Rome – Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign on Feb. 28 because he was simply too infirm to carry on – the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
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The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.
He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope – the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide – requires “both strength of mind and body.”
The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.
Benedict called his choice “a decision of great importance for the life of the church.”
The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn’t have to be observed.
There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner – the same situation when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.
When Benedict was elected pope at age 78 – already the oldest pope elected in nearly 300 years – he had been already planning to retire as the Vatican’s chief orthodoxy watchdog to spend his final years writing in the “peace and quiet” of his native Bavaria.
Contenders to be his successor include Cardinal Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna, and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Canadian head of the Vatican’s office for bishops.
Longshots include Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. Although Dolan is popular and backs the pope’s conservative line, the general thinking is that the Catholic Church doesn’t need a pope from a “superpower.”
All cardinals under age 80 are allowed to vote in the conclave, the secret meeting held in the Sistine Chapel where cardinals cast ballots to elect a new pope. As per tradition, the ballots are burned after each voting round; black smoke that snakes out of the chimney means no pope has been chosen, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.
Popes are allowed to resign; church law specifies only that the resignation be “freely made and properly manifested.”
Only a handful have done so, however and there’s good reason why it hasn’t become commonplace: Might the existence of two popes – even when one has stepped down – lead to divisions and instability in the church? Might a new resignation precedent lead to pressures on future popes to quit at the slightest hint of infirmity?
Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue on in 2010, when he was interviewed for the book “Light of the World.”
“If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign,” Benedict said.
When politicians step down they often say it’s because they want to spend more time with their family. I guess that wouldn’t work here?
They just dont make them like they used to….(sic)
Lehavdil Bein Elef Alfei Havdolos, it would be the right thing that our gedolim and rebbes should resign from leadership once they’re incapable of fulfilling those functions.
The way it works now, the godol hador can be someone suffering of altzheimers or being in a coumo.
This is the reason why there’s such a lack of respect towards our leadership.
“Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.”
This would of course, be the same Ratzinger who, in the 90’s protected the גלח Lawrence Murphy, a molester of hundreds of boys in a school for the deaf in Wisconsin, among many other pedophile גלחים whom he enabled. Someone over there in Rome (or wherever) finally realized that in an age where the Catholic Church is being litigated against in almost every country, this particular אפיפיור, stained and tainted with pedophile enabling, is the wrong poster boy for the Church. Good riddance!
I hope he returns all stolen things from the jewish temple before he resigns.
Sounds like the right decision for himself and his church.
He is 85 years old. That is reason enough. Are we making bets on the next pope?
who cares/ he is the Avi Avos HaTumah one should not look at him not even at a picture of him
Maybe the pressure from all the church scandals was gtoo much?
When the Rov of my shul retired there was no news story in the Christian Science Monitor. So when the pope retires why do we care?
Who cares? Since when have Catholics been good to the Jews? On the bright side….the next one might be that Jewish Cardinal. Such nachas.
Personally, I think its a good example that old age is not a time to be running around and performing “miracles” for the clan to be seen in your lifetime. If you are elderly and want to enjoy your aging years, have the dignity to know when to lay it down and keep your own privacy. I would.
I’ll miss the Nazi raised Pope who has recently issued some iffy rulings in relationship to the Jews. Perhaps it has become too difficult to stand in those Dorthy Red Slippers.
Timothy Dolan would be the best Pope for us I mean. He can be made to understand the importance of our rabbis being admitted to the catacoumbs of the Vatican to study our ancient texts and the holy artifacts of the Bet Hamidosh. (please excuse my spelling)
Do you think any member of the Moietzes Gedoley Hatorah will take the Pope’s move as an inspiration and resign out of old age???
In relation to Torah, this is a very interesting event. It would appear that the world of the Papacy which aligns the church of the catholic faith under a solid auspice of its own ‘justice’ may have succumbed to the human condition. I wonder if this may mean that many more changes will take place in a religion of somewhat indifferent people on the token of human suffering in the modern era.