Off the top of my head....
There must be a compelling reason why the Pope would not have waited till April to complete eight years in the Pontiicate.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who is also the Papal Chamberlain, must now arrange for the next Conclave, expected to take place by mid-March.
I just heard Greg Burke telling Fox News that ex-Pope Benedict XVI will continue to live within the Vatican grounds - apparently the convent occupied by resident contemplative nuns is being renovated for the purpose. I had thought he would be going back to Germany to be with his brother.
He indicates that the Pope's decision has been known to his brother and Georg Gaenswein for 'a couple of months'. (I thought last December that his decision to make GG an archbishop was a way to prepare and 'protect' the latter for the future.)
How will the media cover an ex-Pope? He obviously will not be seeking media attention at all, but he will have to make a statement when his successor is elected. Would he even attend the inaugural Mass of his successor?
We would all be enriched if he could continue with his weekly catecheses and Angelus reflections in some other form after his retirement, but obviously, he cannot do anything that can be seen in any way as 'competing' with the next Pope. Would he even feel it right to continue publishing books even if he could?
He will be back to being Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - but how does an emeritus Pope fit into the College of Cardinals? By age and seniority, he should be Dean again - but that is up to the seven suburbicarian bishops to do (they elect who is Dean). But being modest, he will most likely choose to remain just one among the dozens of octogenarian cardinals that the Church now has.
Newsrooms around the world are now dusting off the obituary biographies they all have ready for any prominent personality and revising the biography accordingly.
The inevitable consequence is that 'judgments' will now fly fast and furious among the chatterati and pundits about the Benedettian Pontificate. An exercise they will indulge in within the next few weeks alongside their heated speculation on who will be his successor.
I hope, unrealistically, that the
papabile speculation will be less outrageous than it has been in the years and final weeks that preceded the 2005 Conclave.
...There are two important reports I must now translate: Cardinal Sodano's words to the Pope at the consistory today after the Pope's annoucement, and the statements made by Fr. Lombardi at his news priefing...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/02/2013 14:08]