‘Strength of mind and body’

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Four days ago, Pope Benedict XVI did something that no Bishop of Rome had done for 600 years. He resigned.

In a move that shocked the church and the media, neither of which had any warning, Benedict announced that his failing health made him unfit to continue as head of the Catholic Church:

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. … For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome ” (full text printed on A2).

Vatican spokesman Fr. Frederico Lombardi said that Benedict’s retirement would become effective on Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.

The pope’s decision has sent the national media scrambling to the hiswtory books, trying to find a historical precedent for the nearly unprecedented. Initial coverage by the New York Times and CNN cited Gregory XII, who abdicated as Bishop of Rome in 1415 to end the Western Schism – a brief period of church history when up to three separate popes simultaneously ruled a fractured Catholic Church – as the latest example.

The latest, but perhaps not the best.

“All the talk about Gregory XII is, I think, quite misleading,” said Dr. Francis Oakley of Williams College, one of America’s leading church historians. “He was no more than the claimant of the Roman line to the papacy during a period of intractable and prolonged schism that had begun in 1378 with a genuinely disputed papal election.”

The real precedent, Oakley said, reaches back even further into history, to Celestine V, who resigned in 1292.

“He was a saintly hermit to whom the cardinals turned in desperation,” Oakley said. “He was utterly unprepared for the job and overwhelmed by it, and the papacy quickly lapsed into faction-ridden chaos. So he resigned after a few months, declaring himself incapable of discharging the heavy responsibilities of the office. Benedict XVI has visited his tomb more than once and seems to have some veneration for him. His is the last resignation of a clear

clearly legitimate pope” (full interview with Dr. Oakley adjacent).

One of those visits came when Benedict prayed at Celestine’s tomb in 2010 and left his pallium, a papal vestment, behind at the grave, said Hillsdale College Assistant Professor of History Matthew Gaetano.

“I remember thinking, ‘Hmm, that’s very strange,’” Gaetano said. “I think he was leaving hints.”

Oakley said Benedict’s announcement is completely in accordance with the church’s laws. Legality, however, does not necessarily translate to popularity. Celestine V was canonized as a saint in 1313, only 17 years after his death — the very years that Dante Alighieri was working on his epic poem, “The Divine Comedy.” Dante meets Celestine rather earlier on his journey than one might expect — in Canto Three of the Inferno:

“I saw and knew at once the shade of him / the craven one, who made the great denial.”

Benedict’s decision has garnered the question — Why would Benedict step down, when so many popes have given their last years to the office? According to National Catholic Weekly, “Most modern popes have felt that resignation is unacceptable.”

Benedict, however, is the fourth oldest living pope in history at 85. Gaetano pointed out that modern medicine has fundamentally changed old age for the papacy.

“In the Middle Ages, if you fell ill in your 60s, 70s, or 80s, you would usually die,” he said. “Modern medicine allows you to die for a long time, if that makes sense. I think Benedict was taking stock of that. In the last 250 years, only one pope has been as old as he is. There are some reasons why this is unprecedented.”

Junior Gannon Hyland, president of Hillsdale’s Catholic Society, said students at the college are beginning to get used to the idea.

“Initially there was a lot of shock and surprise because it came out of nowhere,” he said. “He had kept it on the down-low. That being said, after we were able to read a little bit more about it, it wasn’t the same shock that follows a scandal. It was more, this is a change, and we’ve lived through them before.”

That change could be very good, Gaetano said.

“Benedict saw what happened with John Paul II,” he said. “John Paul II kind of died before our eyes. I think that it was an important lesson, but it’s not a lesson we need to learn over and over again. If the pope can’t actually govern the church, the church will suffer.”

Fr. David Reamsnyder, pastor of Hillsdale’s St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, said he hopes that Benedict’s legacy will include his welcome into the church of conservative, married Anglican priests like himself.

“What I hope he’s remembered for is his work at bringing groups of people into communion with the Catholic Church,” he said. “I am greatly indebted to Pope Benedict and his vision, which has allowed me to come into the church, and I will always have a great deal of respect for him. ”

According to Catholic News Agency, Lombardi announced on Feb. 13 that the college of cardinals could begin the conclave to elect the next pope between March 15 and 19. He speculated that the new pope might be in office by Easter.

From Feb. 28 until then, the papal seat will be vacant.