Fr. Lombardi's
briefing today
Translated from the Italian service of
February 12, 2013
In a news briefing today, Fr. Federico Lombardi reiterated that Pope Benedict is well and very calm, and did not resign because of illness, but only due to general physical deterioration due to his age.
He also confirmed that the Pope recently underwent a 'routine intervention' to replace the battery on his pacemaker, but he said that had no bearing on the decision at all. (An Italian newspaper reported the Pope had 'undergone heart surgery' three months ago.
[I wasn't even aware he was wearing a pacemaker. It was never mentioned even at the time his brother was fitted with one at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, unless he got his later. The English service of Vatican Radio has since published its report on the Lombardi briefing and says that the Pope has had a pacemaker for more than 10 years now..]
Fr. Lombardi confirmed the papal calendar till February 28, Benedict XVI's last day as Pope, which includes in the next two weeks, meetings with Italian bishops on ad limina visit, meetings with the presidents of Romania and Guatemala, and his last Angelus and General Audience.
The last GA, on February 27, will be held in St. Peter's Square because a large influx of pilgrims is expected.
There will be no encyclical on faith. [I hope this is merely reported wrong![
He said to pay attention to what the Pope will be saying in the next few days, starting with the GA tomorrow, as well as at the Ash Wednesday homily in St. Peter's.
He confirmed what was stated in today's issue of
L'Osservatore Romano that the Pope's exhaustion after the trip to Cuba and Mexico in March last year was a definitive step in reaching his decision to resign but was not yet final at that time.
He said the presence of the emeritus Pope in Rome should be no problem for his successor. "We all know that Pope Benedict is a person of extreme discretion and propriety. He is not a person one would expect to interfere in any way or cause the least uneasiness for his successor. The problem does not exist even if this is a completely new situation. Rather, his successor will be sustained by the prayers, love and moral support of someone who knows exactly what his job entails."
He did not provide any information about how the emeritus Pope will be addressed or how he will dress once he is back to private life.
He reiterated that the Conclave must begin between 15 to 20 days from the commencement of the ‘Sede vacante’ or Vacant See, (March 1st) and that it is not the Pope who convokes the Cardinals to Rome.
The Vatican’s Office for Protocol, Lombardi revealed, is already studying the constitution and norms governing the Papacy to clarify the state and situation of Benedict XVI once he resigns. What title he will be given, his role within the Church and even the fate of the fisherman’s ring and papal seal. “It’s unchartered territory for us all”, he said.
Fr. Lombardi said that 8 pm Friday was set as the moment of vacating the office simply because Benedict XVI's normal working day ends at 8 p.m. He says his last day as Pope will be like any ordinary day.
Fr. Lombardi thanked the newsmen for their work, and for the respectful and thoughtful comments that appreciated the courage and humility of the Pope's decision, his sense of responsibility, the lucidity of his historic decision, and a sense of understanding of how Benedict XVI is experiencing a decision made before God - the reason, he says, the Pope has been quite serene.
He also said that Cardinal Stanislaw Dsiwisz had not meant to make an unfavorable comparison between John Paul II and Benedict XVI, when he was quoted as saying, "John Paul stayed to the very end, because one does not come down from the Cross".
He provided copies of the full statement made by the Archbishop of Cracow who expressed his love and esteem for Papa Ratzinger.
[I am still looking for the text of the statement.]
I might just note that John Paul's cross was imposed by nature, not by malevolent legions as Benedict's is.
Reading about the practical implications on sundry 'details' resulting from the Pope's resignation, two struck me to the heart this morning: The first is that after 8 pm on February 28, he will no longer be prayed for as required in the canon of the Mass = so he needs our prayers more than ever. (And hope that every priest who says Mass silently adds a prayer for him, anyway). The other is that all symbols of his Pontificate used in the daily work routine and liturgy will be taken out or replaced, starting with the Ring of the Fisherman, which is usually smashed to pieces with a hammer in the case of dead Popes.
P.S.
That line about the encyclical was not wrong.
Here is what Fr. Lombardi said about it:
"The encyclical will not be published by the end of the month - it is not in a state ready for publication. It will remain an awaited document, but we do not know what form it will take". [Obviously no longer a papal document, much less an encyclical, but who cares? Perhaps we will see it before the Year of Faith ends.]
PPS -
It turns out John Allen happens to be in Rome at this time, so he was at the Lombardi briefing described above. On his blog today,
ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/qa-benedicts-bombshell
lengthy and gossipy as usual, but he does not add any new data. He does raise all the basic questions about what an ex-Pope will do, etc, that no one is able to answer for now, because there is no precedent for it in modern times, nor for its highly unusual circumstances.
As Fr. Lombardi suggested, we must be attentive to what Benedict XVI himself is able to tell us, in the few occasions left for him to address the faithful. Peter Seewald told the Corriere della Sera that at the time he interviewed the Pope in 2010, he gathered that he had already thought at length about the question of a papal resignation. Which makes sense, as Cardinal Ratzinger must have had at least 3 years to reflect on it and to research it if he could, during the final stages of John Paul II's illness.
One must note that none of the major Vaticanistas - not even Allen or Sandro Magister - has yet published a commentary or analysis on this historic event. And I am thankful to them for that. Because instant judgments will not serve anyone at this point. Those who have declared themselves - and I am limiting myself to the positive declarations I have read (I have not sought out the negative, and have thankfully not stumbled on any, yet) - have not pretended to an exhaustive presentation but more like a reaffirmation of what they had always thought to be the virtues of Benedict XVI and his Pontificate.
Perhaps even more obvious is the 'silence' so far from two major Italian commentators (Antonio Socci in September 2010 and Giuliano Ferrara at the height of the Vatileaks furor last year) who separately advocated, on different occasions and for different reasons, that Benedict XVI should resign - a suggestion that many, including myself, found ridiculous. In my case, primarily because I did not even want to envision the possibility. I'm with Jeff Miller who says he would much rather not have to watch for white smoke from the Sistine Chapel until at least a decade from now.
PPPS -Almost ignored by all the other reports I have seen so far on Fr. Lombardi's briefing today is this news reported by Reuters - minor in comparison to the resignation, certainly but nonetheless, one of those annoying harassments by the Italian banking system on the Vatican:
Banking-card payments allowed
once more at the Vatican
VATICAN CITY, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The Vatican has reached an agreement allowing the resumption of debit and credit card payments which Italian banking authorities had blocked within the tiny city state, the Vatican spokesman said on Tuesday.
"Credit card payments in the Vatican city state are once more activated," Father Federico Lombardi told a news briefing.
He said Swiss group Aduno will be responsible for managing the electronic payment services, which are used by millions of tourists and pilgrims visiting museums and shops within the Vatican. [The EPS had been under the management of Deutsche Bank when the block was imposed.]
Italian regulators blocked the use of debit and credit cards last month over concerns about a lack of transparency.
[The Italian central bank being holier-than-Moneyval about this!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/02/2013 21:13]