Pope Benedict’s resignation portrays a noble quality

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Those “where were you moments?” only happen a few times in our lives. When President Kennedy was shot, I know exactly where I was when I heard the news: on a walkway at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. When someone told me that Pope Benedict had resigned, I will always remember that I was in a chiropractic clinic with a friend who had sprained her back.

The reason the news was so shocking is that Benedict is the first pontiff to resign from his office since 1415. In a public statement, the 85-year-old pontiff stated, “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.”


His last day in office will be Feb. 28. The pope was 78 when he was elected in 2005, the oldest person chosen to head the church since the 18th century.


Vatican officials expect the College of Cardinals to convene to choose the next pope in mid-March. A new pope should be in place by Easter, March 31.

Benedict does not plan to participate in this selection.


Benedict XVI was a theologian and an intellectual pontiff. He did not have the charisma that made Pope John Paul II a beloved figure among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. He had a hard act to follow. Pope John Paul II was an actor (literally) and loved to be in front of people. He was a bigger than life character. Benedict suffered by comparison because he was much more shy. He preferred to write books and issue encyclicals rather than travel.


John Paul II made 104 official trips outside Italy, traveling widely across every continent. His nine-day trip to his native Poland in 1979, where he delivered his famous “be not afraid” speech, helped inspire the country’s Solidarity movement. Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis credits John Paul’s trip as Solidarity’s emergence and ultimate triumph over communism.

Historian Timothy Garton Ash once said, “Without the Pope, no Solidarity. Without Solidarity, no Gorbachev. Without Gorbachev, no fall of Communism.”


Benedict, due in part to his older age, his shorter tenure and his temperament, took only 24 trips outside Italy, most of those within the Western world.

He dealt more with internal affairs like cleaning up sex abuse problems by demanding that bishops around the world institute more extensive preventive procedures, the way the U.S. church has. He also reached out to the conservative element of the church who were disillusioned with the reforms of Vatican II.

They also contracted in their different approach to their physical decline. John Paul II suffered from Parkinson’s disease and it showed itself at Masses in Slovakia, Croatia and his native Poland.

He struggled to keep his head fully upright, to enunciate his words with enough force to be understood. He kept a towel handy to wipe drool from the corner of his mouth. Sometimes, aides had to do it for him.

The almost 85-year-old pontiff no longer projected his famous warm, smiling face.

Benedict’s decision to resign presents a more noble course of action. When individuals realize their limitations in old age, it doesn’t mean they have failed in their duties. They recognize that younger and more energetic people are available to carry out the duties and tasks of that office.

People are already discussing what qualities the next pope should have. Should he be a reformer or a conservative? At a time when the church is declining in Europe but gaining strength in Africa, Asia and Latin America, pressure is growing on the College of Cardinals to break with tradition by electing a non-European as pope.

Who will it be?

Only God knows.