2013
Pope Benedict XVI abdicates
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (b. 1927) was elected Supreme Pontiff in 2005 taking the regnal name Benedict XVI, succeeding St John Paul II. For years he had been the Catholic Church’s leading theological thinker, a proponent of taking hard lines on doctrine and tradition. He championed the virtues of the Tridentine Mass and the importance of beauty and art, and was an opponent of postmodernism and moral relativity.
His resignation caught the world by surprise; no pope had stepped down voluntarily since the late 13th century when Celestine V was tricked or bullied into doing so by his unscrupulous successor Boniface VIII. (Gregory XII had been muscled out of his office by the Council of Constance in 1415.) The pitiable condition of John Paul’s later years in office seem to have been the chief motivation for Benedict’s resignation.
Benedict continues to live in the Vatican in a sort of ambiguous state with the title of Pope Emeritus. He surrendered his papal seal; he no longer wears the symbolic red shoes or papal headgear but he retains the name Benedict and the traditional white cassock.
This continues to confuse me.
I know, historically, there have previously been two simultaneous popes, but never for a reason such as this.
I confess (no pun intended) that I consider Benedict to actually be the pope, but darned if I can find many who agree…
It is quite anomalous and, I would think, rather awkward for the pair of them.