and Der Spiegel, nothing substantial came of any of it. ]

A loving hymn to Benedict XVI from Paul Badde... I originally translated the quotation he used - "Too pure, too innocent, too holy" - from an Italian carabinieri who exclaimed it as Benedict XVI passed by in his Popemobile, as Badde had translated it in German, with the adverb 'too' (zu) for the Italian troppo, which can mean 'too' or 'very' or 'so' (to imply measure), but in the context in which it was used, I think the right adverb is "so'...

Benedict XVI's last General Audience:
'So pure, so innocent, so holy'
by Paul Badde
Translated from

February 27, 2013



The 348th General Audience of Benedict XVI was his last, and not everything was as before. More than five million people have come to these General Audiences in the past eight years in St. Peter's Square or in the Aula Paolo VI.

Today, it seemed as if another million had travelled here to stand head to head at his last public event to bid farewell to him. Only at his funeral [God keep him many more years!] will we see him once more in public... But at this General Audience, death was quite remote.

The Piazza vibrated with life. People crowded forward from all the side streets. Flags and banners from all the continents fluttered over the crowd. The universal Church was taking leave of her Pope although he had not died. A helicopter whirred overhead in a cloudless sky. Low-flying gulls cast shadows on the marble facades in St. Peter's Square.

It was a popular feast of faith on this bright and early spring day in February. It did not need much imagination to evoke the voice of Cardinal Ratzinger saying in this same square, at the funeral Mass for his predecessor on April 8, 2005: "Now John Paul II is standing at the window of the Father's house looking down and blessing us".

Eleven days later, on April 19, 2005, Joseph Ratzinger himself became Pope, and once more, five days later, he said in this Square at the Mass that began his Petrine ministry: "Yes, the Church is alive - that is the wonderful experience of these days. The Church is alive. And she is young. She carries the future of the world in her and shows every person the way to the future".

Now, as that ministry ends, he takes up the same theme spontaneously and proclaims to the crowd that had come to bid farewell to him, "See how the Church is alive!"

Rome seemed full as at the canonization of Padre Pio. Beyond St. Peter's Square, the faithful filled the width of the Via della Conciliazione to the Tiber, as overhead TV cameras showed on the giant TV screens, which magnified for them the serene face of their little Pope.

The Italians in particularly paid homage one last time to this man who had become for many of them their 'Papa angelicus'. He is the 'Pope of love', said a fisherman from Ladispoli, and a few meters away, a greying commandant of the Carabinieri wiped tears from his eyes, as he watched the slightly stooped old man in white pass through the passages among the crowd - his left hand firmly gripping a support rail, his right hand raised to bless them.

"Troppo puro, troppo innocente, troppo santo" (Too pure, too innocent, too holy), the old policeman cried out.

Anticipating the passage of the Popemobile, people in the sectors stood on their chairs - men and women, young and old, priests and laymen, the faithful from all continents. It was an overwhelming jubilation that they had reserved for the Pope.

A young Italian woman told me, "I learned to love the Germans because of the Pope".

The trip around the Square and back to the steps of St. Peter's took almost half an hour until Pope Benedict XVI began the audience by intoning the Sign of the Cross in Latin.

On this day, his spirit reaches out to embrace the whole Church, he said. Once more he had chosen a Gospel passage - from the letter of St. Paul to the Colossians - to set the theme of the day, and one last time, he was Peter, his predecessor from Galilee.

He knew, he said, that the boat which he had steered, was not his but the Lord's. And so it is with the Church, which does not belong to the Pope or to the people but to God alone. "The Church is his boat" and Christ is always on board.

Today he uses the Gospel text to lead into a singular expression of gratitude to God, to his co-workers, to the cardinals, to the ambassadors who represented here the peoples of the earth, and finally, to the whole Church, whose strength is "the word of Truth in the Gospel".

And he thanks everyone once more for accepting and respecting his difficult decision, and assured them that just as eight years ago, he had given up his private life totally for his last service to the Church as the Successor of Peter, so now, he was not returning to private life as he now dedicates himself to prayer for the Church.

And one last time, he delivers greetings in various languages, even in Arabic, and of course, in Polish (that he had learned in his old age in order to be able to speak directly to his predecessor's countrymen). He thanked a brass band from Traunstein for playing a Bavarian hymn.

"It is beautiful to be Christian!" he said.

Then, he arose and led the 'Our Father' in Latin as he always does at the end of the audiences. A small man in white, with folded hands and a quiver in his voice. The image will live on.



Fr. Lombardi gave a news briefing yesterday that I have not seen reported in the Anglophone reports I've gone through. Not even on the English service of Vatican Radio itself. Yet it's part of the penultimate day of a Pontificate that is already historic in many more ways than just the first voluntary renunciation of the Papacy.

'A wonderful day - Benedict serene,
having made his decision before God'
Translated from the Italian service of

February 27, 2013

"An atmosphere of great emotion and serenity - and the Pope had the most beautiful look," Fr. Federico Lombardi said during a briefing in early afternoon at the Vatican Press Room.

After the General Audience in St. Peter's Square, he said, Benedict XVI met at the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace with a few dignitaries who had come to bid him farewell.

They included the President of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic; the minister president of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer; the mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno; and the captains regent of the Republic of San Marino, Teodoro Lonferini and Denis Brunzetti.

Fr. Lombardi said it had been 'a wonderful day', and he called the sunny day 'a great gift' to mark Benedict XVI's last general audience.

"I do not know if you noticed, through the TV monitors, the final shots of the audience by CTV which showed the Pope with a most beautiful look on his face, extremely serene and smiling".

He said the same serenity marked the small reception (baciamano) that followed at the Sala Clementina: "The serenity of having done the good work and of having taken his decision before God and in total agreement with God's will for him".

Fr. Lombardi also wanted to highlight certain passages of the Pope's farewell catechesis, especially that about faith as "the only true vision for the way of the Church and the world", and his words on the work of God, in a reference to St. Benedict's 'ora et lavora' principle (pray and work).

"The work of God - opus Dei - is that which (Benedict XVI) has sought to do and will continue to do. A life which, whether active or passive, is devoted totally to the work of God. And so his work is to serve the work of God".

Tomorrow morning, cardinals already in Rome will meet the Pope at the Sala Clementina after a greeting by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.

At 5 p.m., Benedict XVI leaves the Vatican for the last time as Pope to go to Castel Gandolfo where he will spend the next two months until he can return to the Vatican monastery where he will live "hidden from the world".

In Castel Gandolfo, he will greet the townspeople a last time as Pope from the balcony of the Apostolic Palace that overlooks the city square. [Also the last words the public will hear from him as Pope.] Less than three hours later, he will no longer be Pope, and the sede vacante begins.

Fr. Lombardi, answering assorted questions, said the chimney for the stove on which the Conclave ballots will be burned has not yet been installed in the Sistine Chapel.

About the date for the Conclave, he said: "On March 1 (Friday), the Dean of Cardinals will convoke the general congregations of the cardinals. Very likely then, this first meeting itself will take place on Monday, March 4. The cardinals will set the date for when the Conclave begins. So we will not know until some time next week."

Teresita, dentro de tres horas,o sea, a las 16, voy a la Plaza de San Pedro, para pasar la ultima hora con el Papa y, si es posible, ver el elicoptero sobrevolar el Vaticano.
Dios me ayude a soportar el dolor...



Dearest Gloria - Thanks for the e-mail earlier. So happy you could be there for the GA yesterday and that you met with benevolens and benedetto-fan and shared the tears as you watched him leave St. Peter's Square on the Popemobile for the last time... I hope the helicopter taking him to Castel Gandolfo flies over St. Peter's Square as it leaves...

Here is the sign that Gloria took with her to the GA:


The other news for Forum followers - not really news, because it can't be otherwise - is that, of course, the Forum continues... He will always be Benedict XVI, and HE IS ALIVE!!!!... There's more than enough existing material about him to work on for two lifetimes...

MILLE GRAZIE, GLORIA... Es dificil hablar (cuanto menos escribir) de las emociones que me asalgan como a todos nosotros... Bendita tu que estas en Roma para despedirlo...

TERESA

WITH OVERFLOWING GRATITUDE FOR

SEVEN YEARS, TEN MONTHS AND NINE DAYS

OF A GREAT, HISTORIC AND BLESSED PONTIFICATE...

AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER/JOSEPH RATZINGER -

ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI.

Our love and prayers will always be with you.

Thursday, February 28, Second Week of Lent

Panel shows the African Memorial Cathedral of Dakar, Senegal.
BLESSED DANIEL BROTTIER (France, 1876-1936), Spiritan Priest, Missionary, Wartime Chaplain, Worker of Charity
Daniel was ordained a diocesan priest in 1899 and started out as a teacher, but four years later, he joined the Congregation
of the Holy Spirit (CSSp) in order to serve as a missionary in Africa. He served in Senegal for eight years but had to return
to France due to poor health. However, he started to raise funds to build a cathedral for Dakar to honor Africans who had died
for France. [In fact, the cathedral was inaugurated just four weeks before he died in 1936, but he was too sick to attend]. In
1914, he volunteered to be a chaplain on the battlefronts, where he served the wounded and the dying for 52 months. He would
attribute his survival to St. Therese of Lisieux, in whose honor he built a chapel in Auteuil, the Paris suburb where he spent
the last 10 years of his life, which he dedicated to a foundation for orphans and abandoned children which continues flourish
today. Less than 50 years after his death, Fr. Brottier was beatified by John Paul II in Paris in 1984.
Reading for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022813.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

At 11:00 a.m., the Holy Father met with cardinals present in Rome, and pledged unconditional reverence
and obedience to his successor whom they will elect in the nexttwo weeks.

At 5 p.m., Benedict XVI leaves the Vatican for the last time as Pope, flying by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo.
Upon his arrival, he is expected to address the residents of Castel Gandolfo from the balcony of the Apostolic
Palace that overlooks the town square - the last time we shall hear him speak in public, and very likely,
the last image we will see of him in a long time.
[Greg Burke indicated that if Benedict XVI meets with the next Pope, it will be unannounced, and
he is not sure if photos will be released.]


2:13 P.M. in New York City
8:13 P.M. in Castel Gandolfo

Our beloved Benedict stopped being Pope 13 minutes ago.


I will return to posting later. l am sorry I have not been capable of doing justice to the historicity of the occasion. I will try to make up for it some way in the days to come....

PLACE-SETTER 2/28/13

B16 MEETS CARDINALS

PLACE-SETTER 2/28/13

B16 TO CASTELGANDOLFO

PLACE SETTER 2/28/13

B16 PONTIFICATE ENDS

Sorry, I have not had time to change my banners to reflect the epochal change... I thought before anything else, looking to making up for my utter inability to cope yesterday, this has to be the first news of the day on the first day the Pope-emeritus era. Frankly I was not expecting any news at all...

Emeritus Pope slept well -
watched TV last night,
said Mass this morning


VATICAN CITY, March 1 (Translated from ANSA) - "I had a nice telephone chat with do Georg (Gaenswein) this morning - he was very relaxed, he said that the Holy Father slept well last night, as did he", Fr. Federico Lombardi told newsmen at his briefing today. [Fr. Lombardi still refers to Benedict XVI as 'Santo Padre', out of habit, I suppose].

He said Benedict XVI's first full day as emeritus Pope started with saying 7 a.m. Mass as usual, then he prayed Lauds (morning prayers if the Daily Office observed by priests) and had breakfast.

The rest of the day will be spent in meditation and prayer, but he will also review messages he has received. In the afternoon, he will most likely take his afternoon walk in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo, praying the rosary with Mons. Gaenswein following their usual habit.

Last night, Mons. Gaenswein told Fr. Lombardi, the emeritus Pope watched TV news of the day's events and "he appreciated the presentations.

Fr, Lombardi also said that Benedict XVI brought various books with him to Castel Gandolfo on theology, history, etc, including one on Hans Urs von Balthasar's theological aesthetics.

The cardinals gathering in Rome for the conclave will hold their first two general congregations on Monday morning and afternoon.

But Fr. Lombardi said, "Don't expect them to come up with a date for the Conclave that day".

Vatican Radio had this account of the conversation with Mons. Gaenswein, as given in English by Fr. Thomas Sorica who is helping out Fr. Lombardi during the sede vacante and the initial days of the next Pontificate:

“We spoke with [Archbishop] Georg Ganswein this morning,” he said, “and he told us that [the Pope emeritus] had a very good night’s sleep.”

Fr. Rosica went on to explain that the Pope – who has been playing the piano in the evenings of late, and is expected to return to continue that pastime in his retirement – on Thursday evening rather viewed two Italian newscasts on television.

Fr. Rosica also relayed that, in the evening, after supper and time at prayer, Benedict read some of the many messages that have come to him from well-wishers.

Friday began with Mass at 7 AM, and was expected to involve quiet time, as well as a walk on the grounds of the retreat around 4 PM, during which the Pope was expected to recite his Rosary.

Fr. Rosica also spoke of the reading material that Benedict has brought with him – including works ranging across the fields of theology, spirituality and history.

Also announced during the press briefing was news that the Vatican Post Office already has the stamps on sale to mark the sede vacante period, however, have yet to be minted and will likely not be ready until May. [By which time they should be minting coins for the next Pope!]