Benedict Resigns: Who is Next in Rome?

The news today from Rome was stunning, well at least it was for the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world and their hierarchy. Pope Benedict XVI is abdicating as of February 28th, leaving the Roman church without a leader. This sort of thing doesn't happen every day. In fact it doesn't happen every century. The last pope to resign was Celestine V, 719 years ago in 1294. To put that into perspective, when he quit no one in Europe had ever heard of the black plague, much less died from it. Others have left the papacy before their deaths, but none of them really went voluntarily. Back in the not so great old days, sometimes you needed to be as good with a sword as you were at serving communion to be head of Catholic church. Politics and religion were then truly one and the same.

Celestine had spent much of his life as a monastic hermit and he really didn't want the job in the first place. He resigned after only five months because, among other things, "his desire for humility, for a purer life." He even cited the "perverseness of people" as a reason.

Benedict has spent his entire life moving up through the ranks of the Roman church. When the German army came and drafted him and his classmates at age sixteen, they were raiding a seminary. He was born John Ratzinger in 1927 and ordained in 1951. He was a professor of theology at several universities and the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. In 2002 he became the Dean of the College of Cardinals. Obviously the man is no Celestine

His announcement caught everyone so off guard that it is reported a couple of Cardinals who were there with him had a hard time understanding what was happening. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York was quoted as saying, "I'm as startled as the rest of you and as anxious to find out exactly what is going on. Except for prayer I don't know what else to do. I'll await instructions with everyone else."

Indeed, what is going on? Speculation will run rampant now. Benedict's resignation statement contains this hint, "...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 St. 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 to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me."

The obvious answer is that the Pope has serious health issues that none of the rest of us are aware of at this point. There is no telling if it is one thing, or a combination of issues both physical and mental. At a few months short of 86 a list of potential ailments is nearly endless.

The really big question in all of this is who will be Benedict's successor and in which direction will he guide the barque of St. Peter? The papacy has never been held by a non-European and the reality is that more than half the Cardinals who will vote are from that continent. The cold stat though is that Europe makes up only 25% of the worlds Roman Catholics. 42% reside in Latin America.

These are delicate times at best for a church rocked by a seemingly unending parade of sexual abuse scandals and changing attitudes about not only the role of women, but of the role of the whole institution in every day modern life. Will the new Pope be a progressive or conservative and what do those terms even mean in today's Roman Catholic world? Will the Cardinals elect another European, or will they make what many would consider a breathtakingly bold move by electing a Latin American Pope, or one from Asia, or Africa?

Whatever the answers are we know that the Roman church along with all the other churches, including the church of Islam, face challenges their founders could never have dreamed of. They are challenges both external and internal in nature, both spiritual and secular.

It is the twenty-first century. Should it be ruled by a thousand year old dogma, or are there eternal truths that no matter what the date should not be compromised?

That will be up to the next guy, whoever he is.

And ultimately to each of us.


2-11-13