Benedict XVI Stifles Rumours Regarding His Resignation

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
February 19, 2012

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Benedict XVI

In his speech to newly created cardinals, Ratzinger indirectly denied speculations regarding resignations

"Pray also for me, that I may continually offer to the People of God the witness of sound doctrine and guide holy Church with a firm and humble hand. "The Pope that imposed the red biretta on the 22 new cardinals yesterday morning was gentle but firm, concluding his speech with a message that seemed to indirectly deny his forthcoming resignation. A number of people have been hinting at his resignation, particularly since the tensions in the Vatican, the leaked documents and the poisonous comments going round in an attempt to discredit one cardinal or another. All this portrays the Vatican as a place rife with scheming and people dossier fights. "It is not easy to enter into the logic of the Gospel and to let go of power and glory," Benedict XVI repeated to the College of Cardinals, pointing out a different path yet again.

When Ratzinger was elected Pope, he said: "My real government programme is not to do as I wish or pursue my ideas, but to listen, along with the whole Church, to the word and will of the Lord and let myself be guided by him, allowing him to lead the Church at this moment in time in history." He was trying to point out a truly evangelical way of exercising authority, but his words were interpreted as the plan of a theologian Pope who was trying to "fly high" leaving the reins of government to his collaborators. The poison that has been poured in recent weeks and the extent to which it has attracted the attention of international public opinion seem to indicate that the Pope's message was not heeded.

The cardinals who met in Rome in recent days have discussed the situation in which the Curia finds itself and the resentment created over the past weeks. They have begun to talk about the next conclave, singling out three potential candidates for the papacy: the Canadian, Marc Ouellet, the Italian, Angelo Scola and the Argentinean, Leonardo Sandri. They also spoke about the need for the Secretariat of State to become less focused on purely Italian affairs.

The words pronounced by Benedict XVI, who is well aware of the situation, relativized the current context. The Pope does not intend to flee at the sight of his foes, wants to get back to the heart of things; he sees the Church as a community of faithful, praying and trying to get close to God, he does not see them as a political and cultural phalanx or as a group of people planning conquest strategies. When one looks at what is going on in the Holy See, the message regarding the human shortcomings of clerics that the then cardinal Ratzinger had pronounced during the Jubilee, still ring true today. He recalled Cardinal Consalvi's (Secretary of State during the pontificate of St. Pius VII) response to an ambassador who informed him of Napoleon's intention to destroy the Church: "He will never manage to destroy it. Even we were not able to."