For the entire 2,000 year
history of the Church, the accepted orthodoxy has been for a pope to
rule until he dies.
A select group of cardinals then get together in a
secretive conclave and a successor is chosen, in a clean break from the
past.
All that has been turned on
its head by Benedict’s surprise resignation, the first in the papacy
since 1415.
It raises a potential difficulty for the Vatican
– that even after his retirement, he could become a lightning rod for
dissatisfaction and dissent with his successor, whoever that might be.
In retirement, pope will publish
The Catholic Church has faced
painful schisms throughout its history, in which rival claims to the
Seat of St. Peter resulted in competing papacies.
In 1415, Pope Gregory
XII stepped down in an attempt to end just such a schism, when two rival
claimants set themselves up in opposing cities – Pisa in Italy and Avignon in southern France – precipitating one of the Church’s gravest crises.
When Benedict formally resigns on the evening of Feb. 28, he will be taken probably by helicopter to Castel Gandolfo,
the traditional summer retreat of popes, in the hills outside Rome.
The
85-year-old is expected to remain there for 15 to 20 days, until the
conclave of around 120 cardinals drawn from around the world gathers at
the Vatican and elects a new pontiff.
Benedict will then take up
residence in a cloistered monastery within the Vatican City State.
His
title at that point?
Unclear.
Inevitably he will run into
his successor and will still be in daily touch with cardinals and other
influential figures within the Holy See.
Not only that but, according to
the Vatican spokesman, Benedict will continue to write and publish
treatises and essays – he is a noted theologian who recently completed a
trilogy on the life of Christ.
That could produce a situation
where the former pope says one thing on an important matter, while his
successor says something different.
“Traditionally popes have not
resigned because there is this question of what do you do with two
popes,” says John Thavis, an American who has covered the Vatican for 30
years and recently wrote an insider’s account of the Holy See – “The
Vatican Diaries.”
“What should be the role of a
former pope – does he have to stay quiet for the rest of his life? What
if he speaks up and disagrees with his successor? You then have the
prospect of the Church effectively having two popes.”
Benedict has never been
regarded as a power-hungry political player and will probably embrace a
return to a quiet life of study and prayer.
“I don’t think he will
deliberately upstage or contradict his successor,” says Mr Thavis. “But
he’s not going to be behind a wall of silence. If I was the new pope, I
would be paying attention to whatever he writes about.”
Vatican: no confusion
The Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi,
said there was no prospect of a schism in the Church and dismissed
ideas that Benedict would attract a rival support base or interfere in
papal affairs.
“We have no fears of this
kind,” he told a packed press conference at the Vatican. “He will
renounce the post, so there will be nothing to discuss. There will be no
confusion, or division.”
In St. Peter’s Square, however, tourists and Catholic faithful were not so sure it would be quite so easy.
“To have an ex-pope who is
still alive, even if they are in not very good health, is unprecedented
as I understand it,” says Daniel Benedyk from London. “I don’t know how the Vatican will deal with that.”
There was collective disbelief
about the news of the resignation among people strolling in front of
St. Peter’s Basilica under gray winter skies.
"It was a huge surprise to me,” says Wolfgang Schnapel, a priest from Benedict's home region of Bavaria. “I only heard when my mother called me from Germany. I think it would be nice if the next pope came from Africa or Latin America. And he should definitely be younger than Benedict was.”
Flora Joseph, a nun from Tanzania,
says: "It's very difficult to accept. I have been saying to myself 'why
is he leaving, why doesn't he want to continue?' But he is an old man
and he has so many appointments and meetings. I guess he just has no
energy left anymore."
Nicola Signorile, a businessman from Bari
in southern Italy, said he was deeply saddened by the announcement,
speculating that the pope must be very ill –although the Vatican has
given no indication he has health problems. "If he has made this choice,
it must be for a very good reason."
Only a handful of Benedict’s closest confidantes knew that he had made the decision to resign, including Tarcisio Bertone,
who as Vatican secretary of state is effectively prime minister of the
tiny city state, Georg Ganswein, the pope’s private secretary, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the head of the College of Cardinals.
The papacy had seemed to many
Italians like the one remaining constant in their lives after having
been buffeted in the last few years by earthquakes, floods, the fall of Silvio Berlusconi, and the imposition of tough austerity measures by his successor, Mario Monti.
The economy is in a deep recession and politics in turmoil ahead of a general election on Feb. 24-25.
“I can’t believe it – first
the government is about to end, now it’s the papacy that’s in trouble,”
says Marco, a taxi driver. “Everything is falling apart. I’ll be sad to
see Benedict go. He was a bit cold and German, but he was a decent man.”