VATICAN CITY
ABC News
By Jeffrey Kofman
@JeffreyKofman
Feb 12, 2013
VATICAN CITY–That didn’t take long. Just a day after the Pope’s stunning decision to resign there’s already a playful joke circulating here in Rome:
Question: What will they call the ex-Pope?
Answer: Ex-Benedict
In case you missed it, the answer is a cute play on the breakfast dish “Eggs Benedict.”
Kidding aside, there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the church will deal with a situation that really is without precedent. Sure, popes resigned 600 and 800 years ago, but the situations are, well, hardly parallel. The closest might be Celestine V, known as the Hermit Pope, who resigned in 1294. He had lived in total seclusion and quickly realized he was not equipped to deal with the cut and thrust of 13th Century Vatican politics.
In his resignation Monday, Benedict XVI acknowledged his own mortal shortcomings: “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.”
Standing in front of St. Peters at night, John Thavis, a veteran Vatican journalist and author of the soon-to-published “The Vatican Diaries” said it’s impossible to predict how a Pope and a former Pope will co-exist, “there is no job description for a retired Pope.”
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