VATICAN CITY
Religion News Service
David Gibson | Feb 26, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) On the eve of the first anniversary of his shocking resignation, Pope Benedict XVI has rejected as “simply absurd” the speculation that he was forced to step down, and he explained that he continues to wear the distinctive papal white cassock for “purely practical reasons.”
“At the moment of my resignation there were no other clothes available,” Benedict wrote in a brief letter to an Italian journalist that was published on Wednesday.
The emeritus pope also said that he kept the name Benedict, rather than reverting to his birth name of Joseph Ratzinger, because it was a simple solution, and said rumors that this signaled that he remained something of a “shadow pope” to his successor, Pope Francis, “another case of completely unfounded speculations being made.”
“There is absolutely no doubt regarding the validity of my resignation from the Petrine ministry,” Benedict wrote to Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican reporter with La Stampa newspaper.
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