Three days before Catholics
throughout the world observed Ash Wednesday, traditionally a day of
fasting and repentance, their spiritual leader made his own sobering
announcement.
The Feb. 10 resignation of 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI
has left many in the Vatican stunned, and some say it signals a pivotal
transformation in the Catholic Church itself.
It has also reverberated
in dioceses throughout the Central and East European region, drawing
mixed reactions from the church's leaders, disciples and critics.
Though
the Czech and Moravian dioceses have a less significant number of
disciples than its counterparts in neighboring Poland and Germany, news
of the papal resignation cast the media spotlight on Prague Archbishop
Dominik Duka, the only Czech cardinal whose age permits him to
participate in the secret conclave that selects the new pope.
Duka,
70, is now slated to travel to the Vatican next month for a Palm Sunday
sitting that will determine the new head of the Catholic Church. He was
named cardinal only one year ago to effectively replace Czech Cardinal
Miloslav Vlk, whose age disqualifies him from participating in the
conclave.
"[Duka's] voice as a
voter of the new pope will undoubtedly influence the future direction of
the Catholic Church," said Monsignor Tomáš Holub, general-secretary of
the Czech Bishops Conference.
"The choice of each conclave participant
will be a significant decision, and prayers of local believers may help
Cardinal Duka make the correct decision in the greatest responsibility
belonging to the cardinal's title."
The
first German pope in 1,000 years, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was known
as a pragmatic conservative, unbending on controversial issues such as
homosexuality, condom usage and the entrance of women into the
priesthood.
Before he was elected pope in 2005, Ratzinger was called
"God's Rottweiler" due to his purist stance on Catholic theology, whose
interpretation he oversaw as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of
the Faith, the modern-day successor to the Roman Inquisition.
Much of
his papacy was devoted to fighting against what he saw as a growing
secularization of the Western world.
Yet
if his ideological stance as pope was seen as conservative, his
departure was anything but.
Ratzinger's decision to step down is
unprecedented in modern times, as the last pontiff to do so was Gregory
Xii in the year 1415.
Local
church leaders interpreted the act, explained by the pope as an
admission of his failing strengths to govern the 2,000-year-old
institution "in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and
shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith," as one of
singular boldness.
"As a
church, we definitely value his courage to take this unexpected step. We
would like to express our respect and support in his difficult
situation," Holub said. "The Holy Father's decision to resign from his
office is of historic importance, because it creates a precedent for the
decision-making of future popes in similar situations."
Reserved
and humble in demeanor, Benedict XVI generally failed to draw crowds on
the same scale as his beatified predecessor, John Paul II.
Throughout
his papacy, Benedict XVI was plagued by a series of scandals including
child-abuse cases in Ireland and the United States, where the church
collects its largest percentage of contributions from disciples.
Compounded with a scandal that saw a Vatican butler leak documents
purporting corruption in the church's business dealings, these scandals
have left the Catholic Church in a weakened and disorganized position.
"His
short pontificate was a time of growing secularization, relativism and
further purification of the church of priests accused of sexual abuse of
minors," said Ewa Czaczkowska from Rzeczpospolita, a daily newspaper in
Poland.
In mostly Eastern
Orthodox Russia, clerics interpreted the move as a realignment of the
Vatican's conservative and more progressive forces.
"The
next conclave of the cardinals will challenge the conservative, based
on a healthy traditionalism [that permeates the] forces of the Roman
Catholic Church," said Archpriest Maksim Kozlov, professor of the Moscow
Theological Academy and an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church's
relations with other Christian churches.
Those
close to Benedict XVI have attributed the resignation to his declining
energy in old age, noting the pope had completed all his books, missions
and scheduled visits.
Critical voices have also emerged, stating the
resignation precludes the emergence of yet another scandal, an
allegation the Vatican vehemently denies.
Still others have expressed
theological disconcert at the notion of God's chosen representative
shedding his responsibility to lead his 1.2-billion flock until death.
"We
can understand the Holy Father's decision. We knew he had difficulty
walking," said Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz from the Vatican. Commenting
on Benedict XVI's decision to resign, Dziwisz recalled the last days of
John Paul II: "He led the church until the end. This flowed from his
belief that from the cross, you don't step down."
With
more than a month until the conclave, Vatican watchers have produced a
series of speculative lists of successors. The potential candidates
include Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson, and insiders have not ruled out
the possibility the next pope will hail from the developing world to
reflect the changing demographic of Roman Catholics.
Holub, as well, did
not rule out this possibility.
Whatever
the result, next month's developments will set the pace for the
Catholic Church in an era that has saddled it with unprecedented
challenges.
"The Catholic
Church will undoubtedly engage in an intensive discussion of its future
direction," Holub said. "In the end, this, too, is the purpose of a
conclave."