There at the headquarters of the foreign press association in Rome a photograph taken at Easter 2004, in which John Paul II, and visibly ill, trying to kiss the crucifix in his hands holding the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Inquisition. The Polish pope, who had come to the chair of Peter in 1978, still live another year of terrible agony, as closely as witnessed in the picture by Cardinal Ratzinger, who, in 2010, five years after becoming Pope, declare the journalist Peter Seewald: "When a Pope arrives at a clear awareness of being more physically, mentally and spiritually able to develop the position that has been assigned, then have the right, and in some circumstances also the duty, to resign. "
That notice to mariners, including the book-length interview Light of the world, was not sufficiently weighted until, at 11.40 the day February 11, 2013, Benedict XVI spoke in Latin to the cardinals assembled in regular session at the Vatican: " After examining my conscience before God repeatedly, I have come to the knowledge that, for the elderly, I have no strength to properly exercise the Petrine ministry. Being well aware of the seriousness of this act, in full freedom, I declare that I give to the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. "
The bombshell - the last pope to resign was Celestine V back in 1294 - was quickly blamed on the difficult situation that Benedict had lived in recent months, in which the Vatican had appeared in the eyes of the world as the scene of power struggles of the various factions. The robbery and subsequent dissemination of the secret correspondence of Joseph Ratzinger - for which he was arrested and sentenced his valet, Paolo Gabriel, his hitherto faithful Paoletto - had made it clear that Benedict XVI was indeed the "pastor surrounded by wolves" described L' Osservatore Romano. A 86 years old man without strength or character to undertake urgent - fight battles against pedophilia, reform - that a poisoned curia needed increasingly away from the true Church. The resignation was the cry of a man who had never raised his voice.
The days following the announcement were planned by Ratzinger went really. Not only the film sequence in which, at five in the afternoon of February 28, under the ringing of all the bells of Rome, a helicopter transported him from the Vatican to the residence of Castel Gandolfo, where he ceased to be Pope three hours later. Joseph Ratzinger also calculated their care farewell messages spoke of suffering and corruption that hit the Church, the devil infiltrated to destroy the work of God - and until further silence. He said he would depart the world and largely has. He continued wearing white and living in the Vatican, but his presence away from some feared - not reached at any time to importune his successor. According to Bishop George Gaenswein, who was his personal secretary and now accompanies the pope Francisco as prefect of the Pontifical Household, Benedict XVI never regretted his decision. He decided to get off the cross before allowing, as John Paul II Photo, that television would offer live her ordeal.
Tags: Cross, Pope, stepped