At four o'clock Irish time on Thursday afternoon,
February 28, Pope Benedict XVI will step into a helicopter in the
Vatican and fly south of Rome to the papal summer residence at Castel
Gandolfo. Three hours later, his resignation will take effect and he will cease to be Pope.
A new chapter will have opened in the history of the church.
That is still 12 days away, however, and until then Benedict XVI, the fourth oldest Pope in history, is still in office and not silent.
He is talking and sending important messages, not only to the 117 cardinals from 47 countries who will elect his successor but also to the Roman Curia (the papal civil service) and to the Catholic Church worldwide that has experienced so much turbulence during the past decade.
He has few scheduled public engagements before leaving office: tomorrow and next Sunday at midday for the Angelus, and on Wednesday morning, February 27, his last public audience.
He will speak at all three gatherings in St Peter's Square and, given that emotions are running high following his shock resignation, one can expect enormous crowds.
Apart from those three public events, he will also meet the College of Cardinals to bid them farewell, on the morning of February 28, hours before he leaves the Vatican.
Cardinals have started arriving in Rome from distant lands, and by that date most will have arrived in the Eternal City.
Like Catholics worldwide, they too have been stunned that this Pope who has always been so attached to convention has actually broken with a centuries-old tradition in such a revolutionary and dramatic way.
Many praise his courage for doing this, and applaud his humility in resigning from high office in an age where so many are reluctant to leave positions of power and prestige.
The last Pope to abdicate in such a way was Celestine V in 1294; he died two years later.
In 1313, he was declared a saint, though this did not deter Dante from ascribing him to hell in the pages of the 'Divine Comedy'. Pope Benedict prayed at Celestine's tomb in 2009.
Many
cardinals are discussing what might be the deeper motive for his
resignation. In his letter, he cited advanced age and declining physical
and mental powers. It's obvious to all that he has undergone a physical
decline over the past year.
Most were surprised to learn he has a
pacemaker, but they see he is still in reasonably good shape for a man
who is almost 86, and there is no evidence of chronic illness.
They
know too that his mind is crystal clear; there is no decline here, as
was confirmed by the two conferences he gave, without notes, over the
past week: to Roman seminarians and the Roman clergy.
As
cardinals discuss his resignation, several are beginning to think that
the difficulties he experienced in the governance of the Roman Curia and
the universal church over these years – culminating in the Vatileaks
scandal and his betrayal by the butler – may be at the root of his
courageous decision to resign.
Pope Benedict may throw more light on this when he bids farewell to the College of Cardinals on the morning of February 28.
Already,
in his resignation letter, he has told them that "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 barque of Peter
and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary".
Some analysts wonder if he is advising the cardinals to choose a younger
man as Pope.
In his Ash Wednesday homily, Pope Benedict appealed for
unity in the church, and hit out at things that "disfigure" the face of
the church, such as religious hypocrisy, rivalries, ambition, the search
for power and putting one's personal interests before those of God.
It
remains to be seen what else he will say to them on the last day of
this month, before leaving the Vatican for Castel Gandolfo.
At
8pm local time, the See of Peter will become vacant and in accordance
with the constitution governing the election of a new Pope, restricted
interim powers of government will be entrusted to the cardinals to
enable them to hold a conclave and elect the 267th Successor to St
Peter.
Under the present law the conclave will open some
time between March 15 and 20. Several cardinals, however, have said they
would like Pope Benedict to amend that constitution before he resigns,
so that the conclave can start in or around March 10.
In any case, it
seems likely that we will have a new Pope by St Patrick's Day.
* Gerard O'Connell is an Irish journalist who lives in Rome and writes for La Stampa's Vatican Insider website