February 27,
2013, Wednesday -- Last
"I
will no longer bear the authority of the office for the government of
the Church, but in the service of prayer rest, so to speak, in the yard
of St. Peter. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great
example for me in this. He showed us the way to a life which, active or
passive, belongs wholly to the work of God." ”Pope
Benedict XVI today in
St. Peter's Square, in his final public audience as Pope
Last General
Audience
Today was the
next-to-last day of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
Today
he gave his final public address as Pope before an estimated 200,000
people in a packed St. Peter's Square, under an unusually warm February
sun.
It
was a beautiful day.
One
of the signs held up in the piazza said, "Elect Benedict again!"
The cardinals
may not be willing to do this, but the sign expressed a
widespread feeling that there isn't a better choice right now, among
the cardinals or in the whole world, to be the Bishop of Rome and
successor of Peter.
And yet, the
central point of the Pope's remarks today was that he himself -- the
reigning pontiff, the one who holds the power of the keys to "bind and
loose," the one who wears "the ring of the fisherman" and wields its
authority -- has decided differently.
He has
decided that someone else can be, or can function, as a better Pope, in
the particular circumstances that now exist, given his age, his health,
and given everything he knows about his own condition and the needs of
the Church.
And so,
tomorrow evening, after a morning meeting in Rome with his cardinals,
who are gathering from around the world -- only 65 of them were present
this morning -- Pope Benedict will fly by helicopter to Castel
Gandolfo, a short distance outside of Rome, and the cardinals will
undertake to meet in conclave and elect a new Pope.
(Note: The
word "conclave" means "with a key" -- "con" is the Italian for the
Latin "cum," "with," and "clave" is from the Latin word "clavis," "a
key"; in the ablative form "clavis" becomes "clave," and that form is
carried over directly into English; so "conclave" means "a gathering in
a room locked with a key," or, "a gathering in secret, with no
outsiders present to influence those who are meeting, all outsiders
being kept outside a door locked with a key, until those who are
meeting end their deliberations.")
Uncharted
waters
All of this
puts the Roman Catholic Church in uncharted waters, of course.
Everyone is
aware of the questions:
Will the
cardinals choose as the next Pope someone "in line" with Pope Benedict,
or someone who will be dramatically different?
And then, does
Benedict's decision to resign weaken the idea, and the reality, of the
papal office? Until a few days ago, the papacy has always been
considered an office (but also more than an office, a charism, a special service accompanied by a special grace, the
grace of infallibility) to be held until the moment of death.
Was that thinking incorrect? Was it incomplete?
And, does the
resignation decision have ecumenical implications? Does it open the way
to better relations with the Orthodox, and with some Protestants, for
whom the Roman papacy, both in its theological claims and in its
historical manner of functioning, has been seen as a "stumbling block"
on the path toward possible Christian unity?
And, will the
new Pope make dramatic changes in the Roman Curia, changes Pope
Benedict might have made, or might have wished to have made, but was
too old or tired to make, or for some other reason impeded from making?
Many
questions... and there are many more.
But today was
not a time for questions.
Today was
time for a morning of peace, in the warm February sun.
The
Pope drove into the Square in his Popemobile, accompanied by his
personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein (photo).
It took
nearly half an hour for the Pope to reach the front of the Square and
take his chair on the sagrato, that consecrated area of the piazza
which is raised above the level of the main square, just in front of
the facade of the basilica.
On one side
sat cardinals and archbishops -- as I said, I counted 65 cardinals
present. On the other side, the diplomatic corps, representatives of
governments from around the world.
The Pope then
spoke, gave his teaching in Italian, and at the end of his speaking,
after greeting the crowd in several foreign languages, all that vast
throng prayed the Our Father, singing the prayer in Latin.
There was no
dramatic announcement. The Pope did not say anything that from a "news"
perspective was extraordinary.
Or did he?
Upon
reflection, what Benedict said today had quite profound
importance: what he said seemed to render his decision to resign, in
some way, "irreversible."
That is, he
seemed to make the idea of a pontiff resigning part of the ordinary
landscape of the papacy.
This is a
remarkable shift, considering that 16 days ago, on February 11, when he
announced his decision to resign, the idea of a papal resignation was
almost unthinkable -- had not in fact been thought for 700 years, and
had not been thought in this precise way ever. (The circumstances of
previous papal resignations were all quite different.)
In
this sense, what Benedict did by resigning on February 11, and what he
did today during his General Audience by "codifying" that decision,
together make up the greatest single revolutionary act of his
pontificate, and of his life.
Here is the
relevant part of the talk today, which I will try to analyze paragraph
by paragraph.
"In recent
months, I felt that my strength had decreased, and I asked God
earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with his light to make me take the
right decision not for my sake, but for the good of the Church."
Here the Pope
introduces the subject of his resignation.
He sets it
against the background of his declining strength. He does not say it,
but this includes his fall in the night where he hit his head causing
bleeding last March in Mexico; his declining sight in one eye; his
inability to sleep at night; his exhaustion at the end of a long day of
appearances; the looming burden of the multiple, long liturgies at
Easter; and the looming burden of World Youth Day this summer in
Brazil, though his doctor a few months ago told him that he should not
take any more international flights for health reasons.
But despite
all of this, he is not interested in his own health, his own life, but
in what would be good for the Church.
"I
have taken this step in full awareness of its severity and also
newness, but with a deep peace of mind. Loving the Church also means
having the courage to make difficult choices, suffering (in the process
of deciding), having always before one the good of the Church and not
oneself."
"Allow me to
return once again to April 19, 2005. The
severity of the decision was precisely in the fact that from that
moment on I had been given my task to carry out always and forever by
the Lord."
Here is the
place where Benedict states that his election to the papacy was
something, "always" and "forever." And "forever" would seem to exclude
any sort of resignation.
"Always
– he who assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any
privacy..."
He is
repeating the word "always." This is clearly what was on his mind as he
wrestled with his decision. He is letting us see inside his
decision-making process. We can almost see him saying to himself:
"Always... but I am too weak... always... but I am unable to do what I
must do, for the Church's good... Yet I am committed, and made a
commitment, to continue always..."
Here the Pope
is speaking about how it is to be Pope, how one loses one's private
life, gives it up entirely, but then receives back much in return.
Then he comes
back to the question of the resignation:
"The 'always' is also a 'forever' - there is no
return
to the private [life]. My decision to forgo the exercise of active
ministry does not revoke this fact. I am not returning to private life,
to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am
not abandoning the cross, but I am remaining at the foot of the
Crucified Lord."
Nor is it a
"coming down off of the cross," as one cardinal from Poland who had
been close to Pope John Paul II at first said he was doing. Benedict
flatly denies this is the case.
So we
know from these lines that he is not simply "resigning" as we would
think in the ordinary course of things. Something else is happening here.
But what?
"I
will no longer bear the authority of the office for the government of
the Church, but in the service of prayer I stay,
so to speak, in the yard of St. Peter."
This is the
phrase I find fascinating. Clearly, he says he will no longer "bear the
authority of the office" but then he adds "for the government of the
Church."
And then he
adds a "but" -- "but in the service of prayer, I stay..."
He is
leaving, but he is staying.
He is leaving
the authority of government.
He is staying
in the service of prayer.
The word
"recinto" is a bit strange and hard to translate. It means "enclosure,"
"paddock," "pen," "surrounding wall." A "recinto" is therefore
a closed-in area, an area quite defined, an area created to enclose
things and keep them safe.
So he
is saying he is staying within the area established and closed in
by St. Peter.
Though it is
not entirely clear, it certainly means he continues to have some sort
of connection to St. Peter and to Peter's ministry, to "care for the
flock," to "love the lambs" the Lord asked Peter, and Benedict, to care
for.
"St.
Benedict, whose name I carry as Pope, will be for me a great example in
this. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive,
belongs wholly to the work of God."
This is a key
phrase. Benedict is named "Benedict." As an old man, at age 85, faced
with infirmities and many problems requiring great energy to resolve,
he is trying to understand his role, his path. He thinks back to St.
Benedict, his namesake. St. Benedict committed "all" to the Lord, to
the work of the Lord. But that "all" had two parts: to pray, and to
work. Orare, e laborare. First, pray, then, work. Ora, et labora.
Pope Benedict
feels he is too weak to work. Yet he can still pray.
So, in this
motto of St. Benedict, he finds that he can do one half of his task,
while being unable to do the other.
So, he will
do one part, even if he cannot do the other.
In this
sense, he will continue... And that is what he says in these next
lines...
"I thank each
and everyone for your respect and understanding with which you have
welcomed this important decision. I will continue to accompany
the journey of the Church through prayer and reflection, with that
dedication to the Lord and to his Spouse with which I have tried to
live until now every day and which I want to live always. I
ask you to remember me before God, and above all to pray for the
Cardinals, who are called to such an important task, and the new
Successor of Peter: may the Lord accompany him with the light and the
power of his Spirit."
Thus, Benedict
today said his decision to resign was arrived at in deep prayer, was
desired by God, was decided "for the good of the Church." Implicitly,
this means the decision that may again be taken in the future by
another Pope.
Pope
Benedict has, in this way, made a radical, dramatic change in one of
the world's oldest, most unchanging, global institutions, a change both
in how it functions, and also in how its leadership is conceived.
In
these words today, the Pope is explaining what an "Emeritus Pope" is,
theologically and ecclesially, and what the role of such a
Pope is, or may be, in the Church.
Have even the
cardinals understood the magnitude of the change the Pope's decision
has brought?
From the
perspective of Church history, and from the perspective of Catholic
theology on the Petrine office, the Pope's decision goes far beyond
anything connected to administrative decisions, or to "lobbies" in the
Roman Curia (of whatever sort...), or to struggles for power and
influence in Rome or throughout the world.
The
Pope's decision is new.
Vacant and
not vacant...
We
are now less than 24 hours away from a "sede vacante," an empty See of
Peter.
A
vacant papal throne.
And
yet, if Benedict's words of this morning mean
anything -- and I acknowledge that my way of interpreting the situation
may seem quite mysterious and strange -- they also mean that the See is
not totally vacant.
They mean that, in some mysterious way, since Pope
Benedict is still alive, and still committed to the office he was
called to in 2005, and still committed to living inside Vatican City,
though entirely hidden from the world, there is a sort of continuity,
there is something of the papal office that continues,
a strand of vibrant, spiritual continuity, even as he publicly sets the
main part of that office down.
I hesitate to
formulate it in this way, as it may seem that I am proposing that there
are two Popes, or soon could be. This is not the case.
Rather, there
are emerging two ways of exercising the Petrine office, one of action,
the other of prayer and contemplation.
In this
interpretation, the new Pope will take
up the active office, while the "emeritus Pope" continues that aspect
of the office which is of prayer and contemplation.
This is what
Benedict seems to be saying -- disconcerting, perplexing, confusing as
it may seem.
Joseph
Ratzinger made clear this morning that he will never again be simply
Joseph Ratzinger, a private citizen. That is excluded. He made
that quite clear today.
So, he will, in some sense -- in some sense that may
require some heavy lifting by theologians to clarify -- remain "Peter."
Peter living a hidden life in the gardens of the Vatican, in the city
of Rome. Petrus Romanus.
On the day he
was elected, April 19, 2009, he took the new name, Benedict, leaving
behind his baptismal name, Joseph.
And
on the day of his crowning as Pope, he took on the name "Peter,"
promising at that moment to be "Pope forever" ("Papa per sempre").
And
he said this morning that he will not go back on that "forever," even
though he is resigning: "I am not returning to private life, I am
remaining in the yard of St. Peter"
Instead, he
said he plans to emulate St. Benedict -- again, his papal name is
Benedict -- in leading a life dedicated completely to God.
This space,
this yard, this "recinto" where Benedict will remain, is not simply a
physical space, the former nun's convent in Vatican City, in the
gardens.
It is
actually a spiritual space in the structure of the Church herself, a
place "near Peter," a space in which an emeritus Pope, even if "hidden
from the world," continues to live and have a role, like one more link
in the chain of apostolic succession.
One might
almost say it like this: (1) the new Pope, who will be elected
in two or three or four weeks time, will be linked to all previous
Popes who have died, and this is shown by the many tombs of Popes found
in St. Peter's Basilica, and by St. Peter's tomb (which is directly
under the high altar, and directly under the massive cupola of
Mchelangelo); but (2) the new Pope will also be linked to one previous
Pope who has not physically died, but has, in a sense, been buried "to
the world," and yet lives "in prayer," in a convent near the basilica,
though "dead to the world."
It
will be up to Pope Benedict's successor to decide how to use this
resource, how to relate to the still living Pope who has nevertheless
died to the world.
Will
he consult with him? Will he not see him at all? We do not
know.
On Sunday,
the Pope spoke in his homily about the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Today, Benedict was, in a manner of speaking,
"transfigured."
His figure is
no longer that of a reigning Pope.
Nor is it
that of a citizen who has stepped down from a high office. That is not
at all what has happened.
Benedict
has become a unique figure, not one, and not the other, not a Pope, and
not a non-Pope.
He is
an "emeritus Pope" who has finished his active service, but not laid
down the burden of a life of service which he took upon his shoulders
on the day of his election to the See of Peter.
This is
something new in Church history, and like all new things, there will be
a period of time before we really begin to comprehend fully what it
means.
The Pope's
spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, seemed to sense this when he spoke
about this morning's events to the press corps.
There was a
climate of "profound emotion and serenity," Lombardi said.
Then he
added: "I don't know if you were able to see, on the
television monitor, the last moments of the Vatican television feed
that showed a face of the Pope that was very beautiful and extremely
serene, with a radiant smile."
That
"beautiful face," that "radiant smile" suggests that Pope Benedict has
"moved on."
He is
in a new place.
The
old descriptions no longer suffice to describe where he is.
It
will take us time to understand better what it means.
After the
audience, the Pope returned to the Apostolic Palace and received
privately the president of Slovakia, Ivan Gasparovic, and the president
of Bavaria, Germany, Horst Seehofer, as well as the mayor of Rome,
Gianni Alemanno, and the ruling captains of the Republic of San Marino,
Teodoro Lonferini e Denis Bronzetti.
Early this
afternoon, Lombardi said the Pope's serenity and joy were due to his
consciousness "of having finished a good work and of having taken this
decision before God and in complete accord with what the will of God
was asking of him."
Lombardi
said the passage on the work of God, where the Pope referred to St.
Benedict, was very important.
"Opus Dei, the work of God, what he has tried to do
and what he will continue to do," Lombardi said. "He showed us a
way for a life that, active or passive, belongs totally to the work of
God. Thus (the Pope was saying) my work is in the work of God."
Lombardi also
told journalists that the stove to burn the ballots after each vote
during the conclave has not yet been installed in the Sistine Chapel.
Tomorrow the
College of Cardinals -- those who are already in Rome -- will meet with
the Pope in the large Sala Clementina.
Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, 85 (the same age as the Pope), who is the dean of the
College, will give a talk of farewell to the Pope. The Pope will then
have a moment to speak with each cardinal, one by one, privately.
The Pope will
then leave from Vatican City by helicopter at 5 p.m. sharp.
A few
minutes later, at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict will enter the papal summer
palace, then come to the window and say a few words to the people of
that small town. Those will be the Pope's last public words ever.
(to be
continued...)