Pope Benedict XVI in shock resignation

[Pygmy_Hippo]

http://www.liverpool...00252-32787540/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21411304

Pope Benedict XVI is to resign at the end of this month in an entirely unexpected development, saying he is too old to continue at the age of 85.

He became Pope in 2005 following John Paul II's death.

Resignations from the papacy are not unknown, but this is the first in the modern era, which has been marked by pontiffs dying while in office.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I wonder who he sent his resignation letter to...

[HawkMan]

The people who actually have power in the catholic church and aren't just mere figureheads, the cardinals...

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I was joking, but fair enough...

[HawkMan]

I know, but still :p

[TPreston]

And here I was thinking his role in the pedo cover-ups had something to do with this, Silly me I place too much trust in people.

[jakem1]

I bet this is related to his involvement in child abuse.

[Dinggus]

Does this mean the world is about to end?

[mps69]

I didn't think he could resign, he had the job for rest of his natural life. Unless ill health dictated otherwise.

[Gaara sama]

he much hiding something or it could be that something is coming .

[FloatingFatMan]

Good riddance to the old git. He should have gone as soon as soon as his involvement in protecting child raping priests came to light.

[episode]

Quitter.

Also: Since he 'talks to god', shouldn't he just have asked him for more strength?

[REM2000]

He should have done more on the child sex cases, he could have cleaned up the churches instead of hiding it, paying people off and threatening people.

Eddie Izzard's view

Perhaps a contender for Pope Gutless II

[TPreston]

He has retired to...

[jakem1]

I didn't think he could resign, he had the job for rest of his natural life. Unless ill health dictated otherwise.

Although it doesn't happen often, it's not unprecedented and I think it's been part of canon law since the 12th or 13th century.

[Hum]

Why is anyone 'shocked' ?

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

http://www.foxnews.com/

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/11/text-pope-benedict-xvi-announcement-will-resign/

Dear Brothers, 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.

I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.

For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects.

More at the second link. First Pope to ever resign.

A video

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2156410194001/

[Scorbing]

I bet this is related to his involvement in child abuse.

Maybe he saw your avatar and that was the final drop :woot: :D

"The pope's elder brother Georg Ratzinger, a frail 89-year-old priest who shares the pope's passion for music."

Maybe we'll see him next year in a duo with Steven Seagal at the MTV Music Awards.

[Tom]

[+Steve B Subscriber²]

I wonder who he sent his resignation letter to...

LMAO....that seriously just made my day. Thank you. =)

[BoredBozirini]

Not the first pope to have stepped down.

[episode]

Lieberman is a better Palpatine.

[John S. Veteran]

threads merged and cleaned

[seta-san]

is there any happening in the catholic church that you people don't attribute to pedophiles?

[jakem1]

First Pope to ever resign.

Really?

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes the historically obscure resignations of Pope Pontian^[6] (230-235) and Pope Marcellinus (296-308), the historically postulated resignation of Pope Liberius (352-366),^[3] and that one (unspecified) catalogue of popes lists Pope John XVIII as resigning office in 1009 and ending his life as a monk.^[7][8]

The first historically unquestionable^[3] Papal resignation is that of Pope Benedict IX in 1045. In order to rid the Church of the scandalous Benedict, Pope Gregory VI gave Benedict "valuable possessions"^[3] to resign the papacy in his favour.^[9] Gregory himself resigned in 1046 because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict was considered simony. Gregory's successor, Pope Clement II, died in 1047 and Benedict IX became Pope again.

The best-known resignation of a Pope is that of Pope Celestine V in 1294. After only five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a Pope to resign, and then did so himself. He lived two more years as a hermit and then prisoner of his successor Pope Boniface VIII and was later canonised. Celestine's decree, and that of Boniface concurring, ended any doubt among canonists about the possibility of a valid Papal resignation.^[10]

Pope Gregory XII (1406-1415) resigned in 1415 in order to end the Western Schism, which had reached the point where there were three claimants to the Papal throne: Roman Pope Gregory XII, Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII, and Pisan Antipope John XXIII. Before resigning he formally convened the already existing Council of Constance and authorized it to elect his successor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_resignation#History