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Pope Benedict Has Resigned - effective 28 Feb


libstaK

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Watching CNN at the moment.

Breaking News as I write. Pope Benedict has resigned. CNN claims this is confirmed by the Vatican.

The resignation is to be effective from 28 February.

This is apparently without precedence since at least the middle ages.

Press conference due within 30 mins of this post on CNN.

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love going out to my catholic christian brothers, altho being a protestant we often dissagree, i hope all is well with you

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Yes he did Lilly "because of his age he lacks the strength of mind and body to fulfill his duties adequately."

He has also asked the Cardinals to forgive him for "all his defects". How odd, that a statement like that should be made public :hmm: .

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Yep.. those 'defects' (great grandchildren) can take a lot of you once you're past 70.

Disclaimer: Only joking.

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lol, I'm sure his sense of humour is intact (at least I hope so). Do you think the Cardinals will chip in for a gold watch?

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It's a good precedent and one I would hope future Popes would observe when they find themselves too frail to do the work effectively.

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I wondered if he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Again, Sorry.

Actually, I do think someone with a bit of, well, charisma, might be just what's needed to take charge of the Church (and by extension, Christianity as a whole, since the Pope is in many non-religious peoples' eyes the public face of Christianity, not just Catholicism) and, as he says, make it relevant once again. It'd be nice to see someone who'd be able and willing to face up to the likes of Dawkins and his tedious friends, and give him a good run for his money.

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Now for the explosion of interest in the next Pontiff. If Malachy is correct and hasn't been misread then the next pope will be named Peter - and he will be the last.

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Yes he did Lilly "because of his age he lacks the strength of mind and body to fulfill his duties adequately."

He has also asked the Cardinals to forgive him for "all his defects". How odd, that a statement like that should be made public :hmm: .

i don't know what that should be odd, sounds like he was just being modest, saying "sorry I;m not up to doing the job, sorry to inconvenience you". I don't think there need be any subtext that need be read into it, although I'm sure that Dan Brown will.

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Another Ealdwita snippet.....

Pontian (230-235) was the first pope to resign and his case is clear. Pontian had the misfortune of being caught up in the severe persecution of Christians under emperor Maximinus Thrax and was sent to the mines on Sardina, a place from which few evidently managed to return alive. Pontian knew that he would almost certainly die on Sardina and didn't want there to be a long-term power vacuum in the church, so he decided that abdication would be the best course of action. Pontian's abdication also gives us the first certain date in the history of papacy: September 28, 235.

Marcellinus (296 - 304) didn’t actually resign, but his actions probably caused him to cease being pope. During the Diocletian persecutions of 303, Marcellinus handed over scriptures to Roman authorities and burned incense to the pagan gods. Such actions would have disqualified him from the priesthood and, therefore, the papacy. His name was kept off the official list of popes for a while, but today he is there and his papacy is marked as ending with his death.

Silverius (536 - 537), son of Pope Hormisdas, was deposed and exiled by empress Theodora of Constantinople, brought back by emperor Justinian to stand trial, convicted, and forced by his successor Pope Vigilius to abdicate again. He starved to death on an island in the Gulf of Gaeta.

John XVIII (1003 - 1009) didn’t do much that survived in the records, but it is believed that he resigned and lived out the last years of his life in a monastery.

Benedict IX easily had the most confusing pontificate in history. He served as pope three times: he was elected, ejected, returned, abdicated, deposed, returned again, ejected again, and eventually excommunicated. Presumably at least one of his resignations may have been canonically valid, possibly even two.

Celestine V (1294) tried to rule while under the control of Charles II of Sicily, something he quickly determined wouldn’t be possible. Rather than serve as little more than a figurehead for secular powers, he simply abdicated the papal office after only 5 months. This resignation helped establish as a matter of church law that a pope may freely resign his office.

Gregory XII (1406 - 1417) was another pope who resigned for the greater good of the church. He reigned during the Western Schism and at the time there were two other rivals claiming the papacy, both with genuine support among various churches and secular powers. He agreed to abide by the decision of the Council of Constance with just one condition: that he be permitted to officially convene it. This condition was granted, thus establishing the validity to his claim to the papacy, and he resigned so that the council could elect Martin V as his successor. Gregory was the last pope to resign his office.

Just in case anybody was wondering.

(My files)

Edited by ealdwita
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i don't know what that should be odd, sounds like he was just being modest, saying "sorry I;m not up to doing the job, sorry to inconvenience you". I don't think there need be any subtext that need be read into it, although I'm sure that Dan Brown will.

Oh how I wish we were blessed with politicians who were that honest!

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I volunteer to be next. ( joke )

even though i am not a believer i hope his final days are peacefull.

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Now for the explosion of interest in the next Pontiff. If Malachy is correct and hasn't been misread then the next pope will be named Peter - and he will be the last.

'Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.'

(Peter the Roman, who will Nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.)

That's a bit final, isn't it?

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'Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.'

(Peter the Roman, who will Nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.)

That's a bit final, isn't it?

I would be pretty amazed if the next Pope went with Peter, amazed and flabbergasted wondering what the church thinks of it's own future and the future of it's flock.

I think that name might be barred from use frankly. Although, if the next Cardinal elected Pope was actually named Peter before taking his robes THAT would be intriguing.

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'Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.'

(Peter the Roman, who will Nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.)

That's a bit final, isn't it?

If were talking about St. Malachy, Bishop of Armagh,

or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Malachy

, some of it sounds a bit of a stretch frankly.

111 Glory of the olive. Benedict XVI (2005–2013) Joseph Ratzinger

Chose the regnal name Benedict after St Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order. The order's crest contains an olive branch.

So none of the previous 15 Benedicts counted, then? And the olive branch connection in itself is stretching it a bit, isn't it.

And then we have, for example,

Angelic shepherd Ven. Pius XII (1939–1958) Eugenio Pacelli Reigned during World War II, he is reported to have covertly helped Italian Jews escape extermination. Said to have received visions, some of which have yet to be revealed.

And what about the previous Benedict,

Religion destroyed Benedict XV (1914–1922) Giacomo Della Chiesa Reigned during, but had no influence to stop, World War I. This unprecedented period of violence was mainly fought between the Christian powers of Europe, destroying empires which had lasted centuries and began the worldwide spread of atheistic Communism.

? Surely if anything sounds pretty final that does. Maybe it was a bit premature and it ought to apply to the coming of Richard Dawkins.

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'Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.'

(Peter the Roman, who will Nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The end.)

That's a bit final, isn't it?

I will really be interested to see how this new pontiff explains choosing THAT name - if he does. It would be seen as provocative by many. I remember reading that no other pope had ever taken the name Peter. If the new pope DOES call himself Peter then the doomsayers will be in full voice. It will be funny if the cardinal's real name happens to be Peter and he's from Rome, but he names himself something totally different :)
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Should we be standing by to receive Herr Ratzinger's secret wartime memories that someone has discovered? (Just a thought)

How about that for a conspiricy theory?

Edited by ealdwita
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Well, Petrus in Latin of course, (and originally Greek) means Rock, hence Jesus' renaming of Simon as Peter, and his calling him "the rock" on which he will build his church. It's basically a pun.

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I was sure it wouldn't be long until someone brought up the "nazi Pope", but, like the prophecies of Malachy, I think that's stretching things a bit.

Following his 14th birthday in 1941, Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler Youth—as membership was required by law for all 14-year-old German boys after December 1939[10]—but was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings, according to his brother.[11] In 1941, one of Ratzinger's cousins, a 14-year-old boy with Down syndrome, was taken away by the Nazi regime and murdered during the Action T4 campaign of Nazi eugenics.[12] In 1943, while still in seminary, he was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps as Luftwaffenhelfer (air force child soldier).[11] Ratzinger then trained in the German infantry.[13] As the Allied front drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted back to his family's home in Traunstein after his unit had ceased to exist, just as American troops established their headquarters in the Ratzinger household.[14] As a German soldier, he was put in a POW camp but was released a few months later at the end of the war in the summer of 1945.[14] He reentered the seminary, along with his brother Georg, in November of that year.

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So goes the 'Official History'.

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