I
have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but
also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the
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. I am well aware that this
ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not
only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in
today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep
relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and
proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength
which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I
have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted
to me. 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, Successor of
Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way,
that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint
Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have
to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear
Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you
have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now,
let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal
Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With
regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the
future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From
the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS
PP XVI
No comments:
Post a Comment