VATICAN CITY (WordNews.org) Feb.11, 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI announced today he would be retiring at the end of this month, becoming the first pope to resign in 600 years, according to published reports.
The 85-year-old pope surprised cardinals today when he said during a Vatican concistory, “my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” a reference to responsibilities as church leader.
Organizations quickly released reactions to the pontiff’s decision.
The Knights of Columbus — the world’s largest Catholic fraternal group – called on its members and all Catholics to pray for the pope and the church. A prayer written by Knights of Columbus Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, began:
“O Lord Jesus Christ, Supreme Pastor of Your Church,
we thank you for the ministry of Pope Benedict XVI
and the selfless care with which he has led us
as Successor of Peter, and Your Vicar on earth.”
“Until a new pope is elected, we encourage all members of the Knights of Columbus, their families and all Catholics to say this prayer daily for Pope Benedict, for the Church, and for our future pope,” said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson.
Gregory Erlandson, president of Our Sunday Visitor Publishing – publisher of many of the Pope’s books, and exclusive distributor of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in North America – called Pope
Benedict “a great gift … for the Catholic Church.”
“ He continued and made a centerpiece of his pontificate the New Evangelization first proclaimed by John Paul II. He saw clearly that the church itself needed to be reinvigorated and renewed, and it was in this spirit that he assembled the recent synod of bishops in October,” Erlandson said. “At the same time, he has been a great theologian Pope, and he had his own agenda.”
During Benedict’s eight-year pontificate, he issued three encyclicals, “God is Love,” “In Hope We Are Saved” and “Charity in Truth.”
“God is the foundation of hope,” he wrote in his second encyclical. “Not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us.”
Father Shenan J. Boquet, president of Human Life International, said he had concerns about Pope Benedict XVI’s health.
“The suddenness of His Holiness’ announcement is cause for concern for his health, as it seems to have caught almost everyone by surprise; though our concern is more than matched by our gratitude for Pope Benedict’s many wonderful gifts to the church as Holy Father, bishop and priest,” Boquet said. “His unflinching defense of church teaching and the most fundamental rights of every human person have inspired our missionaries around the world.’