He February 28th In 2013, Pope Benedict XVI resigned from directing the destiny of 1,200 million Catholics in the world because “he did not have the strength, neither mental nor physical” to continue doing so.
So, Joseph Ratzingerthe Pope who ruled the Vatican State for only eight months, seemed to choose the shadow for the rest of his life.
However, the first Supreme Pontiff to renounce the Throne of Peter in six centuries of Catholicism would not live “hidden from the world” in an old convent, as he had promised, so as not to dull the brilliance of Jorge Bergoglio.
On the contrary, his life of contemplation and academic research was shaken several times by the avalanche of thorny issues that came to light and involved him, even though it seems that he might not speak or write easily.
Pedophilia and the sexual abuse of the priests of the Catholic Church, their opposition to the consecration of married priests and celibacy were just some of the hot topics that marked two opposite views, two opposing Churches: the conservative of Benedict and the renewal that Francis embodied.
Resignation of Benedict XVI
The German Joseph Ratzinger continued to be called “Roman Pope Emeritus Pontiff Benedict XVI”, continued to live in the Vatican and continued to wear the white papal cassock, while the press spoke of a “era of two Popes”a glove that Netflix even picked up to fictionalize the subject on the television screen in streaming.
The French agency AFP published at the time: “It is likely that some prelates opposed to Francis have tried to hide a plot under the cloak of the pope emeritus,” a comment by Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University.
But all for God and for our neighbor, the Pope Francis always temporizedvisited him, shook his hand and smiled at him many times, despite their rivalries.
Pope Benedict XVI
When he was Joseph Ratzinger, the German had 20 years to become immersed in Vatican intrigue, when he served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). He even had his papal “preview” when he exercised the interregnum of 16 days between the death of John Paul II, on April 2, 2005, and the opening of the Conclave of April 18, to elect the successor of the deceased Supreme Pontiff.
Despite his heavy hand, Ratzinger himself had warned the cardinals that he I had no dough to govern, but the papal court did not listen to him.
And things were as they happened. Benedict XVI passed away on December 31, 2022.
Finally he resigned and his case made us think that there was a dark area in terms of retired, resigned or retired pontiffs: where should they live, what to wear, would their papal insignia last for life?
Just in case, Pope Francis was farsighted, revealing in December 2022 that he signed a letter of resignation nearly a decade ago in case his ill health prevents him one day from continuing to perform his duties.
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