BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

April 24, 2005 Inaugurating the Petrine Ministry of Benedict XVI

BELOVED BENEDICT,


TO US YOU WILL EVER BE


HOLY FATHER, HOLINESS -


PADRE SANTO, SANTITA

When Benedict XVI paid tribute - twice -
to Celestine V, the Pope of the 'great refusal'

Dante referred to Celestine V in the Divine Comedy as 'il Papa del gran rifiuto', referring to his abdication just five months after the Benedictine hermit was elected Pope in absentia at age 84 (or 79, depending on the date of birth used), arriving to a papal court rife with intrigue and of whom he refused to be a tool. He penned the decree about a Pope's resignation and five months later, acted on it. He was imprisoned by his successor and died two years later. Italian blogsites and media are now using the term 'il Papa del gran rifiuto' for Benedict XVI, many of them negatively.

I posted a biography of Celestine V on Page 116 of this Forum in July 2010
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=85272...
to mark the visit of Benedict XVI to Sulmona, which has jurisdiction over the site of Celestine's hermitage in the hill overlooking the city. It is worth revisiting the page for the visit itself, and Benedict's homily and remarks to the young people of Sulmona.

There are those who now wonder whether Benedict XVI was already signalling his thoughts about papal resignation (thoughts that he woiuld articulate in July 2010 when he gave Peter Seewald the interview that became Light of the World) when, on April 28, 2009, on a visit to earthquake victims in the L'Aquila region, he visited the Basilica of Collemaggio which caved in but spared the glass coffin containing the remains of Celestine V. On that visit, Benedict XVI left the pallium with which he had been invested at his inaugural Mass as Pope on his predecessor's coffin.

He then declared August 2009-August 2010 as the Celestinian Jubilee Year to mark the 900th anniversary of the hermit Pope's death.

And in July 2010, he visited Sulmona to mark that anniversary, with the pallium-draped coffin of Celestine sharing the altar on which Benedict XVI said Mass.



In his moving homily that day, he quoted from St. Paul - "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6,14) - saying the line was a perfect spiritual portrait of Celestine V. Perhaps as well, the spiritual motto for Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as he embarks on a new phase of his amazing and truly exceptional life. A Pope who is not just 'one in a century' but already, one for the ages. And God willing, ultimately, Doctor of the Church.

And I reiterate my first prayer and wish after learning the news yesterday, because I believe that 'priest' best describes JR-B16, perhaps even in his own mind:

AD MULTOS ANNOS,


JOSEPH RATZINGER,


PRIEST AND


SERVANT OF GOD