Where will it all end? I asked at Christmas on the occasion
of the popular protest against Pope Benedict’s denial of the presence of the
donkey at the manger.
Well, now we know where it ended. In the first resignation
of a pope in hundreds of years.
Popes don’t resign. Such was the common reaction of
shock to the event, taking all by surprise. But there was an aspect to this
resignation which I haven’t seen commented on, and which gives it a special
singularity. Here is the critical part of the Pope’s speech, made on the
occasion of a gathering on February 11 during a canonisation ceremony:
Fratres carissimi
… Conscientia mea iterum atque iterum coram Deo explorata
ad cognitionem certam perveni vires meas ingravescente aetate non iam aptas
esse ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum.
Bene conscius sum hoc munus secundum suam essentiam
spiritualem non solum agendo et loquendo exsequi debere, sed non minus patiendo
et orando. Attamen in mundo nostri temporis rapidis mutationibus subiecto et
quaestionibus magni ponderis pro vita fidei perturbato ad navem Sancti Petri
gubernandam et ad annuntiandum Evangelium etiam vigor quidam corporis et animae
necessarius est, qui ultimis mensibus in me modo tali minuitur, ut
incapacitatem meam ad ministerium mihi commissum bene administrandum agnoscere
debeam.
Dearest brothers
… 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 barque 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 fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.
The bold text here is to draw attention to this quite
remarkable statement, which presents a lack of strength as a reason for no
longer being able to fulfil the papal ministry. This seems at odds with the
Christian tradition, in which no man’s strength would ever be adequate to
fulfil the enormity of this task in the world. The often declared perception
was that such a task could only be carried out with the help of divine
strength. By reducing the papal office to the level of a human task, to be
achieved with human strength, the pope has, at a blow, taken away a mystery.
As with the humble donkey, no longer present at the manger,
so with the divine distillation of an unworldly office. One myth after another,
fails and falls under the bleak analysis of an executive, academic mind.
CJM March 13, 2013
