February 11, 2013
Dear Lay Apostles,
Today we receive the news that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, will resign. Given our great love for him, it is natural that we feel sadness and loss at this news. He has led us so faithfully. But we can be confident that the Holy Father knows exactly what he is doing. We trust him today as we trusted him yesterday.
Let us take consolation from his words and indeed from his own certainty that he has accurately discerned this decision.
Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. 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 bark 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 fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Clearly, the Holy Spirit is leading and protecting all. Perhaps the Lord will take our profound gratitude for our beloved Pope and with it grant graces of happiness and peace to him as he concludes this extraordinarily fruitful period of his life. Together with the Holy Father, we ask for God's blessing and protection on the man who is to come after.
With love from your sister,
Anne, a lay apostle
*Note from Fr. Darragh:
"In light of Pope Benedict's resignation, Anne's talk from last Thursday is all the more relevant..."
Click below for the text of Anne's Talk and the Video:
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