<\/a>Pope Benedict XVI places a white stole on the remains of 13th-century Pope St. Celestine V during an April 28, 2009 visit to the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio in L\u2019Aquila, Italy. On February 11, 2013, Benedict said he would resign at the end of the month because he no longer had the energy to exercise his ministry over the Universal Church. St. Celestine V, a hermit who was elected at the age of 80, was the last Pope freely to resign from the papacy (CNS photo\/L\u2019Osservatore Romano via Reuters).<\/p><\/div>\n
After almost eight years as Pope, Benedict\u2019s strength began to flag, as his papacy suffered attacks that included blame for clerical sexual abuse scandals and the \u201cVatileaks\u201d controversy. According to Fr. Fausti, Cardinal Martini said that the last time the Cardinal and the Pope met, at the World Meeting of Families in Milan in June 2012 \u2014 by this time Cardinal Martini had been ill with Parkinson\u2019s disease for some time and would be dead within months \u2014 they looked each other in the eyes and Martini said, \u201cThe Curia is not going to change; you have no choice but to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martini was convinced that Benedict was no longer in a position to be an effective reformer. \u201cThe time is now,\u201d he said to the Pope; \u201cnothing can be done here any more.\u201d<\/p>\n
At around that time, Cardinal Martini gave his last interview, in which he said, \u201cOur culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the Church bureaucracy rises up. The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the Pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benedict began talking to his closest collaborators about the prospect of his resignation, said Martini; they tried to dissuade him.<\/p>\n
But on February 11, 2013, Benedict announced the \u201crenunciation\u201d of his pontificate. Resigning \u201cin full liberty,\u201d he said that \u201cto govern the Barque of Peter and proclaim the Gospel, vigor of both soul and body are necessary,\u201d and that \u201cin the last months\u201d he had begun to lose them.<\/p>\n
The papal conclave a month later elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio.<\/p>\n
Fr. Fausti says in his video interview, \u201cWhen I saw Francis, Bishop of Rome, I sang the Nunc Dimittis \u2014 at last! I had longed for a Pope like this\u2026 since the pontificate of Greg\u00adory the Great (A.D. 590-604)…\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Confidant of the late Cardinal Martini of Milan says Pope Benedict\u2019s resignation was a possibility from the very beginning… The confessor and confidant of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the deceased former archbishop of Milan, revealed before his own death this year that, according to Cardinal Martini, the resignation of Benedict was \u201cprogrammed\u201d from the very beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Try and Reform the Curia; If Not, You Leave - Inside The Vatican<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n