On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI spoke before a Consistory of about 70 Cardinals in what was supposed to be a regularly scheduled meeting and shocked the world, declaring his resignation as the Vicar of Christ. Normally popes do not retire but remain in office until death. In a brief statement, he declared that health reasons and the demands of the office played a key role in his decision: “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.”⁽¹⁾Pope Benedict XVI, Declaratio, 2/11/13. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2013/february/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20130211_declaratio.html.

            Now, almost 10 years later, Benedict XVI still lives. Although he observes a cloistered and contemplative life, he receives visitors. He even occasionally releases statements. The tremendous sense of loss of this great man combined with the fact that he continues to live only causes people to wonder about his resignation: Were there other factors that moved him to resign? What role did the Vatileaks scandals play in his decision? Was it a valid resignation?⁽²⁾Fr. Brian Harrison’s article in the Latin Mass Magazine (Summer 2020), “Is Benedict Still the Pope”, provides a detailed and definitive rebuttal to those who want to argue that the resignation was invalid and hence, Pope Benedict XVI is still the true pope. Conspiracy theories abound.⁽³⁾In Chapter 2 of his last book interview, Last Testament, Benedict XVI responds to these questions. He also gave a lengthy interview on February 28, 2021 with Massimo Franco once again dispelling the conspiracy theories and declaring that there is only one pope now, Pope Francis.

            One factor that I think fails to be referred to enough in his decision to retire is simply Joseph Ratizinger’s distinctively contemplative disposition. One can see his contemplative manner manifested in how he avoided positions of leadership throughout his life and then regularly sought to resign once placed there. His respectful approach for holy men in the history of the Church who abdicated positions of leadership also reveals that his resignation was not something foreign to his own sensibilities. 

Shying away from Power 

            It is well known that Fr. Joseph Ratzinger did not want to become a bishop; he did not want to become Prefect for Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and he did not want to become pope. 

            For example, although he was called from Germany to Rome by Pope St. John Paul II to serve as the Prefect (a position he held for 24 years), it was not a position he desired. When the Pope first told Ratzinger that he planned to call him to Rome, Ratzinger presented him with the reasons against it, which only initially deterred his appointment.⁽⁴⁾Joseph Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, trans. Adrian Walker (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), 85.

            After the assassination attempt in 1981, the Holy Father once again spoke to Ratzinger about coming to Rome. “I replied that I felt so committed to theology that I wanted to retain the right to publish private works of my own and that I did not know whether that was compatible with [the office].”⁽⁵⁾Ibid., 86. Pope John Paul said that it could be done and so the final obstacle was removed. 

            Furthermore, Cardinal Ratzinger desired to resign from being the Prefect of the CDF numerous times but the Pope would not accept it. The first time it occurred was in 1986 when he completed his five-year tenure but the Pope denied the request.⁽⁶⁾Pope Benedict XVI and Peter Seewald, Last Testament: In His Own Words, trans. Jacob Phillips (Bloomsbury: New York, 2016), 174. The second and third time was in the 1990s: once after a smaller stroke and then again a few years later.⁽⁷⁾Brennan Pursell, Benedict of Bavaria (United States: Circle Press, 2008), 124. Finally, when he reached retirement age of 75 in 2001 and he had to turn in his resignation, the Holy Father still would not grant him permission to leave. At one point, the Pope plainly told his Cardinal, “You don’t need to tell me, you don’t need to write to me, saying that you want to be set free; it will not be heard. As long as I am here, you must stay.”⁽⁸⁾Last Testament, 175.

A Pontificate Inching Towards Abdication 

            Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope on April 19, 2005. Looking at the eight years of his pontificate and its many successes, one can nonetheless see signs of his inclination to resign from the office already present in the way he approached two saints who also abdicated from their ecclesial offices: St. Gregory of Nazianzus and Pope St. Celestine V.  

            On August 8, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI gave his talk at his General Audience about St. Gregory Nazianzus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. St. Gregory was the bishop of Constantinople at the end of the 4^thcentury but who, because of terrible rebellions, eventually retired from the episcopacy to a life of solitude, devoting his life to prayer and study. 

            In describing some of the struggles St. Gregory had, Benedict writes, “One can also imagine how this man, who was powerfully cast beyond earthly values, must have suffered deeply for the things of this world.”⁽⁹⁾Pope Benedict XVI, The Fathers (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 2008), 83. In another place, he comments, “He received priestly ordination with a certain reluctance for he knew that he would later have be a bishop…to be carried by Providence where he did not wish to go.”⁽¹⁰⁾Ibid. When St. Gregory was made Bishop of Constantinople, the Church there was deeply divided, and he experienced strong opposition. Benedict writes, “These hostilities must have been unbearable to such a sensitive soul.”⁽¹¹⁾Ibid., 85. Was the Pope talking about St. Gregory or also, perhaps, revealing part of himself?     

            The clearest indication that Pope Benedict’s resignation had been on his heart for a long time came in 2009 when he visited the tomb of Pope St. Celestine V in Aquila, an hour east of Rome. After praying at his tomb, the Holy Father symbolically took off his pallium, the sign of episcopal authority, and placed it on the remains of St. Celestine.

            To understand this gesture better, one must reflect on the figure of Celestine V. Pope Celestine was a mystic hermit turned pope; and in 1294, became the last pope in history prior to Benedict to retire from office. His astonishing life would seem to be a legend if it were not in fact true. 

            Peter Marone was a monk living in a cave on a mountain who had successfully established an order of men to follow the same radical eremitical life. He lived on herbs and water, was credited with miracles and prophecy, and despite his remote location, was known in his own day to be a saint. 

            The papacy had been vacant for over two years due to political infighting when the Cardinals surprisingly elected this holy man of God. After the election, the envoy of Cardinals climbed the mountain where he lived and returned with Peter, humbly riding on a donkey. He was 85 years old, the same age as Benedict when he retired. 

            Once crowned as the Vicar of Christ in 1294, he took the name of Celestine, but his inadequacies immediately became evident. Celestine was a holy man, simple-minded and ascetic, unaccustomed to being manipulated by powerful men’s intrigues. Within months, he resigned from the papacy, hoping to return to his mountain top cave. However, these same powerful men feared that Celestine would be used by their political enemies, and they imprisoned him in a cell where he died shortly thereafter. 

            Pope Benedict’s symbolic gesture at his predecessor’s tomb caused much speculation about its meaning. In retrospect, it is clear now that the abdication of the papacy was already stirring in Pope Benedict’s heart. As vaticanista Robert Moynihan wrote, “Benedict’s decision to leave his pallium in Aquila, where Celestine’s tomb is located, was not haphazard. His decision was an indicator, a way of communicating truth through gestures. It contained a message the Pope could not deliver any other way.”⁽¹²⁾Robert Moynihan, “Pope Benedict to Resign at the End of February” Inside the Vatican (February 13, 2013). Accessed March 22, 2022. https://insidethevatican.com/news/benedict-steps-down/.

            A year later, in his 2010 book interview, Light of the World, Pope Benedict spoke clearly about whether a pope could retire from office. He stated that if a pope is “physically or psychologically no longer in a position to maintain office, he has the right and even the duty to step back from his job.”⁽¹³⁾Quoted in Last Testament, 15.

Conclusion 

            Today, Benedict XVI lives a cloistered life in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens. The faithful still mourn the loss of this great pope and it is inevitable that they will discuss the reasons why he abdicated the papacy. Rumors will continue.⁽¹⁴⁾A statement circulated in the press that he later told an anonymous source that his resignation had been due a “mystical experience”. Edward Pentin, “Report: Benedict XVI Resigned After ‘Mystical Experience’”, National Catholic Register (August 21, 2013). Accessed March 22, 2022. https://www.ncregister.com/news/report-benedict-xvi-resigned-after-mystical-experience. However, he later declared that this statement was due to “a misunderstanding”. Last Testament, 22.

            For those who have great love for Pope Benedict, one rather awkward question remains lingering: Did he abandon the cross that Christ had prepared for him? For example, Dante famously labeled Pope Celestine’s resignation “the great refusal”⁽¹⁵⁾Inferno, 3:58-60. in the Divine Comedy, and placed the canonized pope who abdicated at the entrance of Hell. 

            In Pope Benedict XVI’s departing speech at St. Peter Square, he forcefully stated, “I do not abandon the cross.” When asked later about what he meant by this, he explained: 

“Well, it had been said by some that I had climbed down from the cross, that I had done the comfortable thing. And that is an accusation that I had to expect, that I had to face inside myself before I took the actual step. I am convinced that this was not flight, and in no sense an escape from practical pressure – which was not there. But nor was it an inner flight from the demands of that faith which leads man to the cross. It is instead another way to be connected to the suffering Lord as well, in the stillness of silence, in the grandeur and intensity of praying for the entire Church. So this step is not flight, not an attempt to escape, but in fact another way of remaining faithful in my service.”⁽¹⁶⁾Last Testament, 35-36.

            The credibility of his answer must be weighed with the personal integrity of the man who said it, and reinforced by the fact that Pope Benedict XVI regularly shied away from positions of power throughout his entire life; and when because of his immense gifts he found himself placed there, he did not want to remain. 

            In his last interview in his cloister about the resignation he was asked, “Are you at peace with God?” The retired pope replied, “Indeed, I really am.”⁽¹⁷⁾Last Testament, 22.