Seize the Day with Gus Lloyd on SiriusXM’s the Catholic Channel interviewed Kishore Jayabalan, director of the Acton Institute in Rome, regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s unexpected resignation.
Jayabalan discussed the mood in the Rome, the shock of the timing, and Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy.
Read more on Audio: Kishore Jayabalan discusses Pope Benedict XVI’s Resignation…
Greg Corombus of Radio America interviewed Acton President and Co-founder Rev. Robert Sirico to discuss the resignation of Pope Benedict VXI.
Rev. Sirico had this to say about Pope Benedict:
I think he was more than a caretaker pope. I think he unpacked a lot of the pontificate of John Paul II in the sense that he really delineated some of the teaching and expressed it in a slightly different way.
Read more on Audio: Rev. Sirico discusses Pope Benedict XVI’s Resignation…
An Evangelical Looks at Pope Benedict XVI
Russell D. Moore, Moore to the Point
With Pope Benedict XVI’s shocking resignation this morning, evangelical Christians might be tempted to see this the way a college football fan might view the departure of his rival team’s head coach. But the global stakes are much, much higher.
Over on National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg considers what will be Pope Benedict’s last legacy:
In forthcoming weeks, there will be many commentaries on what this Pope has achieved in a relatively short time. This ranges from his efforts to root out what Ratzinger once called the “filth” of sexual deviancy that has inflicted such damage on the priesthood, his successful outreach to Catholicism’s Eastern Orthodox brothers, his generally excellent bishop appointments, to his reforms of the liturgy.
Read more on Samuel Gregg: ‘Benedict XVI: Reason’s Revolutionary’…
Today Pope Benedict XVI issued a statement that he was renouncing his ministry as the Bishop of Rome, effectively abdicating as of February 28, 2012. The Acton Institute has created a resource page that will provide news and analysis of this historic event, and the election of a new pope.
Read more on Resource Page on Pope Benedict XVI’s Resignation…
Today, Acton’s Rome office and the world were stunned by what the Dean of the College of Cardinals said was a “bolt out of the blue”: just after midday Benedict XVI informed the public that he would be stepping down as the Catholic Church’s pontiff and one of the world’s preeminent moral and spiritual leaders, effective on February 28. He will be the first pope to abdicate voluntarily the Seat of St. Peter in nearly 600 years. The last one to resign was Gregory XII in 1415 as part of deal to end the great Western Schism.
(You can read and listen to the latest reports issued by the Vatican Radio (also here and here) and the Catholic News Service of the US Bishops Conference).
Pope Benedict XVI, a disciplined, humble and soft-spoken German, is certainly not known for Roman caprice nor does he have a flare for the dramatic. Notwithstanding, he surprised us all in a brief statement issued in perfect Latin (translated below) at the end of a consistory held in the Apostolic Palace for causes of canonizations: Read more on After Pope Benedict Resigns, Fight Against ‘Dictatorship of Relativism’ Goes On…
The Rev. Robert Sirico offers his thoughts on the announcement this morning from Pope Benedict XVI that he is resigning from the papal office as of February 28.
It is a sobering thought to think that the last time a Pope resigned (Pope Gregory XII in 1415), America had not yet been discovered. Yes, the possibility of a Pope’s resignation is anticipated in Canon Law (Canon 332), as long as it is disclosed “properly” and of his own free will. Pope Benedict met both the conditions in his statement earlier today to the consistory.
Rev. Sirico also notes that, “Anyone who tells you there is a “front-runner” [for the new pope] simply does not know what he is talking about.”
Read more on Rev. Sirico on Pope Benedict XVI’s Resignation…
Full Text of Pope’s Declaration on his Resignation
Vatican Radio
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.
Shock waves went through Rome at about noon today and the rest of the Catholic, make that the entire, world, as news came that Pope Benedict XVI will resign as Pope on February 28.
