BOSTON (MA)
WGBH
By Ibby Caputo
This week, Pope Benedict XVI joins a handful of his predecessors who resigned as leader of the Catholic Church. In Boston, and around the world, the Pope’s startling decision has prompted weeks of reaction, reflection and curiosity.
There are 1.8 million Roman Catholics in the Boston area. They range from the devout to Catholic “in name only.”
I asked a few local people, “Are you Catholic?”
“Um, Kind of yes,” one young woman replied. “I was raised Catholic.”
“I do go to church on Easter, that’s about it,” a man said.
“I am a practicing Catholic,” an older woman said. “I go to church every Sunday and I’m delighted to do so to praise and thank God.”
For both the devout and the dubious, the Pope’s resignation has caused a stir, especially for Catholics here in Boston.
Because we’ve been immersed in it, possibly more thoroughly than the average Catholic,” said Anne Southwood, chair of the Boston Council of Voice of the Faithful, an international organization that supports victims of clergy sexual abuse, started in Massachusetts after the Boston Globe broke the scandal in 2002. …
Scholarly speculation about the next pope has been intense – including the mention of long shot American names like New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley.
Local scholars are also being asked to help put the Pope’s decision into a broader historical context. After all, it has been 600 years since a Pope resigned. We were curious about why — and why it’s been so long.
“There have probably been 4, 5 popes who have resigned, but all but one of them rescinded under duress,” said Richard Gaillardetz, professor of theology at Boston College. “Either an emperor or some political figure, maybe even local clergy forced them to resign.”
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