Benedict XVI has said in an interview that he felt a “duty” to resign from the papacy because of his declining health and the demands of papal travel.
While his heart was set on completing the Year of Faith, the retired pope told Italian journalist Elio Guerriero that, after his visit to Mexico and Cuba in March 2012, he felt he was “incapable of fulfilling” the demands of another international trip, especially with World Youth Day 2013 scheduled for Brazil.
“With the programme set out by John Paul II for these [World Youth] days, the physical presence of the pope was indispensable,” he told Guerriero in an interview included in the journalist’s forthcoming biography. “This, too, was a circumstance which made my resignation a duty,” he said.
An excerpt of Guerriero’s book, Servant of God and Humanity: The Biography of Benedict XVI, was published last week in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Pope Benedict said it was during his visit to Mexico and Cuba in 2012 that he “experienced very strongly the limits of my physical endurance”. Among the problems was the change in time zones. Upon consulting with his doctor, he said, it became clear “that I would never be able to take part in the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro”.
“From that day, I had to decide in a relatively short time the date of my retirement,” he said.
The retired pope added that while he was aware of his limitations, he accepted his election in 2005 “in a spirit of obedience” and that despite the difficult moments, there were also “many graces”. “I realised that everything I had to do I could not do on my own and so I was almost obliged to put myself in God’s hands, to trust in Jesus who – while I wrote my book on him – I felt bound to by an old and more profound friendship.”
Among the visitors Pope Benedict receives is Pope Francis, who “never fails to visit me before embarking on a long trip,” he said.
Pope Benedict said they shared a “wonderfully paternal-fraternal relationship” and he has been profoundly touched by his “extraordinarily human availability.”
“I often receive small gifts, personally written letters” from Pope Francis, he said. “The human kindness with which he treats me is a particular grace of this last phase of my life, for which I can only be grateful.” Francis, who wrote the book’s preface, said he felt “not only reverence and obedience, but also friendly spiritual closeness” towards his predecessor.
Teach priests that life has grey areas, Pope urges Jesuits
Too many seminaries teach students a rigid list of rules that make it difficult or impossible for them as priests to respond to the real-life situation of those who come to them seeking guidance, Pope Francis has said.
“Some priestly formation programmes run the risk of educating in the light of overly clear and distinct ideas, and therefore to act within limits and criteria that are rigidly defined a priori, and that set aside concrete situations,” the Pope said during a meeting with 28 Polish Jesuits in Kraków during World Youth Day.
The Vatican did not publish details of the Pope’s meeting but, with Pope Francis’s approval, a transcript of his remarks was published in the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica.
The Pope asked the Jesuits to begin an outreach to diocesan seminaries and diocesan priests, sharing with them the art of discernment as taught by St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. “The Church today needs to grow in the ability of spiritual discernment,” he said.
“We need to truly understand this: in life not all is black on white or white on black,” he said. “The shades of grey prevail in life. We must then teach to discern in this grey area.”
Bishop hails care for flood victims
The bishop of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has hailed as extraordinary the “outpouring of concern” and service following a devastating flood.
The flood, which killed at least 13 people, was America’s worst natural disaster since 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, according to the Red Cross. To those affected Bishop Robert Muench expressed “genuine empathy … and commitment to help as best we can”. He thanked those who “so impressively reached out to serve”.
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