Pope Francis makes changes to the Vatican’s Chapter of St. Peter

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 2, 2023 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On Feb. 11, 2013, before a gathering of cardinals who had come to the Vatican expecting to hear the announcement of upcoming canonizations, Pope Benedict XVI dropped a bombshell.

After a few announcements about Church business at the conclusion of the meeting, the pope took out two sheets of paper and read a prepared statement in Latin.

“I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the then 85-year-old pontiff told the gathering of the Catholic Church’s highest-ranking clergymen.

Because he spoke in Latin, the language used for official Vatican proclamations, reporters present did not at first realize that the pope had just stepped down.

‘Total surprise, total shock’

The assembled cardinals, on the other hand, who knew their Latin, reacted with stunned silence.

American Cardinal James Stafford later told CNA that the pope’s statement was received with “total surprise, total shock.”

“A cardinal who was sitting next to me said, ‘Did he resign?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s what he did. He resigned.’ And we just all stood at our places.”

Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze, who was present that morning, said the announcement was a “surprise, like thunder that gives no notice that it’s coming,” reported The Catholic Telegraph.

In renouncing the papacy, Benedict became only the second pope in almost 600 years to voluntarily step down. In 1294, Pietro da Morrone, an elderly hermit, was crowned Pope Celestine V, but finding the demands of the job too much for him, he resigned after only five months.

In 1415, Pope Gregory XII also resigned, but under very different circumstances — he stepped down in order to end a crisis within the Church known as the Great Western Schism.

Title, white clothes, and papal coat of arms

What happened next with Benedict XVI was no less surprising to those who expected him to live as a retired cardinal.

In his last official statement as pope, before a general audience on Feb. 27, 2013, Pope Benedict assured the tens of thousands of people gathered to hear him speak as pope for the last time that even though he was stepping back from official duties, he would remain, in essence, pope.

“The ‘always’ is also a ‘forever’ — there can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to resign the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this,” Benedict said.

“I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord,” he told the crowd.

A day earlier, on Feb. 26, 2013, the director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, had silenced speculation over what Benedict would be called and what he would wear. He would, Lombardi said, retain the trappings of the papacy — most significantly, his title and dress.

“He will still be called His Holiness Benedict XVI,” Lombardi said. “But he will also be called Pope Emeritus or Roman Pontiff Emeritus.”

Lombardi said Benedict would continue to wear a white cassock but without the mozzetta, the short cape that covers the shoulders. The pope’s fisherman’s ring would be replaced by a ring from his time as cardinal. The red shoes would go as well, Lombardi said, and be replaced by a pair of brown ones.

“The city of León is known for beautiful shoes, and very comfortable shoes. And when the pope was asked what he wanted to wear he said, ‘I want the shoes from León in Mexico,’” Lombardi said at the press conference.

On May 2, the cardinal who designed Benedict’s coat of arms in 2005 told CNA that he had written the pope emeritus suggesting that his coat of arms would need to be redesigned to reflect his new status. Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo proposed making the keys of St. Peter smaller and less prominent.

“That shows that he had a historic possession but not a current jurisdiction,” said the cardinal at the time.

Benedict, however, it seems, politely declined a new coat of arms. La Stampa reported the following year that the Vatican Publishing House’s manual of ecclesiastical heraldry in the Catholic Church contained the following note:

“Expressing deep appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to the author for the interesting study sent to him, [Benedict] made it known that he prefers not to adopt an expressive heraldic emblem of the new situation created with his renouncing of the Petrine Ministry.”

By his decision to continue to dress in white like the pope, retain the title of pope, and keep the coat of arms of his papacy, Benedict revealed that in giving up the “active exercise of the ministry,” he was not forsaking the role of pope altogether.

An expanded Petrine ministry 

In his 2013 announcement, Benedict clearly expressed his intention to step aside, even determining the date and time of his official departure. Nonetheless, his decision to keep the title of pope and maintain the ceremonial protocol that goes along with the papacy led some to speculate whether there were not actually “two popes.”

Benedict’s personal secretary and closest confidante, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, sought to clear up any confusion in 2016.

In a speech at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on May 20, 2016, Gänswein said that Pope Francis and Benedict are not two popes “in competition” with one another but represent one “expanded” Petrine office with “an active member” and a “contemplative.”

Parsing Benedict’s speech, Gänswein explained that in stepping down, Benedict was not giving up his ministry.

“The key word in that statement is ‘munus petrinum,’ translated — as happens most of the time — with ‘Petrine ministry.’ And yet, ‘munus,’ in Latin, has a multiplicity of meanings: It can mean service, duty, guide, or gift, even prodigy. Before and after his resignation, Benedict understood and understands his task as participation in such a ‘Petrine ministry [munus],’” Gänswein said.

“He left the papal throne and yet, with the step he took on Feb. 11, 2013, he has not abandoned this ministry,” Gänswein explained, saying the latter scenario was something “quite impossible after his irrevocable acceptance of the office in April 2005.”

Benedict himself later made clear in an interview with his biographer Peter Seewald that he saw himself as continuing in his ministry. He said that a pope who steps down is like a father whose role changes, but always remains a father.

“Of course a father does not stop being father, but he is relieved of concrete responsibility. He remains a father in a deep, inward sense, in a particular relationship which has responsibility, but not with day-to-day tasks as such. It was also this way for bishops,” Benedict said.

“I think it is also clear that the pope is no superman and his mere existence is not sufficient to conduct his role, rather he likewise exercises a function. 

“If he steps down, he remains in an inner sense within the responsibility he took on, but not in the function. In this respect one comes to understand that the office of the pope has lost none of its greatness, even if the humanity of the office is perhaps becoming more clearly evident,” Benedict said.

Benedict’s decision “not to abandon his ministry” inspired a cottage industry of conspiracy theories, with some questioning whether the pope emeritus truly stepped down because of his age and frailty.

George Weigel, author of the definitive biography of St. John Paul II, “Witness to Hope,” dismissed such speculation in an interview with CNA.

“I have no reason to think that there was anything more to Pope Benedict’s resignation than what he said was its cause: his conviction that he no longer had the strength, physical and intellectual, to give the Church what it needed from a pope,” he said. 

“Everything else written about this is sheer speculation. Let’s take Benedict at his word,” Weigel said.

A life of prayer

In retiring to live in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, Benedict did not completely withdraw from the world. He attended public events in his new capacity as pope emeritus, received visitors, and pursued a life of fruitful study, writing, and prayer. 

Matthew Bunson, Catholic historian, author, and executive editor of EWTN News, told CNA that Benedict was determined not to exercise authority in his new role.

“He really embraced what it means to be pope emeritus, and refrained from making public comments, to instead live a life of prayer and reflection,” Bunson said.

“Benedict really was on retreat, and in prayer,” he said, “and that means we have his prayer for us as a Church.”

While becoming increasingly frail, Benedict continued to celebrate Mass daily with the other residents of the monastery and was known to enjoy spending time in the Vatican Gardens praying his daily rosary. 

In the fall of 2021, more than eight years after Benedict stepped down, his private secretary, Gänswein, told Domradio in Cologne, Germany, that Benedict was “stable in his frailty.” 

He described the pope emeritus as very weak physically but still clear in mind. Gänswein said he had not lost his “typical Bavarian humor.”

The meaning of Benedict’s renunciation for future popes

In 2013, after Benedict announced that he would step down as pope, Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit theologian and canonist chosen by Pope Francis to be a cardinal, wrote an essay on what should happen when a pope steps down.

In the article, published in Civiltà Cattolica, Ghirlanda suggested the retiring Benedict take the title bishop emeritus of Rome. 

“It is evident that the pope who has resigned is no longer pope; therefore he no longer has any power in the Church and cannot interfere in any government affair. One may wonder what title Benedict XVI will retain. We think that he should be given the title of bishop emeritus of Rome, like any other diocesan bishop who ceases,” he said.

In December 2021, at a congress on papal resignations, Ghirlanda took up the theme again.

“Having two people with the title of ‘pope,’ even if one added ’emeritus,’ it cannot be said that this might not generate confusion in public opinion,” he said. 

To make clear that the pope who resigns is no longer pope, he said, he should perhaps be called “former Roman pontiff” or “former supreme pontiff.” 

Pope Francis in July 2022 told reporters that if he were to retire from the papacy he would do things differently from his predecessor. 

“The first experience went very well,” Pope Francis said, because Benedict XVI “is a holy and discreet man.”

In the future, however, “it would be better to define things or explain them better,” the pontiff added.

“I am the bishop of Rome. In that case I would be the bishop emeritus of Rome,” he said, and then suggested he would live in St. John Lateran Palace rather than at the Vatican.

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The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. / David Castor/public domain.

Washington D.C., May 2, 2022 / 16:34 pm (CNA).
California Catholic bishops are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a case challenging the state for perm… […]

Vatican City, Jun 25, 2018 / 01:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- With religious persecution on the rise in many parts of the world, Church leaders and diplomats called for legal and cultural solutions to protect religious minorities.

Msgr. Khaled Akaseh, an official of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said at a June 25 conference in Rome that religious freedom is the “cornerstone of human rights.” Defending this freedom, he said, will require a change in mentality from oppressive groups and governments who deny the inherent dignity of those who practice different religions.

At the conference, a representative from the Lebanese embassy to the Holy See stressed the need to protect minorities in their home countries rather than allowing a diaspora of religious minorities who flee persecution in the Middle East to start new lives abroad.  

“The West doesn’t need our minorities, we need them,” he said, adding that the focus “should be keeping minorities where they are” while also trying to make the life of refugees better. The solution, he said, “is not in the West, it’s in the East.”

In comments to journalists, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches, sympathized with the need for greater protections for religious minorities at home.

In some cases, “you can’t get certain positions at work, you can’t have certain positions because you are not from the majority,” he said. To counter this, “minorities should be recognized and respected” through equal citizenship before the law, not treated as second-class citizens.

Sandri spoke at a half-day symposium titled “Defending International Religious Freedom: Partnership and Action,” which was organized by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in collaboration with papal charity organization Aid to the Church in Need and the community of Sant’Egidio, an ecclesial movement known for its work with migrants and refugees.

In remarks during the event, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich pointed to instances of religious persecution happening around the world, saying “it’s a dangerous time to be a person of faith.”

“We are at a critical moment. We can and must do more,” she said, and voiced the need for greater cooperation on the part of international leaders, saying “governments, civil society, faith groups, and individuals must work together to advance religious freedom and to strengthen peace, stability, and security throughout the world.”

“Global crises require global solutions. We must come together to confront and counter those who practice, enable, or export religious persecution or violent extremism,” she said, adding that only through cooperation and understanding will it be possible to “safeguard the human right of religious freedom for all those seeking to live their lives freely and in accordance with their faith.”

Cardinal-elect Joseph Coutts of Karachi, Pakistan, warned that although religious freedom was enshrined in his country’s 1947 founding documents, it has slowly been eroded and replaced with strict restrictions on religion.

He pointed to the nation’s harsh anti-blasphemy law, which imposes strict punishment – typically the death penalty – on those who desecrate the Quran or who defame or insult Muhammad.

The law is misused, he said, in cases such as that of Asia Bibi, a mother of five who was accused by a neighbor of insulting the prophet Mohammed in 2009, and is currently on death row.

Most people know “this is a cooked-up case,” Coutts said, but they are afraid to take action because religious emotion runs so high, and many people who have defended Christians have ended up dead.

He also cautioned that a new form of Islam has crept into Pakistan, justifying practices forbidden by traditional Islam, such as suicide bombings.

“Our government is not strong enough to control the kind of extremism that has developed in our country,” he said, noting that both Christians and Muslims who do not share the extremist interpretation of Islam are suffering.

Salwa Kahalaf Rasho, a Yazidi woman from Iraq, shared her story of capture and abuse during the 2014 ISIS attacks against the Yazidi people in the country – the latest of more than 70 “genocidal campaigns” her people have suffered throughout their history.

“They [ISIS fighters] killed thousands of Yazidi men in the most horrific ways. As a result, about 60 mass graves of has been found in my hometown Sinjar. More than 6000 women and girls were kidnapped, including me and many of my relatives,” Rasho said.

“We have been subjected to all types of sexual and physical abuse and violence. We were sold in slave markets. We were objects to be bought and purchased, alongside enduring continuous beatings and torture.”

After eight months of captivity, Rasho escaped and was able to move to Germany. But there are still some 3,000 Yazidi women missing, she said, stressing the need for international efforts to rescue these women.

She also called for the protection of Yazidi refugees and of minority areas in Iraq and Syria, the preservation of mass graves in Sinjar as evidence of genocide, cooperation with the U.N. team investigating Islamic State crimes in Iraq, and reconstruction efforts aimed at helping people return to their homes.

“These steps are the only way of preserving the existence of minorities in the region, especially Yazidi and Christians,” she said. “If this action is not taken, our existence, identity and culture will be wiped out- fulfilling the aim of the Islamic State.”

Support should also be given to the displaced, she said, noting that refugees often face both physical and mental health risks, and “suicide rates are on the rise.”

Also offering a testimony was aid worker Ziear Khan, who has worked with Rohingya Muslims in Burma since 2008 through the British development and relief charity Human Appeal.

The Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Burma, are not recognized by the state and have faced increased persecution in their homeland since 2012. They have been described “as the most persecuted group in the world right now,” Khan said.

He recounted the stories of women and children whose family members were brutally killed before their eyes, leaving them abandoned and traumatized.

Khan also called for action, specifically sanctions on trade with Burma until the crisis is addressed.

“I think about the lessons we need to learn. I think about Rwanda, I think of Bosnia and the Holocaust,” he said, adding that “I would hate to be silent on the day I’m questioned by my Lord when these atrocities were taking place, when all these people were being killed.”

 

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