Pope Benedict expresses love, gratitude in a very personal final general audience

On Wednesday, one day before stepping down from the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI held his final general audience in St. Peter's Square with tens of thousands in attendance. He greeted people throughout the square, and, instead of his typical catechesis, Pope Benedict offered a very personal message of love and gratitude.

Pope Benedict waves as he arrives to lead
his final general audience in St. Peter's Square
CNS photo

He reflected on his papacy and once again discussed his decision to abdicate, expressing his deep love for the Church. He also spent time thanking God, the cardinals, Vatican leaders, the clergy and consecrated people, and the Catholic faithful. He noted how closely he holds the faithful in prayer. He encouraged everyone to renew their faith and their trust in God during this Year of Faith. He spoke in awe of the beauty of the deep communion and familial love in the Body of Christ.

Pope Benedict's final message was one that reflected his deep love for the Catholic Church and its people.

From Pope Benedict:

At this point I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world, who, in recent weeks have sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone: now I experience this [truth] again in a way so great as to touch my very heart. The Pope belongs to everyone, and so many people feel very close to him. It's true that I receive letters from the world's greatest figures – from the Heads of State, religious leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their heart and let me feel their affection, which is born of our being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure one does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with the sense of very affectionate family ties. Here, one can touch what the Church is – not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who unites us all. To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with one's hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a time in which many speak of its decline.

Read entire text from News.va.

Pope Benedict issues motu proprio, permits earlier conclave

Pope Benedict XVI prays in
private chapel during closing
of week-long retreat at Vatican.
CNS photo

The rumors, for once, were true. After concluding his Lenten retreat on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI went back to work and released the expected motu proprio Monday morning. It includes several changes to the sede vacante (the time when the papacy is vacant) and the conclave to elect the new pope.

Pope Benedict made three main changes (as reported by Vatican Radio):

• The conclave can begin before the typical 15 days from the beginning of the period sede vacante if all the voting cardinals are present. But, the conclave must begin after 20 days even if all the electors are not there.
• The oath of secrecy includes the two technicians who check to make sure no audio-visual equipment is present.
• Violating the oath of secrecy is punished by excommunication.

Read more from News.va. The motu proprio is currently available from the Vatican in Latin.

Five questions on Benedict XVI and the sexual abuse crisis

By Matthew Bunson

The announcement that Pope Benedict XVI would renounce the papacy on Feb. 28 has caused many in the media to revisit one of the major issues of his pontificate: the clergy sexual abuse scandal that dominated the news for nearly a decade in the United States, Australia and parts of Europe.

The record of Pope Benedict XVI has also come under scrutiny, with many in the secular media repeating a discredited clam that the pope had failed to act properly in dealing with the crisis and may even have been complicit in cover-ups and transferring abuser priests.

What is the truth?

Here are some frequently asked questions.

1. What did Pope Benedict XVI do specifically as pope to prevent further cases of sexual abuse by clergy?

For those willing to make a fair assessment of the pope’s actions regarding the sexual abuse crisis, the last eight years have brought immense progress in combating the scourge of this problem in the Church. The pope was not afraid of controversy, most notably in the actions he took against Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legion of Christ. He spoke out, quite plainly and with increasing passion, on the scandals. He brought to Rome the bishops of Ireland and Germany to receive full reports on their actions to implement effective norms and programs to safeguard children in every area of the Church’s life and ministry. He spoke bluntly about the crisis to the bishops of the United States during his visit in 2008, stating:

Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior. As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of God’s people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously wronged.

During this time, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) mandated that every diocese implement basic norms for handling cases, subject to the specific laws of each country, and imposed time frames for their implementation. The norms for all of the world's dioceses are based on the norms first established for the Church in the United States in 2002 and that have proven immensely successful in creating a safe environment for children and those serving the Church and in reducing drastically the number of cases each year. Cristina Odone, a columnist for the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, concluded that "this Pope has done more than any other churchman to address the issue of priestly child abuse."

2. Did the pope ever apologize to the victims of clergy sexual abuse?

Yes. Pope Benedict has made public and private apologies for the tragedy of clergy sexual abuse. He has privately apologized to victims in his sessions with them. His public apologies have included his visit to the United States in 2008. During the flight to Washington, D.C., he announced that the issue of the sexual abuse crisis was not going to be given little attention or that it was some mere afterthought. It was the first major topic of discussion for the pope and remained so throughout the visit.

Second, the pontiff established a willingness to speak in unmistakable terms of penance for the Church. He says plainly, "I am ashamed and we will do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen in future."

The pope then detailed a threefold plan for dealing with the crisis. This echoes the sound policies that had been adopted in the United States and that he has, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, helped install.

The first point was a concern with justice. He affirmed that the Church "will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry; it is absolutely incompatible, and whoever is really guilty of being a pedophile cannot be a priest." Another part of justice is to do everything possible to bring true justice to the victims of abuse. This is in keeping with the Church's understanding of the cardinal virtue described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good."

The pope then noted the pastoral level, in that the victims of abuse "will need healing and help and assistance and reconciliation," but he added his belief that "the bishops and the priests and all Catholic people in the United States will do whatever possible to help, to assist, to heal."

Finally, he made note of the institutional reform of the seminarians. He had approved a visitation of the seminaries in the United States and was determined that those admitted to the seminary should be "sound persons" who demonstrate "a deep personal life in Christ and who have a deep sacramental life."

One of the most pointed and public apologies issued by the pontiff was his "Letter to the Irish." He wrote to the people of Ireland:

You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were courageous enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen. Those of you who were abused in residential institutions must have felt that there was no escape from your sufferings. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. 

3. Did Pope Benedict ever meet with abuse victims?

Yes. Pope Benedict has met with abuse on numerous occasions. One of the most notable was in 2008 during his visit to the United States.

4. What role did the pope have in helping the Church in the United States deal with the sex abuse crisis?

From the time that the bishops of the United States began grappling fully with the problem of clergy sexual abuse in 2002, they were encouraged and assisted in their work by Cardinal Ratzinger, who was then head of the CDF. The bishops introduced the so-called Dallas Charter and the imposition of the Essential Norms, by which dioceses created safe environments for children, launched a "zero tolerance" policy regarding abuse, and worked to improve the formation of priests and seminary system. The results have been nothing short of dramatic. The audits by the National Review Board found that in the last years the numbers of annually reported cases of sexual abuse of minors in the entire Church in the United States had declined to single digits. Cardinal Ratzinger was instrumental in bringing the bishops to Rome to report to Pope John Paul II and also in streamlining the approval process by the Holy See.

5. What did he do as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to push for reform in the Church’s handling of cases?

Cardinal Ratzinger became increasingly convinced of the need to rid the Church of what he called the "filth" of abuse and emerged as one of the Vatican's most dedicated leaders in confronting the growing crisis.

As Cardinal Ratzinger and his staff became aware of the breadth and depth of the abuse problem, he underwent what John Allen, a longtime commentator on Vatican matters, called Ratzinger's "conversion experience."

At the heart of that "conversion" was the CDF's increasing immersion in the clergy abuse cases after Pope John Paul II assigned it responsibility to oversee all of the cases worldwide.

On May 18, 2001, the pope promulgated an apostolic letter called Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela ("The Safeguarding of the Sacraments"). The document, which had been in drafting and broad consultation for several years, was most noteworthy for the fact that it confirmed the CDF's responsibility for disciplinary review and action regarding violations associated with abuse, including the solicitation to a sexual sin (a sin "against the sixth commandment") under the pretext of the confession if involving the confessor himself or the granting of absolution to "an accomplice" in a sexual sin by the confessor.

It also said that it reserved to the CDF the responsibility for reviewing sexual violations "committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years." Such acts are "to be punished according to the gravity of the offense, not excluding dismissal or deposition." In Canon law, the age of a minor was listed as under 16 years. In the 1990s the U.S. bishops had asked that the age of a minor be defined as under 18 so that it would match state law in defining the upper age of minors. The apostolic letter also addressed a long-standing request by U.S. bishops that the statute of limitations be lengthened, in this case for 10 years, rather than five, after the victim has reached his or her 18th birthday.

In short, what the apostolic letter did was require bishops to report cases of clergy sexual abuse to the CDF. 

In a letter to the world's bishops at the time of the document’s release, Cardinal Ratzinger explained that while probable cases had to be reported to the CDF, the Congregation could allow the cases to be held in the local diocese or it could bring the case before its own tribunal.

While Canon Law, particularly canon 1395, has made clear that the sexual abuse of minors by clerics is a violation of law, the new procedures created a more effective process for the large number of cases being uncovered. By requiring that such cases be reported to Rome, it also addressed concerns that abuse cases were being handled differently in different dioceses and countries.

In his March 17, 2010, column for the National Catholic Reporter, John Allen said Cardinal 

Ratzinger and his staff "seemed driven by a convert's zeal to clean up the mess":

Of the 500-plus cases that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dealt with prior to Benedict's election to the papacy, the substantial majority were returned to the local bishop authorizing immediate action against the accused priest – no canonical trial, no lengthy process, just swift removal from ministry and, often, expulsion from the priesthood. In a more limited number of cases, the congregation asked for a canonical trial, and in a few cases the congregation ordered the priest reinstated. 

That marked a stark reversal from the initial insistence of Vatican officials, Ratzinger included, that in almost every instance the accused priest deserved the right to canonical trial. Having sifted through the evidence, Ratzinger and [Msgr. Charles J.] Scicluna apparently drew the conclusion that in many instances the proof was so overwhelming that immediate action was required. 

Among insiders, the change of climate was dramatic.

These answers were compiled by Matthew Bunson who, with Greg Erlandson, authored "Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal" (Our Sunday Visitor, 2010)

Pope Benedict may change papal election rules, allow an earlier conclave

Pope Benedict gestures as he
leaves his general audience
at the Vatican on Feb. 13.
CNS photo

According to Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, Pope Benedict XVI is considering clarifying details of the papal conclave in the Apostolic constitution. He would issue a "Motu Proprio," a document issued and signed by the pope declaring new legal regulations. In this case, it could include allowing for an earlier conclave.

Typically, the conclave takes place 15-20 days after the conclusion of the previous papacy. This allows for the traditional nine days of mourning in the normal case of the death of the pope as well as other preparations. But since the pope has resigned and given 17 days' notice, the conclave could quite feasibly happen sooner.

From Fr. Lombardi:

I don't know if he will deem it necessary or appropriate to elucidate the question of the opening date of the conclave. We will have to see if and when a document is published. It seems to me, for example, the clarification of some details in order to be in complete agreement with another document regarding the conclave, that is, the Ordo Rituum Conclavis. In any case, the question depends on the pope's judgment, and if this document comes about it will be made known through the proper channels.

Read entire post from the Vatican Information Service.

For ongoing coverage of the papal transition, visit osv.com.

Shaw: Papal resignation a ‘striking example’ of personal vocation

By Russell Shaw

For the last several weeks I've been teaching an online course about the role of the Catholic laity. We'd just gotten to the subject of personal vocation when the startling news came through: Benedict XVI was stepping down as pope.

Pope Benedict XVI leaves
Ash Wednesday Mass on
Feb. 13, 2013, reportedly his
last large liturgical event.
CNS photo

Posting a question that Monday morning to get my students' discussion rolling for the week, I began by remarking that Pope Benedict's action was "the most striking example of personal vocation that I've seen in a long time."

My students, bless them, were quick to pick up on that. Calling the papal decision "a wonderful example of personal discernment," the very first of them to respond said this:

"First, personal vocation is just that, personal. Not every man who is pope will retire as Benedict XVI just did. It is part of God's plan for this man, at this time, in this case. Second, it is discovered over time, in prayer and many times through the circumstances of life. The pope says he has been noticing his strength decrease over the past few months and has been praying about this and come to the conclusion that he must retire."

Individual calls

That rates an A+ in my book. Too bad that can't be said of all the commentaries on the papal resignation that I've seen and heard.

Pope John Paul II during his
visit to Italy in 1993.
CNS photo

Some people contrasted Benedict's decision, taken in light of failing strength, with Blessed John Paul II's decision to soldier on to the end despite the inroads of Parkinson's disease. Then they cited the difference to the disadvantage of either one man or the other: John Paul should have done as Benedict is doing or, alternatively, Benedict should have died in office, as John Paul chose to do and as popes generally have done.

But this misses the point that, as my student astutely put it, "personal vocation is just that, personal." Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul faced circumstances that were alike in some ways but also unalike in others. These were two different men who heard God calling them to act in two quite different ways. Note that both before and after becoming pope, John Paul II was the greatest exponent of the idea of personal vocation that we've seen yet. Clearly, he applied the idea in his own case, right up to the end. 

Prayerful discernment

What will Benedict XVI be remembered for in the long run? The tremendous emphasis he has placed on new evangelization, no doubt, his courageous stands against things like women's ordination and same-sex marriage that set him firmly in opposition to two sacred cows of the secular media, feminism and gay rights, his equally courageous defense of the Second Vatican Council as a council of both continuity and reform, which brought down on his head the wrath of people seeking to depict Vatican II as a radical break with tradition – all this and much more.

But it is also possible that he'll be best remembered as the pope who resigned.

That might seem to be a diminished view of the man and his achievements, but it isn't. Simply as a practical matter, Benedict's action sets an important modern precedent that could continue to serve the Church and the papacy well in years to come in the face of rising longevity in combination with crises now unforeseen.

Beyond that, though, I hope Benedict's decision will come to be seen and appreciated for what it so clearly was: the prayerful discernment and acceptance of a new stage in the unfolding of his personal vocation. All of us can learn from that.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Msgr. Campion on the role of the Catholic faith on "Downton Abbey"

By Msgr. Owen F. Campion

Roman Catholicism is an issue in the popular PBS drama, "Downton Abbey," which has its season finale Feb. 17. As background, the series is about a fictitious, Anglican English noble family, the Crawleys, of which the earl of Grantham is a member.

One of the earl's three daughters, Sybil, falls in love with and marries the family's Irish chauffeur. His being a servant and a strident supporter of Irish independence from Britain are bad enough. Even worse, he is a Catholic.

Sybil dies when their child is born. The baby's Irish father insists that she be baptized a Catholic. The earl is strongly opposed. The Crawleys are divided.

Actually, in real-life, the British aristocracy has had Catholics within its ranks since King Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Most English aristocrats followed him – at least publicly. Others refused. Some died as martyrs, among them are canonized saints, because they stubbornly kept the Catholic faith.

Most prominently, the Howards, the family of the dukes of Norfolk, the most noble of British nobility, are Catholics to this day. Indeed, in a family discussion in "Downton Abbey," the earl's mother says that her dear friend is the dowager duchess of Norfolk, who is "more Catholic than the pope."

In another scene, the earl frankly admits being "anti-Catholic" to Archbishop of York Cosmo Gordan Lang, who was an actual figure. Ironically, in real-life, eventually as Archbishop of Canterbury, Lang supported the Malines Conversations, an effort to re-unite Anglicanism with Roman Catholicism.

Royal romances

Despite exceptions, anti-Catholicism was an issue in Britain's upper class for a long time. It seemingly, however, was not always so pronounced among the British royalty.

Catholicism colored the situation when two events in the royal family occurred, both of which the dowager countess of Grantham well would have remembered. Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria’s grandson, duke of Clarence and heir to the future King Edward VII, wanted to marry, so the stories went, Princess Helene, great-granddaughter of France's last king.

Helene was a Catholic. No heir to the British throne, at the time, could be married to a Catholic. Nor could the monarch. The romance ended. (He soon died of influenza).

In 1906, another uproar followed Spain's King Alfonzo XIII's proposal to Princess Victoria Eugenie, another of Queen Victoria's grandchildren. She accepted and announced that she was converting to Catholicism. Horror of horrors for British Protestants, King Edward VII, her uncle, gave his approval. Under British law, Victoria Eugenie still lost her rights to Britain's throne, but she remained close to her British royal relatives, and they to her, until her death in 1969. (She and King Alfonso were the grandparents of Spain's present King Juan Carlos I.)

Another shoe fell in 1913 when still another of Queen Victoria's granddaughters, Princess Beatrice, became a Catholic.

Times have changed. Religion today means less and less in Britain. It is not good, but in the process anti-Catholicism furor has waned.

Today, two of Queen Elizabeth II's first cousins, Edward, duke of Kent, and his brother, Prince Michael of Kent, are married to Roman Catholics. Their children are Catholics. The maternal grandmother of Prince William, duke of Cambridge, became a Catholic. (She died in 2004).

After Henry VIII, British monarchs virtually ignored popes. Religion is said to be important to Queen Elizabeth II. She is supposed to have admired Blessed John Paul II very much. In sixty years, she has attended only one funeral outside Britain. When John Paul II died in 2005, she sent Prince Charles to represent Britain at his funeral. Two weeks later, she sent Prince Philip to Pope Benedict XVI’s installation. They were the highest ranking representatives after the queen herself.

Msgr. Owen F. Campion is associate publisher of Our Sunday Visitor.

Cardinal-electors respond to Pope Benedict's resignation, comment on conclave

After Pope Benedict XVI's announcement on Monday that he will resign from the papacy on Feb. 28, cardinal-electors – those cardinals who are eligible to vote for the next pope in the conclave – from around the world have responded with surprise, sadness, admiration and guidance for the transition.

• Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
  "The news obviously came as a great surprise; however, once I had a chance to read the declaration that he issued saying why, I began to realize what a courageous man our Holy Father is. I have always thought of him as a person of great fortitude, but it takes enormous humility to be able to say in self-appraisal 'I can't do this any longer,' and then it takes great courage to say 'I'm actually going to take this step.' And as he said, he prayed over this; this was an action that comes out of his conscientious assessment of his role before God. I have nothing but admiration for our Holy Father. This was an enormous surprise, but at the same time one cannot help but admire the courage and the truthfulness and the humility."
  
  Listen to the entire interview.
  
  
• Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Berlin
  "For me he is one of the great theologians of [...] and intellectuals of our time."
  
  Read more.
  
  
• Cardinal John Tong, Bishop of Hong Kong
  "The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, is a man of fervent prayer. In his statement announcing his resignation from the Petrine Ministry due to his advanced age, he pointed out that he had finally made this serious decision after a long period of prayer and extended reflection. He is deeply aware that in order to fulfill his papal duties, he cannot rely on word and deed alone, but also needs prayer. He entrusts the future of the Church to the Lord Jesus and to our Blessed Mother. After he resigns, he will serve the Church wholeheartedly through prayer. We express our heartfelt thanks to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, for his guidance and good example, and we will always pray for him."
  
  Read more.
  
  
• Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega, of Guadalajara, Mexico
  "Pope Benedict XVI did not cling to power. His resignation should be understood from a perspective of faith and humility."
  
  Read story.
  
  
• Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
  "The Holy Father brought the tender heart of a pastor, the incisive mind of a scholar and the confidence of a soul united with His God in all he did. His resignation is but another sign of his great care for the Church. We are sad that he will be resigning but grateful for his eight years of selfless leadership as successor of St. Peter. ... Those who met him, heard him speak and read his clear, profound writings found themselves moved and changed. In all he said and did he urged people everywhere to know and have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
  
  The occasion of his resignation stands as an important moment in our lives as citizens of the world. Our experience impels us to thank God for the gift of Pope Benedict. Our hope impels us to pray that the College of Cardinals under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit choose a worthy successor to meet the challenges present in today’s world."
  
  Read entire statement.
  
  
• Cardinal Raffaele Farina, retired head of the Vatican Secret Archives and the Vatican Library
  "We were all taken by surprise, nobody had expected it. Many faces in the room were streaked with tears."
  
  Read story.
  
  
• Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila
  "Pope Benedict XVI’s renunciation of the ministry as Bishop of Rome on February 11, 2013, came as a surprise. The announcement also brought sadness to us. We felt like children clinging to a father who bids them farewell. ... But sadness gives way to admiration for the Holy Father’s humility, honesty, courage and sincerity. ... We know that the Papal ministry is not an easy task. So we thank Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected Pope at the rather advanced age of 78, for selflessly guiding the Church these past eight years with his teaching, simplicity and gentleness."
  
  Read more.
  
  
• Cardinal Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo, Italy
  "We were amazed by the Holy Father's decision. But it is a choice that deserves respect and shows his profound love for the Church."
  
  Read story.
  
  
• Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia
  "It is very typical of his humility and of his clear thinking and his reasoning ... After the election of Pope Benedict, the cardinals went up one by one, and we were from all over the world, and here cardinals went up to express their obedience to the pope and to express their faith, their act of faith. And we each knelt before the pope for a moment, and as I was getting up, he floored me. He absolutely floored me. With everything going on – he had just been elected pope 30-40 minutes ahead of time – and he had the presence of mind, which he has maintained so magnificently during his whole pontificate, his mental presence is tremendous. He said to me as I was getting up, one of 113 I think we were at that time, 'Cardinal,' he says to me, 'Happy Birthday.' He happened to be elected on my birthday."
  
  Watch press conference.
  
  
• Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles
  "Pope Benedict XVI has been an extraordinary Successor to St. Peter these past eight years, and I thank God for the graces and blessings which have come to the Church and to the world during his Pontificate. ... His homilies and addresses were so amazing because he was not speaking about Jesus Christ as a topic, but he was speaking about Jesus from a deep and intimate knowledge of Jesus himself.  It was that attraction to the person of Jesus Christ which flowed from all his many teachings for the Church and the world."
  
  Read entire statement.
  
  
• Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago
  "Pope Benedict XVI has, in all circumstances, placed the will of God for the good of the Church before every other consideration. That same resoluteness of purpose speaks in his statement announcing his resignation from the Chair of Peter.
  
  He has taught with clarity and charity what God has revealed to the world in Christ; he has handed on the apostolic faith; he has loved all of God’s people with all his heart. He has now shown great courage in deciding, after prayer and soul-searching, to resign his office at the end of this month."
  
  Read entire statement.
  
  
• Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston
  "He's telling all of us it's not about the person; it's about the office; it's about the ministry; it's about the pastoral needs of the Church. And, of course, going into the conclave, I see that responsibility that we need to try and make a decision that reflects not just a personal choice but what we really believe is the best for God's people and who the very best person would be for this position."
  
  Watch press conference.
  
  
• Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston
  "I am like most others surprise by the announcement and a little saddened. At the same time, the Holy Father was very clear and precise on his reasons for resigning. They center on the very meaning of the pope as, in the Latin text of the pope, as governing the ship of St. Peter, the Church, and proclaiming the gospel. ... The pope's words speak of his great devotion and love for the Church, his wonderful humility and his always generous leadership of the Church. ... He has been a genuine apostolic leader of the Faith, and we are all grateful for his governance, his astute theological mind and his great charity and visibility for the Catholic Church."
  
  Watch press conference.
  
  
• Cardinal Edwin F. O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher and Archbishop emeritus of Baltimore
  "My thoughts have been mainly with the Holy Father these days, and I think that's going to be the case until this whole episode is well behind us. It had to be a wrenching decision for him to make. The fact that he is certain he made the right decision – I am quite sure he is certain of that – still doesn't change the emotions. ... In one sense it will be easier for him, but in another sense it's going to be a very traumatic transition I think. ... I hope people understand the great contribution he has made, and will continue to make over the next two weeks and in his new life. Certainly that life will be no less dedicated to the Church and to Christ then it will have been during his years of active ministry as pope."
  
  Watch video.
  
  
• Cardinal Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto
  "Since his election in 2005, Pope Benedict has led the universal church with wisdom and holiness, offering to all the clear and loving message of the Gospel, and offering to each of us as well the personal example of a devoted disciple of Jesus exercising the mission of the Apostle Peter as a true servant of the servants of God. This is a time in which we all give thanks to God for the apostolic ministry of Pope Benedict. During this time of transition, we pray for his health and well-being as he enters a time of prayerful retirement. We also offer our prayers, in a special way, for the Cardinals of the world, who will gather in Rome in the coming weeks to choose the next successor to St. Peter."
  
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• Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow
  "With great respect and emotion I accept the Holy Father Benedict XVI's decision to resign from the governance of the Church and to entrust the care of Her future events to the College of Cardinals. I understand the reasons that the Holy Father presented to the members of the consistory. After John Paul II's death, Benedict XVI has guided Christ's Church with great reflection and wisdom, which come from his exceptional intellectual ability as well as his deep faith. I thank the Holy Father for all his efforts to renew the Church in the spirit of fidelity to the Teacher of Nazareth. As one of the bishops of Poland, I assure him of our gratitude for his friendship with John Paul II, for his beatification, and also for his exceptional benevolence toward the Polish nation. Personally, I will always be faithful and grateful for everything that I have received from him. The Church in Krakow will be eternally appreciative to the Peter of our time, Benedict XVI. Gratitude and fidelity. We will remain united in prayer and dedication, together with the Holy Father. I entrust Benedict XVI to the Holy Spirit and to Our Lady of Lourdes, the patroness of the day."
  
  From Vatican Information Service.
  
  
• Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State
  "The Eucharist is to give thanks to God. This evening we would like to thank the Lord for the path that the entire Church has taken under the guidance of Your Holiness, and we would like to tell him from the bottom of our hearts, with great affection, commotion and admiration: Thank you for having given us a bright example of a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord, a worker, however, that has known at each moment to do what was most important: bring God to man and man to God."
  
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• Cardinal Dominik Duka, Archbishop of Prague
  "I appreciate his spiritual courage to make this important step, which he already declared as possible at the start of his pontificate."
  
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• Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
  "We are frail people. We do not have the courage to take such a significant leap. Only kings and great men like the present pontiff can display such courage to renounce the office of the pope."
  
  Read more.
  
  
• Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, of Ranchi, India
  "We accept in all humility the decision of the pontiff to step down. ... There is a provision for resignation and it has also been used in the past. After the Pope formally leaves his position on February 28, we will once again meet and elect his successor."
  
  Read more.
  
  
• Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana
  "Only a great love for Jesus Christ, for his Church and great humility can lead someone to take such a step."
  
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• Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa"When he answered the question, on the day he was elected, 'what name do you take?', he gave us in very short sentences the layout of what he was going to set out to do. He chose the name Benedict because the previous Pope Benedict had been elected just when World War I was beginning, and he spent all of his pontificate working for reconciliation among the nations. And I think Benedict XVI has certainly done that in his time both within the Church and outside the Church. He has certainly worked for reconciliation. The second he said was that Pope St. Benedict in the time that he lived, the Roman Empire collapsed, the Church was in disarray, the Church was very weak, and St. Benedict was the instrument of God to renew the Church and rebuild the Church and renew the Faith. And I think that is what Pope Benedict has done. He's really gone out of his way to renew the Faith – the Year of Faith is an example of it, the different books, the encyclicals he has written – all working in that direction. And finally ... to make Jesus the center of everything in the life of the Church and the life of the Christian.
  
  Listen to interview.
  
  
• Cardinal Keith O'Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland
  While "shocked and saddened" to hear of the pope's decision, "I know that his decision will have been considered most carefully and that it has come after much prayer and reflection."
  
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• Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Germany, president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community
  "This decision fills me with great respect but also with huge regret. Benedict XVI has been leading the world Church for eight years with immense dedication and shaped her with his clear theology in a crucial way. His theological thinking, always bringing together Faith and Reason, Church and Politics, has earmarked his groundbreaking theological and philosophical Speeches in Westminster Hall in London, in the German Bundestag as well as in Washington."
  
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• Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras
  "This is a tireless job, and he dedicates all his time to the Church. It is a decision of faith. ... Although we didn't know about this, we were thinking 'How much longer can he be the head of the Church?' ... The Church won't be left in the lurch. As Pope Benedict XVI has said, we are in God's hands, which are the best hands."
  
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• Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria
  "It is a very courageous decision he took. As bishops, we are expected to retire at the age of 75 but popes have no limit, so it's entirely his decision. He did it in the best interest of the Church. ...
  
  There's no problem at all. The Church goes on. We shall have another pope because the Church can never be left without a pope. A conclave of eligible cardinals will be summoned to vote for a new pope. Every cardinal is eligible for the position. We are not a political party, so it's not a question of what this party or the other ones want. I will be there for the conclave, by God's grace."
  
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• Cardinal George Pell of Sydney
  "Overwhelmingly it will be a teaching legacy. He's been a great teacher ... volumes on the life of Christ, his couple of encyclicals. They're beautiful pieces of work. ... I think he's the best living Catholic theologian now."
  
  Watch interview.
  
  
• Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
  "He has shown a high level of humility for seeing the truth inside himself and has come out publicly to announce his decision to resign. He has shown us that the only thing to fear is God and that God will always be there to guide us so long as we live in this world knowing that we belong to Him. ... It is a lesson to leaders who have overstayed in power to the extent that their people are suffering because they have failed to serve them. ... We will soon converge in Vatican but while there we are not guided by the colour of our skins, not by the continents where we come from but we surrender ourselves to God and the whole process is determined by the Holy Spirit."
  
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• Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of São Paulo
  "It would be very pretentious for a cardinal to say, 'I am prepared.' No one is going to say 'I am a candidate.' ... The reflections that will be made at the conclave will not be about whether the pope comes from one place or another place, whether he has this origin or that origin, but whether he has the condition, is the most prepared to lead the Church in this moment of its history."
  
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• Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna
  "I am naturally very concerned and very touched by his completely conscious decision. I saw him last Thursday but he did not show any signs that he would resign." ... It was an "impressing, strong and clear decision made due to a huge sense of responsibility." It can only be "perceived and accepted with respect."
  
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• Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
  "It's very normal for people in any part of the world to gang behind somebody that they can associate with and they can feel part of. So, this for me is a natural phenomenon just as guys in Latin America are doing the same thing for cardinals from Latin America. This is essentially an exercise of the Catholic Church. Therefore before we start going continental, we need first to go Church, and think about what the Catholic Church in Africa can do or should do with such an event. When that is the case, then what we [are] heading for is the Catholic Church in Africa in communion with the Catholic Church around the world choosing a chief pastor, somebody to exercise leadership over the whole Church."
  
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• Cardinal Franc Rode, retired prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
  The initial reaction was as "sadness, the feeling that a father and leader is leaving," but not completely unexpected. "[W]e can only thank God for his beautiful pontificate."
  
  Read more.

The prophecies of St. Malachy: Are they genuine?

By Matthew Bunson, D. Min., M.Div.

The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to renounce the papacy has sparked a new wave of intense interest in a centuries-old prediction supposedly made by an obscure 12th century Irish saint. According to the prophecy, there is only one pope remaining. If that is not dramatic enough, his time as head of the Church will witness the end of the world.

The source of the prophecy is supposedly none other than a great Irish saint, Malachy O'Morgair, the Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, who died in 1148. "The Prophecies of Malachy" are reputed to be an account of the Irish saint's visions of every future pope, from Pope Celestine II (reigned 1143-1144) to the last pope, Peter II.

These visions allegedly took place while the holy bishop was in Rome in 1139 to consult with Pope Innocent II.

The text describes each of the 111 or 112 successive popes with mystical mottos that give a clue as to their character or era until the end of the world during the reign of Petrus Romanus, Peter the Roman. St. Malachy reputedly gave his manuscript to Pope Innocent II to assure him that the line of pontiffs would continue unbroken until the end, as the Holy See was at the time struggling with many temporal and spiritual crises.

The prophetic pages were then placed in the Roman archives, where they were forgotten for 400 years.

Are they genuine?

The view of virtually every reputable historical scholar is that the "Prophecies of Malachy," while a bit of historical fun, are, in fact, not a legitimate work by St. Malachy, nor are they even correctly dated to his time in the 12th century.

According to the respected 17th-century Jesuit scholar and historian Claude-François Menestrier, the prophecies were fabricated around 1590 in the days leading up to the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Urban VII.

The forger was likely a member of the entourage of Cardinal Girolamo Simoncelli, bishop of Orvieto, who wished to enhance the cardinal's chances of election as pontiff. The motto seemingly given by Malachy for the next pope after Urban VII was Ex Antiquitate Urbis ("from the city of antiquity"), an allusion to Orvieto (or Urbs Vetus, "old city," which was also Cardinal Simoncelli's birthplace).

As it was, the "discovery" of the mottos did not secure the cardinal's election, and Cardinal Niccoló Sfondrati, a native of Cremona, was elected and took the name Gregory XIV. The list of papal mottos was then first published by a Benedictine monk, Arnold de Wyon, in his book Lignum Vitae, in 1595.

What followed was a fierce debate as to whether they were genuine, and a fascination with them that has endured to the present day.

Every effort made by scholars to locate the original manuscript has failed. In addition, there is an inexplicable lapse of 400 years between the time when Malachy would have presented the prophecies to Pope Innocent II and their being found just in time to influence the 1590 conclave.

The life of Malachy is very well documented, thanks chiefly to the efforts of his dear friend St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in whose arms he died. Bernard wrote a biography of the Irish saint and made absolutely no mention of any papal visions, despite other claims that Malachy sometimes manifested a prophetic gift. The Irish saint allegedly foretold, for example, the day and hour of his own death.

Sometimes on target

What is it, then, about the "prophecies" that continues to grip the popular imagination? After all, the vision consists merely of a tedious list of 111 or 112 Latin phrases or mottos purportedly related to the popes succeeding Pope Celestine II.

Key to the ongoing interest is the fact that, despite the skepticism of scholars, some of the mottos of the popes match their corresponding pontiffs with remarkable precision.

Not surprisingly, the phrases from Pope Celestine II to the popes just before Pope Gregory XIV are far more accurate than the ones that follow. But some of the mottos for later popes are still intriguingly on target.

For example, the Latin phrase for Pope Pius VII was Aquila Rapax ("rapacious eagle"). This seems to be a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruthless French emperor whose symbol was the eagle and whose adversarial relationship with the Church dominated this pope's pontificate.

Many of the earliest mottos on the list obviously referred to a pope's coat of arms. In modern times, this appears to be the case as well for Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), whose coat of arms includes a blazing star. His motto: Lumen in Coelo ("light in the sky").

Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) was pontiff during the horrible devastations of World War I. It was also during his pontificate that the Russian Revolution took place, beginning an all-out assault on the Christian faith by communists in that country and elsewhere. Pope Benedict XV's motto: Religio Depopulata, "religion laid waste."

Quite accurate, too, was the motto for Pope Blessed John XXIII, Pastor et Nauta ("pastor and sailor"). He was a truly pastoral figure and patriarch of the great maritime city of Venice.

In most cases, however, mottos for the popes beginning in 1590 seem to fit one of two categories: Either they are general enough to apply to any number of pontiffs, or they require tortured explanations to be matched to the corresponding men.

Illustrations of the first type of motto are the ones matching Popes Pius VIII (1829-1830) – Vir Religiosus, "religious man" – and Innocent XIII (1721-1724), De Bona Religione, "from a good religious background (or family)." Examples of those not easily applied are Canis et Coluber ("dog and serpent") and Rastrum in Porta ("a rake in the door").

The last popes

What about the mottos of the last three popes before the coming Peter II, who would correspond to those occupying St. Peter's chair in our day?

They are given the mottos De Medietate Lunae ("of the half moon"), De Labore Solis ("sun in labor" or "sun eclipsed") and Gloria Olivae ("glory of the olive"). The accepted order of the list means that the popes in question are Popes John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Needless to say, many efforts have been made by proponents to explain the connections between the mottos and the most recent popes. A few of the earlier mottos seem to be connected either to the time when a pope was born or the day when he assumed office. So some have argued that these mottos apply well to Pope John Paul I, who became pope under a half moon, and Pope John Paul II, who was born during a solar eclipse.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, they contend, took the name Benedict XVI because he wanted to emulate the peacemaking pontiff Pope Benedict XV, to bring the world an olive branch, the ancient sign of peace. The olive is also a symbol of one branch of the Order of St. Benedict (sometimes known as the Olivetans), so this motto and pope are connected in that way as well.

Then there is the most famous prediction of them all: The final pope, "Peter the Roman" (Petrus Romanus), "will feed his flock among many tribulations; after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people."

Provocative as the last words may seem, they were not actually included in the original list published by Arnold de Wyon. They appear for the first time only in the 1820 edition of the Lignum Vitae. Prior to that, there were only 111 mottos.

So the 112th phrase was apparently added by editors who were Olivetan Benedictines and who wished to include the traditional claim by the Order of St. Benedict that before the end, a pope would come from the Benedictines and would lead the Church in its struggle against evil.

Thus the most spectacular claim of the prophecies was not even part of the original version.

Whether or not we believe the prophecies of Malachy, one thing is certain: We will find out soon enough whether Pope Benedict XVI will indeed be succeeded by "Peter II" as the last pontiff before judgment day. 

As a final bit of food for thought, one of the Cardinals considered a leading front-runner for election – the so-called papabili – is an African named Cardinal Turkson. His Christian name just happens to be Peter.

Matthew Bunson is editor of The Catholic Answer and "The Catholic Almanac" and author of more than 40 books. He is a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and a professor at the Catholic Distance University.

What are you doing for Lent?

Lent is here. And God's timing never fails to amaze me. As we experience this historic transition in the Church with Pope Benedict XVI stepping down, Lent offers itself as a time for us to take a step back. It is a time to eliminate distractions, look at our own unworthiness, and reorient ourselves toward God. If you've gotten distracted over the last couple days and never finalized your plans for Lent, there's still time. If you don't know where to start, here are a few ideas to get you started. Simple and straightforward, some of these Lenten plans follow the 1-1-1 Plan outlined in the Feb. 17 issue of OSV Newsweekly (available as a PDF): Focus on one sin, add in one spiritual activity and give up one thing.

Lenten plans

Sloth, TV, spiritual reading
This Lent, I am eager to try Father Jim Shafer's 1-1-1 Plan. For some reason, I've been feeling very lazy lately, so I plan to work on sloth during the Lenten season. One thing that should help with that is the fact I am giving up TV viewing. (EXCEPT for the "Downton Abbey" season finale on Feb. 17 and the Academy Awards on Feb. 24!) As for my add-on, I plan to do more spiritual reading, including Paula Huston's "Simplifying the Soul" and Brother Victor Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette's "A Rhythm of Life: The Monastic Way." – Sarah Hayes, OSV editorial

New toys
I am giving up buying new toys and downloading new apps that cost money. I will try and play with stuff I already have instead of buying more. – Aidan, age 8, Minneapolis, Minn.

Envy, desserts, prayer
My goal this Lent is to deepen my relationship with Jesus Christ. I plan to focus on envy, give up desserts, and attend Chapel for prayer one hour during the week. – Ryan Kohnen, OSV customer sales

Greed
I have a weakness, at times, for purchasing too many media items: books, DVDs, and CDs. And so, focusing this Lent on the sin of greed, I will give up purchasing media items for myself and instead provide them to others, within a fixed budget — by the grace of God! – Anonymous

Pride, social media, spiritual reading
Pride (strive on being more humble), giving up radio and eliminating social media on Fridays in Lent, and doing spiritual reading. – David Dziena, OSV editorial

Alcohol
While I’m not Catholic I still participate in the Lent tradition of abstaining to practice discipline and become more in tune with how much I need God. I will be abstaining from alcohol during Lent. I’ll admit it is hard to drink in moderation sometimes, and Lent is a wonderful opportunity to refocus my intentions and allow God to convict my spirit for growth. – Brent Chamberlin, OSV advertising

Giving blood, red meat
I am giving blood and also fasting from red meat daily. – Adam C.

Adoration
I'm going to make a commitment to spend time in our parish's Adoration Chapel during Lent – it's something that I've never made time for, and I'm hoping it will become a longtime habit! – Denise Enos, OSV curriculum

Sloth, television, daily examination of conscience
As for myself, I have an unfortunate tendency of falling on my couch in the evenings after work and staying there instead of doing valuable things like exercise, budgeting, practicing guitar, praying ... you get the picture. So I'll be attacking sloth this Lent, both physically and spiritually. To help that, I will be examining my conscience every evening and giving up my, I'm ashamed to say, primary evening activity of watching television. Or maybe I should just get rid of the couch ... Either way, I am excited to see where God takes me, and all of us, this Lent. – Jennifer Rey, OSV web department

Share your Lenten plans

We would love to hear more ideas about how to experience a fruitful Lent. Please share your Lenten plans in the comment section below. If you need more ideas, read more about the 1-1-1 Plan, or visit our Lent page.

President of Our Sunday Visitor, a Vatican publishing partner, reflects on Benedict’s pontificate

Following the unexpected news this morning of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation at the end of the month, 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 – issues the following statement:

While news of the impending resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has caught the world by surprise, speculation has already begun about the reasons for this resignation and who might be his successor. 

It is appropriate at this point, however, to reflect on the great gift that Pope Benedict was for the Catholic Church. He was a close collaborator of Blessed Pope John Paul II, and in many ways his pontificate was a continuation of the goals and vision of his predecessor.   

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.   

At the same time, he has been a great theologian pope, and he had his own agenda. During his eight-year pontificate, he used the Chair of Peter as a pulpit from which to address the challenges and the hopes of modern society. His three encyclicals, "God is Love," "In Hope We Are Saved" and "Charity in Truth," all spoke to his concerns, and revealed both a solicitude for modern men and women in the midst of immense cultural transformation and an unshakable faith that our hope remained always and essentially in Christ. 

"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."

His pontificate will be remembered for his trips to the United States, England, Lebanon, Cuba and more, but it will also be remembered for his writings, particularly his books on Jesus of Nazareth. He wrote with great intellectual and stylistic clarity, which made him one of the most accessible and widely read popes of the last century. 

Mention of his pontificate will also be inextricably linked to the sexual abuse crises that have rocked various nations around the globe. His legacy is that he sought to address this scandal, calling for reform and renewal and apologizing repeatedly and profoundly to those who were victims of such abuses. 

Ultimately, however, we will miss him as much for his humility as for his wisdom, humility embodied in his decision to resign from the papacy for the good of the Church Universal. A monumental theologian of the 20th century, and the first new pope of the Third Millennium, we believe that Pope Benedict will be remembered for his dedication to the renewal of the Church and its people. – Gregory Erlandson, president, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing

Perhaps the most defining issue of Pope Benedict’s papacy will be his handling of the clerical sexual abuse crises worldwide. Erlandson’s book (co-authored with Dr. Matthew Bunson), "Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis" (Our Sunday Visitor, 2010) revealed what many secular news sources didn't as the first critically objective and comprehensive book showing the pope’s real response to the sexual abuse crisis.  Additional information on the book is at:  www.osv.com/abusecrisis.

UPDATED 2/13/13: Pope Benedict XVI resigns, citing health deterioration

NOTE: For ongoing coverage of the papal transition, visit osv.com.

After almost eight years of leading the Church, 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention this morning to resign from the papacy on Feb. 28. He cited his deteriorating health as the primary reason. Pope Benedict is the fifth pope in the history of the papacy to resign and the first in nearly 600 years.

From Pope Benedict:

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.

 Read his entire statement.

A conclave to elect a new pope will take place in March.

You can also read this story from Catholic News Service, details from the press briefing as well as a papal timeline.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan responded to the announcement on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with the following statement:

The Holy Father brought the tender heart of a pastor, the incisive mind of a scholar and the confidence of a soul united with His God in all he did. His resignation is but another sign of his great care for the Church. We are sad that he will be resigning but grateful for his eight years of selfless leadership as successor of St. Peter. 

Though 78 when he was elected pope in 2005, he set out to meet his people – and they were of all faiths – all over the world. He visited the religiously threatened – Jews, Muslims and Christians in the war-torn Middle East, the desperately poor in Africa, and the world’s youth gathered to meet him in Australia, Germany and Spain. 

He delighted our beloved United States of America when he visited Washington and New York in 2008. As a favored statesman he greeted notables at the White House. As a spiritual leader he led the Catholic community in prayer at Nationals Park, Yankee Stadium and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. As a pastor feeling pain in a stirring, private meeting at the Vatican nunciature in Washington, he brought a listening heart to victims of sexual abuse by clerics. 

Pope Benedict often cited the significance of eternal truths and he warned of a dictatorship of relativism. Some values, such as human life, stand out above all others, he taught again and again. It is a message for eternity. 

He unified Catholics and reached out to schismatic groups in hopes of drawing them back to the church. More unites us than divides us, he said by word and deed. That message is for eternity. 

He spoke for the world’s poor when he visited them and wrote of equality among nations in his peace messages and encyclicals. He pleaded for a more equitable share of world resources and for a respect for God’s creation in nature. 

Those who met him, heard him speak and read his clear, profound writings found themselves moved and changed. In all he said and did he urged people everywhere to know and have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

The occasion of his resignation stands as an important moment in our lives as citizens of the world. Our experience impels us to thank God for the gift of Pope Benedict. Our hope impels us to pray that the College of Cardinals under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit choose a worthy successor to meet the challenges present in today’s world. 

UPDATED: Additional news and commentary:

• OSV president and publisher Greg Erlandson interviewed about resignation
• Director of Holy See Press Office Fr. Lombardi discusses Canon Law and more
• Vatican spokesperson interviewed about Pope Benedict's decision
• Cardinal Dolan reacts to resignation in interview
• Catholic Relief Services president Carolyn Woo comments on resignation
• American's United for Life commend Pope Benedict's contribution to the culture of life
• Pontifical Mission Societies national director Fr. Andrew Small reflects on the love of the pope
• Dr. Donald Prudlo, associate professor of history at Jacksonville State University, discusses papal resignation throughout history
• Past OSV article looks at potential candidates for the papacy
• ZENIT article highlights who will vote in the conclave

UPDATED 2/12/13

• World religious leaders react
• Franciscan University president and theology professors commend humility, work of Pope Benedict
• American bishops express gratitude to Pope Benedict
• Political reactions from President Obama and others
• Pope Benedict's last Mass on Ash Wednesday
• His resignation was predictable: We should have seen it coming, says CNS
• Fr. Dwight Longenecker explores what happens when there are two living popes
• A look at the new pope and being pro-life
• Young people pray, thank Pope Benedict for example
• Did Pope Benedict go "beyond the call of duty?"
• Pope Benedict will live in Vatican monastery founded by Blessed John Paul II

UPDATED 2/13/13

• Pope Benedict's decision occurred after Cuba trip
• Lombardi discusses Pope Benedict's role in next papacy
• Pope Benedict will greet the cardinals on Feb. 28
• Vatican details Pope Benedict's schedule for final days
• Watch Pope Benedict's first public appearance since announcement
• Russell Shaw profiles Pope Benedict
• Matthew Bunson discusses the precedent set by Pope Benedict's historic decision
• OSV editorial board reflects on the pope we grew to love
• Pope Benedict seen as the last of a "heroic generation"
• Pamphlet details how the Church chooses a pope
• Fr. Dwight Longenecker argues the case for an African pontiff

For even more coverage of the papal transition, visit osv.com.

Bishops say proposed HHS regulations fall short

In response to the new proposal for HHS regulations, the U.S bishops performed an initial review of the document and found the "accommodations" unsatisfactory. According to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, "the administration's proposal maintains its inaccurate distinction among religious ministries," among other problems. In fact, Cardinal Dolan notes that "it seems to take away something that we had previously." Cardinal Dolan released a statement outlining the problems and reiterating the bishops' desire to dialogue with the administration.

From Cardinal Dolan:

For almost a century, the Catholic bishops of the United States have worked hard to support the right of every person to affordable, accessible, comprehensive, life-affirming healthcare. As we continue to do so, our changeless values remain the same. We promote the protection of the dignity of all human life and the innate rights that flow from it, including the right to life from conception to natural death; care for the poorest among us and the undocumented; the right of the Church to define itself, its ministries, and its ministers; and freedom of conscience.

Last Friday, the Administration issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the HHS mandate that requires coverage for sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortions. The Administration indicates that it has heard some previously expressed concerns and that it is open to dialogue. With release of the NPRM, the Administration seeks to offer a response to serious matters which have been raised throughout the past year. We look forward to engaging with the Administration, and all branches and levels of government, to continue to address serious issues that remain. Our efforts will require additional, careful study. Only in this way can we best assure that healthcare for every woman, man and child is achieved without harm to our first, most cherished freedom.

Read entire statement at USCCB.

OSV seeks conversion or reversion stories for Easter issue

By Sarah Hayes

As Catholics enter fully into Lent, we embrace the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. One other key element to these 40 days in the wilderness is the call to conversion toward Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI reminded the faithful of this aspect of the penitential season during a February 2007 general audience at the beginning of Lent, which he called "the favorable spiritual season for training ourselves to seek God with greater tenacity, opening our heart to Christ."

The true meaning of conversion

"What does 'to be converted' actually mean? It means seeking God, moving with God, docilely following the teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ; to be converted is not a work for self-fulfillment because the human being is not the architect of his own eternal destiny. We did not make ourselves," the pontiff said. "Therefore, self-fulfillment is a contradiction and is also too little for us. We have a loftier destination. We might say that conversion consists precisely in not considering ourselves as our own 'creators' and thereby discovering the truth, for we are not the authors of ourselves.

"Conversion consists in freely and lovingly accepting to depend in all things on God, our true Creator, to depend on love. This is not dependence but freedom."

Coming into the Church

The call to conversion may be a lifelong process for all faithful, but for a group of soon-to-be Catholics, the concept of conversion takes on a special meaning during Lent.

On this first Sunday of the liturgical season, many dioceses throughout the country are celebrating the Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion. Catechumens and candidates will gather at their diocese’s cathedrals, along with godparents and sponsors, to begin the final phase of entering into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil on March 30.

After months of learning about the Faith through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, the catechumens will enter their names into a book to mark their intention to enter the Faith at the Easter Vigil, and will become "the elect."

Each of the catechumens, those who have never been baptized, and the candidates, who were baptized in a different Christian tradition, has a story to tell about what drew him or her to the Catholic Church. Often, those stories can inspire all Catholics to have a deeper appreciation of the Faith.

Share your conversion story

Therefore, in keeping with what has become a tradition over the past several years, Our Sunday Visitor is seeking conversion (or reversion) stories from readers to be published in our Easter issue on March 31.

Submissions should be no more than 250 words, and they must include the reader’s name, city, state and date of entry (or re-entry) into the Church.

Readers can submit stories by mail to Our Sunday Visitor Conversion Stories, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750 or by email to feedback@osv.com (please type "Conversion Stories" in the subject line).

It would be preferable if readers could also include a photograph of themselves. The deadline is March 4, but early entries are welcome.

Shaw: Lent, Ash Wednesday and getting 'real'

By Russell Shaw

Why is it that Ash Wednesday and Lent remain relatively popular even in highly secularized times like these? It's a serious question that touches on matters deeper than might at first be supposed.

The popularity I speak of can be seen year after year on Ash Wednesday, when people – some of them perhaps not all that often in church – stream up the aisle to get their ashes. Not a few then return for Mass or Stations of the Cross on weekdays during Lent. How come?

Seeking the 'real'

The answer can found in Blessed John Henry Newman's insistence on the supremacy of the "real" over the "unreal" in religious matters. In one of his early Oxford sermons, Newman remarks that it's only insofar as people grasp the meaning of disobedience and their own sinfulness that they also grasp "the blessing of the removal of sin, redemption, pardon, sanctification." Otherwise, he says, these are "mere words." 

You might say Ash Wednesday, which will be Feb. 13, and Lent help to make this objective reality subjectively real for us.

That's not the case with a lot of feasts and festivals that have religious roots but, over time, have been drained of religious meaning. Think of Halloween. How many Americans today link this celebration of ghosts and goblins and trick-or-treating with the Christian dogma of the Communion of Saints? Even Christmas is in danger of suffering this fate – the great feast of the Incarnation all but submerged in commercialization and holiday schlock.

But it's a different story with Lent. Yes, the Easter bunnies and chicks are out in force, but Ash Wednesday and Lent resist sentimentalization by the greeting card people and commercialization by sellers of consumer goods. After all, it's hard to find a bright, chirpy greeting or a slogan for hawking merchandise well suited to a season of sorrow for sin. "You'll look great in ashes"? "Be the first in your neighborhood to do penance"? It doesn't sound quite right.

But the words spoken at the imposition of ashes do: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Or the only slightly less apposite: "Repent, and believe in the Gospel." Stark, uncompromising, admirably real.

Pointing us in the right direction

In a way, we have here a kind of paraliturgy of prudence. Prudence? Indeed yes. Prudence in the classical sense that you find in an aphorism from the Christian Middle Ages that the Thomistic philosopher Josef Pieper quotes: "A man is wise when all things taste to him as they really are."

Prudence is the virtue that confers that highly desirable accuracy of "taste" – realistic perception – in the moral sphere. It's the virtue by which the truth, the reality, of God and the world become, as Pieper says, "the measure and standard for one's own desire and action."

And this or something like it is something whose presence people intuit in Ash Wednesday and Lent and what brings them back year after year so as to "taste" – to experience – life-giving contact with the deep reality of mortality, sin, redemption, and the human condition. Not so coincidentally, such people also are seeking an antidote to the grim escapism of secular America's entertainment culture and its obsessive fixation on everything and anything except what is real.

"We are all sinners," people think to themselves as they receive the ashes or make the Stations, "we are all going to die. Help us, Lord, help!" This year, like so many other years before, the season of penance promises to point us in the right direction for obtaining that help. Have a realistic Lent.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Our Sunday Visitor president reflects on Bishop D’Arcy’s legacy

Greg Erlandson, President and Publisher of the Publishing Division of Our Sunday Visitor, worked directly with Bishop John D’Arcy in his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Our Sunday Visitor until his retirement in 2010. Erlandson has this to say about Bishop D’Arcy’s legacy and his impact on Catholic publishing and the mission of the Church:

"Bishop John M. D’Arcy served for 24 years as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Our Sunday Visitor Inc. until his retirement as bishop in 2010. He was a good friend and a strong supporter of Our Sunday Visitor and its mission of service to the Church. As successor of Archbishop John Noll, the founder of Our Sunday Visitor, Bishop D'Arcy appreciated the history of this organization and its mission to form and inform Catholics as well as to defend the Church from unjust attack.

As chair of the Our Sunday Visitor board, and as the publisher of his own diocesan newspaper, Today’s Catholic, he was a strong supporter of the Catholic press and its role in the Church. He recognized that while formats and technologies may change, trustworthy Catholic publications play an essential role in Catholics’ knowledge of their faith and of their Church.

As bishop, his priorities included vocations, evangelization and catechesis, and these priorities were mirrored not only in the work of Our Sunday Visitor, but also in the priorities of the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, which fund Catholic programs throughout the diocese and around the country.

His impact on the formation of teachers and catechists in his diocese was extraordinary, and will remain a lasting legacy. With the help of the Our Sunday Visitor Institute, he developed programs for certification and master’s degrees for many of those who were charged with passing on the faith to the next generation.

Ultimately, we will remember him as a dedicated, generous priest and bishop who loved his people and was wholly committed to their service. His sense of humor was matched by the strength of his vision and pastoral concern. I count it an honor to have worked with him for so many years."

UPDATED: Bishop John D'Arcy, 1932-2013

by Gregory Erlandson, Our Sunday Visitor Publisher

Bishop John D’Arcy, chairman of the Board of Directors of Our Sunday Visitor and bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend for 25 years, died February 3 at his home in Fort Wayne. He had been suffering from a severe and aggressive cancer that was discovered recently while he was visiting family in Boston.

Bishop D’Arcy was a good friend of Our Sunday Visitor, supportive of both its publishing and its offertory solutions divisions. He had a particular passion for catechesis and evangelization, and used funding from the Our Sunday Visitor Institute to educate scores of religion teachers and catechists in his own diocese.

He was a shepherd dedicated to his flock, and when he received news of his cancer, he was resolute in returning home to the diocese.

He died on Feb. 3, the 56^th anniversary of his first Mass as a priest.

May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Read the statement from Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Ft. Wayne-South Bend here.
See a photo retrospective of Bishop D'Arcy from the South Bend Tribune here
WSBT South Bend has a retrospective here.

UPDATE: Funeral liturgies can be found here.
Special report and tribute from Indiana's Newscenter here.

Obama administration releases new HHS regulations

The Obama administration released new HHS regulations that include an exemption for non-profit "religious employers" based on specific criteria. The bishops acknowledged the release with the following statement, but have not yet responded to the new regulations:

"Today, the Administration issued proposed regulations regarding the HHS mandate. We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed regulations closely. We look forward to issuing a more detailed statement later."

The proposed rules are available here, and an explanation of the rules can be found here.