On Feb. 11, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation to a gathering of Cardinals in the Vatican City.
“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,” the pope said, leaving the world and especially the one billion Catholics surprised by the suddenness of the news and eager for clearer reasons behind this decision.
Benedict XVI will be the first pope to resign since Celestine V, who abdicated after only five months in 1294. Because of Celestine V’s “Great Refusal,” Dante Alighieri put him at the gate of the Inferno in his “Divine Comedy.”
Pope Benedict XVI, known before his Papacy as Joseph Ratzinger, will officially leave office on Feb. 28. The Conclave will then meet, and by Easter the Catholic church will have a new pope. After his resignation, Ratzinger will move to a restored monastery on Vatican and for the first time in the church history, two living popes will live within the Vatican walls.
“In 50 years the world will remember the decision of the pope as a simple gesture of humility,” junior Alicia Villafuerte, a Walton Scholar and Catholic student, said. “Mr. Ratzinger will die peacefully, with no tributes, without his body being exhibited in Saint Peter. He will die as a humble pope.”
This event also impacts the Harding students who have visited Rome. Senior Payton Weeks, who went to HUF last spring, is one of the few Harding students who heard Pope Benedict XVI speak from Saint Peter’s Basilica.
“At HUF, Catholicism is the center point of all art and history topics, especially during the trip to Rome,” Weeks said. “A small group happened to be at the Vatican at the right time. Thousands of people were there from all (over) the world. The pope’s speech was really short, not more than six minutes. During his speech, he spoke in six different languages. Being able to say I’ve seen him now that he is stepping down makes it a more unique experience.”
The Italian newspapers are covering the news with the little information released by the Vatican, but the singularity of the event and the well-known privacy of the Vatican is leaving space for rumors and conjectures from the Italian citizens.
“A few of them think it’s a courageous move on his part but are afraid that it may be because of a scandal,” Lindsey Sullivan, Harding alumna and now missionary in Italy, said. “They are not too worried though. On the other hand, Italians always say that when a pope dies, they just elect another.”
