ROME
Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
On the day after one of the most dramatic moments in all church history, Curia cardinals and the Catholic faithful alike were still trying to absorb the full implications of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation.
In a year, 2012, when the Vatican made international headlines because of a series of embarrassing leaks, most of them straight from the pope’s own study in the Apostolic Palace, Benedict’s resignation appears to have been one secret that was brilliantly well kept.
Different media sources, including most authoritatively the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, remain convinced that Benedict made his original decision that he would resign shortly after his visit to Mexico and Cuba in March of last year.
Apart from the obvious issue of simply getting older and thus finding it ever more difficult to travel, Benedict seems to have been influenced by a hitherto, unpublicised night-time fall experienced during the trip.
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