ABUSE TRACKER

DEUTSCHLAND
Die Welt

Die Aussagen führender Katholiken über angebliche Angriffe auf ihre Religion sorgen für Unmut. CDU und FDP halten Begriffe wir “Katholikenphobie” und “Pogromstimmung” für übertrieben.

Die Klagen von Bischöfen über eine katholikenfeindliche Stimmung in Deutschland sorgen weiter für Kritik. Unionsfraktionschef Volker Kauder (CDU) sagte, es sei übertrieben, über eine “Katholikenphobie” und eine “Pogromstimmung” zu sprechen, wie es die Erzbischöfe Joachim Meisner und Gehard Ludwig Müller getan hatten.

Der Sprecher der Christen in der FDP-Bundestagsfraktion, Patrick Meinhardt, bezeichnete die Äußerungen der Geistlichen als “Unsinn” und warf ihnen vor, die “rhetorische Keule” herausgeholt zu haben.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 11, 2013

Today’s announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will resign later this month has become a swirling vortex of media conjecture and speculation. Is it because of growing scandals in the United States and Ireland? Is it because the Pope is directly tied to the cover-up of child sexual abuse in the US and elsewhere?

I doubt it.

Yes, there are growing scandals – scandals that show that the cover-up of child sexual abuse goes all the way to the highest levels of the Vatican. Cardinal (in good standing) Roger Mahony, who covered up for dozens of priest predators in Los Angeles, has yet to receive any public rebuke from Rome. It is doubtful that he ever will. Even the slap on the wrist he received from LA Archbishop Jose Gomez has been minimized. Mahony will be able to vote for the new Pope and—in prime “Prince of the Church” fashion—will parade around Rome with this fellow cardinals next month.

But I believe that Benedict’s “resignation for health reasons” is probably the truth. Rumors have been swirling for years that the Pontiff has Alzheimers, and video from recent public appearances show a man in the ravages of declining health. And more videos like that will keep coming.

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National Catholic Reporter

by Dennis Sadowski,Catholic News Service | Feb. 11, 2013

Washington —
Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he planned to resign Feb. 28 stunned and shocked religious leaders around the world.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, said he was “shocked and saddened” to hear of the pope’s decision Monday.

“I know that his decision will have been considered most carefully and that it has come after much prayer and reflection,” O’Brien said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Thomas Reese | Feb. 11, 2013

Analysis
Yes, a pope can resign — up to 10 popes in history may have resigned, but historical evidence is limited. Most recently, during the Council of Constance in the 15th century, Pope Gregory XII resigned to bring about the end of the Western Schism and a new pope was elected in 1417. Pope Celestine V’s resignation in 1294 is the most famous because Dante placed him in hell for it.

Most modern popes have felt resignation is unacceptable. As Paul VI said, paternity cannot be resigned. In addition, Paul feared setting a precedent that would encourage factions in the church to pressure future popes to resign for reasons other than health. Nevertheless, the code of canon law in 1917 provided for the resignation of a pope as do the regulations established by Paul VI in 1975 and John Paul II in 1996. However, a resignation induced through fear or fraud would be invalid. In addition, canonists argue that a person resigning from an office must be of sound mind (Canon 187).

In 1989 and in 1994, John Paul II secretly prepared letters offering the College of Cardinals his resignation in case of an incurable disease or other condition that would prevent him from fulfilling his ministry, according to Msgr. Sławomir Oder, postulator of the late pope’s cause.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

by John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 11, 2013

Rome —
John Paul II used to be known as the pope of surprises, forever doing things Roman pontiffs simply hadn’t done before. With the election of Benedict XVI, many believed the era of papal novelties had drawn to a close, since Benedict has always been a man of tradition and the main lines of his papacy were fairly predictable from the theological and cultural concerns he had expressed over a long public life.

In the end, however, Benedict XVI proved to be capable of a true stunner, becoming the first pope to voluntarily resign his office in centuries and the first to do in the modern media-saturated age. Acknowledging what he called his “incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” Benedict has announced he will step down effective 8 p.m. Rome time Feb. 28.

Immediately, Benedict’s decision has both won wide praise as a responsible and humble act and raised a whole rafter of questions. Chief among them: What exactly will be the role of a retired pope? And, naturally, many have already begun to speculate about who might capture the two-thirds support in the College of Cardinals necessary to take over the church’s top job.

Benedict’s decision also means the debate over his legacy is now officially open, and as with all things, it’s likely to draw widely different verdicts depending on who’s performing the evaluation.

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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on February 10, 2013

Imagine the outcry if a police chief disclosed that that she lets corrupt, trigger-happy cops stay on the job but allegedly keeps them away from cash and firearms? Or if a fire department head revealed that he let pyromaniac firefighters stay on the job but allegedly keeps them away from matches and gasoline?

People would go nuts over this kind of crazy behavior. So why aren’t people in Clinton Mississippi going nuts over two officials there who kept a credibly accused youth minister and teacher, John Langworthy, on the job but allegedly away from kids?

Morrison Heights Baptist Church pastor Greg Belser in Clinton Mississippi decided Langworthy could stay on staff after hearing about Langworthy’s alleged abuse of kids in Texas. Belser emailed one of Langworthy’s victims, saying “I want to assure you that (Langworthy) has no contact here with children. He continues to lead our youth choirs, but there are so many eyes on him right now, he is no risk to anyone.”

That’s no misprint. A pastor actually wrote that a twice accused youth minister “has no contact here with children” but “continues to lead our youth choirs.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – The conclave to elect the successor of Benedict XVI will be regulated by the “Ordo Rituum Conclavis” established by John Paul II’s apostolic constitution “Universi Dominici Gregis”, para. 27. The Cardinal Camerlengo, who has a fundamental role during the Sede Vacante period, is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, appointed by Benedict XVI on 4 April 2007.

The Cardinal electors, by their continents of provenance, will be 61 Europeans, 19 Latin Americans, 14 North Americans, 11 Africans, 11 Asians, and 1 from Oceania. These figures may vary depending on the date that the conclave opens: for example, Cardinal Walter Kasper will turn 80 on 5 March. The country with the greatest number of Cardinal electors is Italy, with 21. Sixty-seven of the electors were created by Benedict XVI and the remaining 50 by John Paul II.

One of John Paul II’s innovations regarding the period of conclave is that the Cardinal electors―of whom there will be 117 on 28 February―will be housed in the Vatican residence Casa Santa Marta, which is independent from the place where they vote, the Sistine Chapel.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – It will soon be eight years since 19 April 2013, the day that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, was elected as Supreme Pontiff, the 264th successor of Peter, and chose the name Benedict XVI.

The cardinal proto-deacon, Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, made the solemn announcement to the people at 6:43pm from the external loggia of the Hall of Blessings of the Vatican Basilica following the white smoke which occurred at 5:50pm.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, commented there and on Vatican Radio on Benedict XVI’s resignation of the papacy. “Among the reasons for the Pope’s resignation, as he noted in his own words,” he said, “are the circumstances of today’s world that, in relation to the past, are particularly difficult, both because of the speed as well as the number of events and problems that arise that, therefore, need a vigour, perhaps stronger than in the past. It is a vigour that the Pope says he has felt diminish in him in recent months.”

He continued, “The phrase: ‘well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter,’ is very significant This is the formal declaration, which is important from a juridical point of view. In paragrapgh 2 of canon 332 of the Code of Canon Law, we read: ‘Should it happen that the Roman Pontiff resigns from his office, it is required for validity that the resignation be freely made and properly manifested, but it is not necessary that it be accepted by anyone.’ The two fundamental points are, therefore, freedom and due manifestation. Freedom and public manifestation, and the consistory in which the Pope manifested his will is public.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, on hearing the news of the Pope’s resignation from the Petrine ministry, expressed his nearness, and that of all the cardinals, to Benedict XVI.

“We have heard you,” he said, “with a sense of loss and almost disbelief. In your words we see the great affection that you have always had for God’s Holy Church, for this Church that you have loved so much. Now, let me say, on behalf of this apostolic cenacle―the College of Cardinals―on behalf of your beloved collaborators, allow me to say that we are closer than ever to you, as we have been during these almost eight luminous years of your pontificate. On 19 April 2005, if I remember correctly, at the end of the conclave I asked … ‘Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?’ And you did not hesitate, although moved with emotion, to answer that you accepted, trusting in the Lord’s grace and the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church. Like Mary on that day she gave her ‘yes’, and your luminous pontificate began, following in the wake of continuity, in that continuity with your 265 predecessors in the Chair of Peter, over two thousand years of history from the Apostle Peter, the humble Galilean fisherman, to the great popes of the last century from St. Pius X to Blessed John Paul II.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 11 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father, at the end of today’s consistory for causes for canonization, announced his resignation from ministry as Bishop of Rome to the College of Cardinals. Following is the Holy Father’s complete declaration, which he read in Latin:

“I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the barque 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 fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.”

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UNITED STATES
Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk | Feb 11, 2013

Yes, there have been papal resignations before, and the possibility of one has been anticipated in recent years. But the last time a pope actually did it was 77 years before Columbus fetched up in the New World, and that was to permit the resolution of a schism in which three men claimed the See of Peter.

That the Roman Catholic Church is in as serious a crisis now as it was in 1415 is a nice question. The last third of the 20th century saw a remarkable enhancement in the prestige of the papacy, thanks to the charismatic leadership of John XXIII and John Paul II, respectively bringing the church into the modern world and presiding over the collapse of the Soviet empire.

But the last decade has seen that prestige squandered by the rolling abuse crisis. Following the Church’s lurches from crisis to crisis, its over-the-top denunciations of civil authorities and contemporary mores, it is hard to resist the conclusion that here is an institution suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Curiously, this is the third time in history that a Benedict has resigned the papacy. The last time it was Benedict IX, a dissolute scion of the Roman nobility whose departure from office in 1049 led the way to the great reforming papacy of the later 11th century. Among its principal reforms was bringing the hammer down on bishops who had bought their offices (simony) and kept wives (Nicolaitism).

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VATICAN CITY
9 News (Australia)

Catholic faithful in St Peter’s Square have reacted with amazement and emotion at Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he will resign later this month, though some say they hope his successor will be more progressive.

Hundreds of believers converged on the heart of the Catholic church after hearing the historic news, swelling the usual small huddles of tourists on an overcast and chilly winter day in Rome.

“I love Benedict. We’re really shocked he’s resigning because he wasn’t pope for long enough,” said Sebastian Mazur, a seminarian from Poland.

“He hasn’t finished his plan,” the 21-year-old said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vision Insights and New Horizons

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said in a historic announcement he no longer had the mental and physical strength to run the Roman Catholic Church and would become the first pontiff in more than 700 years to resign, leaving his inner circle “incredulous”.

Church officials tried to relay a climate of calm confidence in the running of a 2,000-year-old institution but the decision could lead to one of the most uncertain and unstable periods in centuries for a Church besieged by scandal and defections.

The Church has been rocked during Benedict’s nearly eight-year papacy by child sexual abuse crises and Muslim anger after the pope compared Islam to violence. Jews were upset over rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier and there was scandal over the leaking of the pope’s private papers by his personal butler.

In the announcement read to cardinals in Latin, the German-born pope, 85, said: “Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of St Peter …

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

One of the significant stories about the second Vatican Council conspicuously ignored by many contemporary “traditionalists” was the way in which it rehabilitated theologians who had previously been silenced by the leaders of the Catholic church. Some of the leading lights of European Catholic theology in the period prior to Vatican II–these included Karl Rahner, Yves Congar, Marie-Dominique Chenu, and Henri de Lubac among others–were at various points prior to the council forbidden to write about a number of topics. Only to find themselves rehabilitated by the council and, in the case of most of the preceding theologians, invited to the council as theological periti or experts, whose theology laid the foundation for the council . . . .

This history is in my mind today as I think about Benedict’s resignation, and as I note how frequently people (Catholics and non-Catholics alike) commenting on Benedict’s resignation are referring to the abuse crisis in the Catholic church. Whether the abuse crisis is directly responsible for Benedict’s choice to resign the office of the papacy, it looms large in the background of that choice, and has to have been a huge weight on Benedict’s shoulders throughout his papacy.

As I think about this, it strikes me that, at this point in the history of the Catholic church, survivors of childhood abuse by priests are playing a role similar to the role played at Vatican II by theologians who were condemned and marginalized prior to the second Vatican Council. These theologians were treated as enemies of the church, only to be recognized at a later point as prophetic thinkers whose theology was absolutely indispensable to the fruitful engagement between Catholic ideas and values and the modern world.

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VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Chris Miles

Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign on February 28.

The first resignation of a Pope in 600 years will no doubt have reverberations across the Catholic Church, and speculation of who will be his successor is already surging. A frontrunner for the highest Catholic position, though, may be someone in the Vatican’s own backyard.

Global Vatican watchers have tipped Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola as favorite to succeed Benedict.

I guess yet another Italian pope is just what the Catholic Church needs.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 11, 2013

NEW CUMBERLAND, Pennsylvania — Roman Catholics in Pennsylvania are speculating about who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI, and some say they’d like to see a younger person as their spiritual leader.

At St. Theresa’s Church in New Cumberland, near Harrisburg, parish manager Elaine Herald said Monday that Benedict’s retirement could open the door for a younger, progressive pope, perhaps a black person, who will lead efforts to rebuild membership.

She says the church needs to change relatively minor rules that are driving members away.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WTRF

CLEVELAND (AP) – A lay leader in Cleveland says Pope Benedict XVI will be held in high regard by members of churches ordered reopened by the Vatican under his watch.

Miklos (MEEK’-lohs) Peller of St. Emeric Church in Cleveland says the pope didn’t take a direct role in reopening the churches, but Peller believes Benedict influenced the decision.

St. Emeric was 1 of 11 closed churches ordered reopened by the Vatican, which also overturned the merger of a 12th congregation.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

Pope Benedict XVI had to resign. The public objections of Cardinals Meisner and Mahony, the political rejections in the USA, the Philippines, Ireland, Australia and in other countries, the priests’ revolts in Austria, Ireland, the USA and elsewhere, the bank regulators steady pressure on the Vatican Bank, and who knows what will soon be revealed, all made it clear that the Vatican clique’s power was diminishing rapidly.

But the Pope has only been an ornament on a hierarchical structure that remains. Unless and until that Catholic Church’s structure returns to the pre-Constantinian consensual style that Jesus and his first disciples left behind, a new Pope will likely just continue business as usual. For that reason, President Obama must act now to signal to the worldwide Cardinals that business as usual is unacceptable and that the Catholic Church leadership structure must return to a consensual and accountable basis.

As a retired Harvard trained international lawyer and lifelong practicing Catholic and a grandparent, I am convinced the obscene sexual violations against children by priests will unacceptably continue, no matter who is Pope, unless and until the U.S. Federal government steps up. No one else has as much clout to stand up to the power of the Vatican. Local prosecutors have failed for decades to prosecute bishops for enabling predatory priests to attack more children.

Many from different faiths and no faith all across the USA, and even worldwide, including some of those harmed by the abuse of the deaf victims in Milwaukee, have already signed my petition calling on President Obama to step up. They have indicated they have had enough with the domination of local prosecutors and legislators by the Catholic hierarchy and its well paid apologists and lawyers. More signatures, including yours, will help accelerate the establishment of the U.S. national investigation commission, especially important now when the Vatican may be at a turning point.

We all have a moral obligation to protect children and signing a petition is a simple, yet potentially effective, way towards meeting that obligation. Please take a minute and sign it at:

[Click here for the petition.]

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CANADA
National Post

Josh Visser | Feb 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation could open the door for the Church’s first non-European leader, with a Canadian and an Argentinean considered among the leading candidates to become the next pope.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, formally the archbishop of Quebec City, has the best odds of replacing Pope Benedict XVI according to an Irish betting site, at 11 to 4.

Cardinal Ouellet, 68, is the head of the Congregation for Bishops, essentially the Vatican’s top staff director. He was once quoted saying being the pope “would be a nightmare.”

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VATICAN CITY
Omaha.com

The Associated Press

The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down on Feb. 28. While such papal resignations are extremely rare, there are precedents in the two millennia history of the Catholic Church.

Marcellinus

This early church pope abdicated or was deposed in 304 after complying with the Roman emperor’s order to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods.

Benedict IX

Sold the papacy to his godfather Gregory VI and resigned in 1045.

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WHEELING (WV)
Seattle PI

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in West Virginia says Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign shows his love and devotion for the church.

Bishop Michael J. Bransfield said Monday that the pope is being realistic about his physical limitations. Bransfield says he admires Benedict for his courage and humility.

The 85-year-old Benedict announced Monday that he is stepping down Feb. 28. He said he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties.

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NEW HAMPSHIRE
San Antonio Express-News

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The head of New Hampshire’s Roman Catholic diocese is giving thanks to Pope Benedict XVI for his service to the church as the pope prepares to resign.

Bishop Peter Libasci (lih-BAH-she) said Pope Benedict’s announcement shows how the church is a never-ending continuum. He said the pope has taught how the Church is rooted in over 2,000 years of history and how deep traditions continue to guide us forward.

The 85-year-old pope announced Monday that he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties and will resign Feb. 28, becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to do so.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Review

Submitted on February 11, 2013

The following is the statement of the Archdiocese of St. Louis regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation:

The people of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis and Catholics around the world learned today that our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation effective February 28, 2013, because of advanced age and declining health. He made this surprise announcement to the Cardinals in Rome earlier this morning.

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MASSACHUSETTS
San Antonio Express-News

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Catholics are expressing support for Pope Benedict XVI, who made the surprise decision to become the first pope in almost 600 years to resign.

Bishop Robert Deeley, the vicar general of the Boston Archdiocese, said Monday he gave thanks for Benedict’s “faithful leadership” in his eight years as pope.

Deeley worked directly with the pope in Rome before taking his assignment in Boston.

Deeley said “I know of his deep and abiding love for the Church and for fulfilling the saving ministry of Jesus.”

Ray Flynn, the former Boston mayor and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, called Benedict a “pious and caring priest.” Flynn called the resignation an “act of sacrifice” to make way for a more “energized” leader.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 11, 2013

We’re worried that New York’s Cardinal Tim Dolan is being discussed as a ‘long shot’ papal candidate.

We urge New York citizens and Catholics to look hard at Dolan’s disappointing track record in abuse and cover up cases over the past few years, detailed in this media statement here.

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IRELAND
Limerick Leader

By David Hurley
Published on Monday 11 February 2013

THE announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s imminent resignation has come as a surprise to the rector of the redemptorists in Limerick Fr Adrian Egan.

The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI will resign on February 28. He is the first pontiff to resign since 1415.

Speaking this morning, Fr Adrian Egan said he was shocked when he heard the news.

“I’m very very surprised and taken aback. I had no sense that this was coming or that it would be coming because it is very unprecidented so I’m like everybody else, I’m taken aback and I’m very surprised,” he told Live 95FM.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

Bill Donohue offers seven good reasons why the pope’s legacy is secure:
◦Religion for Pope Benedict XVI is as much a public issue as it is a private one. In 2008, he warned American bishops against “the subtle influence of secularism,” holding that “any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted.”
◦The pope made it clear that religious freedom was not only a God-given right, it was “the path to peace.”
◦He knew religion could be abused, leading even to violence. His much misunderstood 2006 Regensburg University lecture was really about the uncoupling of religion from reason (reason not united to faith also leads to violence).

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RHODE ISLAND
San Antonio Exress-News

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence says he is stunned by the news that Pope Benedict XVI will resign on Feb. 28.

Bishop Thomas Tobin on Monday says he believes the 85-year-old pope’s decision is an act of humility that puts the needs of the church above the pontiff’s own.

Benedict’s announcement means he will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The Vatican stressed that no specific medical condition prompted Benedict’s decision, although he says he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties.

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VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

By Lina Saigol

The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to resign sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March. The Financial Times provides a guide to the possible candidates.

Cardinal Angelo Scola, Italy

The 71-year-old son of a truck driver is widely considered a likely successor. His appointment as Archbishop of Milan – Italy’s largest diocese – in 2011 was seen as an endorsement by Pope Benedict. A noted scholar, he has tried to find ways to avoid a “clash of civilisations” by developing a forum for dialogue and encounter between the West and Islam.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, Italy

The President of the Pontifical Council for Culture has teased priests for their dull sermons and encourages them to use social media. A master communicator, the Italian-born scholar may face opposition to the post because he has never held a diocesan post.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, Honduras

If elected, Cardinal Maradiaga would become the first Pope from Latin America which is home to half the world’s 1bn Roman Catholics. Born into an upper-class family in Honduras, the charismatic, left-leaning intellectual speaks five languages, plays the piano and flies light aircraft and helicopters. A critic of capitalism and a staunch defender of the poor.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WHIO

In response to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Cincinnati Dennis Schnurr said his work will be remembered as humble and unselfish.

“I will always remember Pope Benedict as he described himself on the day of his election as pope in 2005 – ‘a simple, humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.’ When I was in Rome during the period that he was a prominent cardinal, I frequently would see him in St. Peter’s Square, mingling with the crowds in the simple black cassock of a priest. Often he was asked by groups of tourists, undoubtedly assuming that he was one of the local priests, to take their picture. This he would do willingly and with a generous smile,” Schnurr said in a statement release today.

“In announcing his resignation, Pope Benedict XVI has acted humbly and unselfishly for the good of the Church. That same spirit has characterized his entire life of service.”

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VATICAN CITY
USA Today

by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

If you want to picture the next pope, look back, look ahead, and brace for surprises.

The cardinals who will elect the new pontiff were all chosen by the past two and tasked with finding a pope who can speak to the future.

And no one can tell for sure if the man they pick will be the pope they get.

When 118 electors – all the Cardinals under age 80 – are locked in to the Sistine Chapel, they may pray the Holy Spirit guides them to a man who brings an eternal, orthodox vision of the faith. Just like globe-trotting rock star Pope John Paul II. Just like scholarly theologian Pope Benedict XVI.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Joseph Ratzinger leaves the papacy having failed to achieve what should have been his job one: to rectify the incalculable harm done to the hundreds of thousands of children sexually abused by Catholic priests. He leaves hundreds of culpable bishops in power and a culture of secrecy intact.

Benedict’s apologies to victims were frequent. When he traveled to the US in April 2008, he promised that the Church would do “whatever possible to help, to assist, to heal” victims. In February 2010, meeting with Irish bishops, he called child sexual abuse “heinous.” In his letter to the Irish people in 2010, he expressed “shame and remorse.”

Benedict’s words rang hollow. He spoke as a shocked bystander, as if he had just stumbled upon the abuse crisis. But more than anyone in the Vatican, he knew about the damage done to innocent children. As archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Ratzinger had allowed the transfer of accused priest Rev. Peter Hullermann, and certainly managed many other abuse cases as well. Since 1981, when he was named head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith (CDF), he had been at the center of the Vatican’s abuse bureaucracy, reviewing many files and, unfortunately, implementing Pope John Paul II’s policy of not laicizing abusive priests. In Spring 2001, the Pope gave Cardinal Ratzinger and the CDF sole responsibility for abuse cases, and in that role, Cardinal Ratzinger read hundreds of files and became the Vatican’s most knowledgeable and powerful person on this issue.

The tragedy is that as Pope he could have enacted true reform. He could have forced the immediate resignation of bishops who had enabled sexual predators. He could have decreed that every bishop post on his website the names, assignment histories, and allegations of accused priests. He could have made the CDF transparent in its handling of cases, instead of the black box that it remains to this day. He could have acted on the Vatican’s vast knowledge of these cases, instead of leaving the work to the survivors, investigative reporters, grand juries in the US, and government commissions in Ireland and Australia.

Instead of remedies, he gave us words. Instead of true penitence, he gave us public relations. His failure to enact real change in the Church’s handling of sexually abusive priests will be his significant and shameful legacy.

About BishopAccountability.org

Launched in 2003 by lay Catholics in Boston, BishopAccountability.org is a comprehensive archive and data center focused on the worldwide sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church. It has compiled an online database of 3,800 publicly accused US priests. Its online library contains more than 100,000 pages of church records, legal documents, and media reports. Its mission is to give the public one-stop access to information about the crisis throughout the world. An independent non-profit, BishopAccountability.org is not a victim’s group, does not advocate specific church reforms, and is not affiliated with any advocacy or religious group.

Contact:

Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, barrett.doyle@comcast.net, 781-439-5208
Terence McKiernan, Founder and President, mckiernan1@comcast.net, 508-479-9304

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VATICAN CITY
Seattle Times

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY —
Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. And on Monday, the Vatican announced that the leader of the world’s billion Roman Catholics was stepping down – the first pontiff to do so since 1415.

The German theologian, whose mission was to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe, grew increasingly frail as he shouldered the monumental task of purging the Catholic world of a sex abuse scandal that festered under John Paul II and exploded during his reign into the church’s biggest crisis in decades, if not centuries.

More recently, he bore the painful burden of betrayal by one of his closest aides: Benedict’s own butler was convicted by a Vatican court of stealing the pontiff’s personal papers and giving them to a journalist, one of the gravest breaches of papal security in modern times.

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IRELAND
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

A group representing victims of child abuse in Catholic-run institutions in Ireland on Monday welcomed the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI after “he promised a lot but delivered nothing”.

“This pope had a great opportunity to finally address the decades of abuse in the church but at the end of the day he did nothing but promise everything and in the end he ultimately delivered nothing,” John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse support group, told AFP.

Ireland has been stunned by a series of revealing reports in recent years that lifted the lid on decades of child abuse suffered at the hands of religious members that stretches back to the foundation of the state in 1922.

“We asked the pope for sanctions against the religious orders who committed the abuse and the religious leaders in Ireland who allowed this to happen but to our dismay nothing has happened,” Kelly added.

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Bryan Fitzgerald

Updated 9:54 am, Monday, February 11, 2013

ALBANY — Bishop Howard Hubbard said Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign because of failing health, was done out of “dedication to the Gospel.”

In a statement, Hubbard, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, said:

“The announcement came as a surprise to me. But as I thought more about it, I remembered that Pope Benedict had said before that if, in conscience, he ever reached the point where his health would compromise his responsibilities, he would step down.”

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RHODE ISLAND
WPRI

By Shaun Towne
Field Reporting By Nicole Estaphan

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Pope Benedict XVI shocked Catholics around the world Monday when announced his decision to become the first head of the church to resign in almost 600 years.

With nearly 60 percent of Rhode Islanders being Roman Catholic, many local parishioners were outspoken about the announcement.

“I’m shocked, I’m really shocked, and I’m saddened to hear that news,” said St. Brendan’s Parishioner Elaine Layton.

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CANADA
CBC News

Three Canadian cardinals will be part of the conclave to elect a new Pope, and one is considered a leading contender to take over after Benedict XVI steps down Feb. 28.

The selection of a Canadian as pontiff would be unprecedented. A non-European cardinal has never been chosen to lead the church.

The Canadians involved in the decision-making process are Cardinal Thomas Collins from Toronto, and Cardinals Jean-Claude Turcotte and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, both from Quebec.

In a rare move, Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to resign on Feb. 28, citing his deteriorating strength and health. The last pontiff to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

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UNITED STATES
TV Newser

By Chris Ariens on February 11, 2013

The news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation caught even his closest aides off guard leaving the world media scrambling to confirm the news. The Pope announced in a meeting of Vatican Cardinals today, “After having repeatedly examining my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” The pope will resign Feb. 28.

CNN went with the news at 6am as “Early Start” went on the air. John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin reported the news confirming with CNN sources in Vatican City. HLN’s Robin Meade reported the news at 6:01 as did “Fox & Friends,” citing “a wire service.”

MSNBC was hesitant to report the news at first but then at 6:04 Joe Scarborough reported the Reuters flash: “We weren’t sure whether we were going to go with [this] or not because Reuters has gotten some information wrong before on the pope. Mika, why don’t you confirm.”

“Pope Benedict is going to be stepping down as head of the Catholic church,” said Brzezinski.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY | Mon Feb 11, 2013

(Reuters) – – Pope Benedict was cheered by conservatives for trying to reaffirm traditional Catholic identity but liberals accused him of turning back the clock on reforms and hurting dialogue with Muslims, Jews and other Christians.

The 85-year-old German-born pontiff announced on Monday he would step down at the end of the month because of the effects of old age meant he was unable to complete his ministry. It was a decision that stunned Church officials and Catholics around the world, but one that he had hinted at in the past.

Benedict enjoyed relatively good health most of his life but the first sign that he was slowing down came in October 2011, when he began using a wheeled platform to move up the main aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica.

In a book in 2010, he said he would not hesitate to become the first pontiff to resign willingly in more than 700 years if he felt himself no longer able, “physically, psychologically and spiritually” to run the Catholic Church.

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MASSACHUSETTS
The Eagle-Tribune

The Most Reverend Robert Deeley, Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Boston said, “We have received the Holy Father’s announcement that, having prayerfully discerned that due to physical limitations he is no longer able to fulfill the responsibilities of his office, he will resign effective February 28th.

At this time we give thanks to God for the gift of Pope Benedict XVI’s faithful leadership of the Roman Catholic Church during the past 8 years of his papacy. We assure the Holy Father of our prayers and fidelity during these final weeks of his service as the Vicar of Christ.

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VATICAN CITY
The Wrap

[with video]

Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world Monday with his announcement that he will step down after eight years, becoming the first pope to resign in six centuries.

Benedict, 85, cited his age and health as the reason for his resignation. His time as pope has also been marked by fallout from the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal.

The pope will fulfill his duties through the end of the month, and a successor could be named by Easter, the Vatican said.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

The pope’s announcement that he will resign his post has come to many Catholics as a surprise. But his resignation gives the Church the chance for a new beginning during a time of crisis, says DW’s Bernd Riegert.

It’s a revolution. A pope hasn’t resigned in more than 500 years. Officially, the nearly 86-year-old Benedict XVI said that he was stepping down due to his deteriorating health. But in his Latin-language announcement, he said that the Church was difficult to lead during an era of rapid change, in a world “shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith.”

The pope was no man of the people like his Polish predecessor, but instead was a brilliant theologian and intellectual, who always had difficulties with his office. During his 2011 trip to his German homeland, he gave the impression that he was detached. At the time, many people criticized the pope for being out of touch with the concerns of normal Catholics.

His resignation now officially opens the possibility for a Catholic leader who is more open to reform and can find answers to the Church’s crisis in Europe and North America. In Germany, the Church is losing more and more members, and there aren’t enough priests being trained to lead the next generation.

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VATICAN CITY
Deutsche Welle

Although most popes remain in office until their death, the regulations that govern the Catholic Church allow for a pope to step down from his duties. He need not ask permission: It is his decision entirely.

There have been very few papal resignations in the history of the Catholic Church. The last to do so was Pope Gregory XII, in 1415 as part of a deal to end the Great Western Schism in which two rivals had separately declared themselves pope. The dispute had threatened to tear the church apart.

Perhaps better known is the resignation of Celestine V in 1294, who had only been in the position for less than six months. The then 89-year-old Celestine had paved the way for himself to step down by issuing a decree that made it possible for a pope to resign.

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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 10, 2013

A predatory Columbus Catholic priest, who once spent a year in prison, has passed away. Fr. Thomas L. McLaughlin died on Feb. 6th.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is urging anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered from McLaughlis crimes to “come forward, expose wrongdoers, get help and start healing.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they “hope McLaughlin’s passing will bring some measure of comfort and closure to those he hurt.”

“At least now it’s certain he’ll never be able to harm another child,” said, Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director.

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VATICAN CITY
Metro

There’s no shortage of worthy candidates to become the leader of the Catholic Church worldwide and Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet is the one of the early front-runners.

The 68-year-old former Archbishop of Quebec is as short as 3/1 with Ladbrokes and 6/1 with Sky Bet to be appointed by his fellow cardinals.

It’s a global church and the belief the Pope has to be Italian is long, long gone. Ouellet has worked impressively in his current role of vetting and selecting bishops and he could shape the Church for generations to come.

One of his main rivals could be Cardinal Peter Turkson, 64, from Ghana. His appointment would be a huge shift in direction for the Church. He is extremely popular in the College of Cardinals and could be seen as a powerful leader, especially in Africa, and he is a best price if just 4/1 with Stan James.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

February 11, 2013

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The announcement by Pope Benedict XVI that he would step down Feb. 28 came as a surprise to many. Even people with insider connections at the Vatican were blindsided by the news.

Nothing was posted on Catholic news media sites. The Rev. Louis Vallone, a pastor in McKees Rocks who is a close friend of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, had spoken to him last week when the cardinal was in Rome and heard no hint of any major impending change.

“It caught everybody off guard,” said Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh, who heard it from the TV news on his way to early morning Mass at St. Paul’s seminary in Pittsburgh’s East Carnegie neighborhood. “There is a certain sadness I feel because of his resignation. I do admire him. I admire the teaching that he shared so much with the church. I think he wouldn’t come to a decision that was as important as this one without a considerable amount of prayer. He wants only the very best for the church and would submit his resignation based on his love for the church.”

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UNITED STATES
El Paso Inc.

Associated Press

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan says he was as startled as the rest of the world about Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement that he will resign later this month due to failing health.

Dolan says he feels a special bond with the pope because he was the one that appointed him archbishop of New York.

Dolan, speaking on the “Today” show Monday, says he wears the ring and the cross the pope gave him.

The pope announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28 because he’s simply too infirm to carry on.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 10, 2013

I read The Dallas Morning News series about abuse and cover up at Parkland Hospital at a bad time: while I was sitting in a hospital. (My 93 year old father-in-law is struggling.) It’s a very disturbing but very important series. I encourage you to read it.

Many of dynamics are tragically familiar – officials ignoring warning signs, acting secretively, blocking efforts to expose wrongdoing, attacking the messengers, griping about allegedly unfair media coverage. ones.

In this whole sordid and depressing mess, I think there are two tiny silver linings.

The first is that despite financial setbacks and uncertainties, the long-standing and admirable tradition of thorough investigations of corruption by diligent journalists at daily newspapers remain intact. This is especially true at the Dallas Morning News, where reporters Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin did ground-breaking reporting on the Catholic church crisis over the past decade.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on February 11, 2013

The College of Cardinals will now look to its membership for a new leader, someone who can lead the Church into a new era. We hope that they look for a man among them who will protect the most vulnerable among the faithful: innocent children and reach out to the most hurt among the faithful: victims of clergy sexual abuse.

For the Church to truly embody the spiritual teachings of Jesus Christ, it must be led by a pontiff who demands transparency, exposes child-molesting clerics, punishes wrongdoers and enablers, cooperates with law enforcement, and makes true amends to those who were hurt so greatly by Catholic priests, employees and volunteers.

The era of cover-up and secrecy in the Catholic Church must end. Our greatest hope is that the newest Pope agrees and becomes a true leader in the spirit and teaching of the Gospels.

Victims of child sexual abuse agree on one thing: they want to ensure that what happened to them never happens to another child. The only way for that to happen is for the Cardinals to select a Pontiff who puts child safety and victim healing first, as the teachings of Jesus Christ dictate.

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UNITED STATES
Christian News Wire

Contact: Andrew T. Walther, Vice President, Communications and Media, Knights of Columbus, 203-752-4253, 203-824-5412 cell

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Feb. 11, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ — The following statement of Supreme Knight Carl Anderson on the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI is released by the Knights of Columbus:

In these remaining days of his papacy, our thoughts and prayers are with Pope Benedict XVI, who has worked so hard in leading the Church, and has always been such a good friend to the Knights of Columbus. We wish him all the best in his retirement. In addition, we pray for all those cardinals who will take part in the conclave, and for his successor, that God may inspire them as they carry out the mission with which they are entrusted.

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NEW YORK
NBC New York

Catholics in New York were stunned by Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement Monday that he would be stepping down as pope later this month.

“That’s terrible to hear,” said Manhattan resident Dave Stacker outside Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

Stacker noted that he had been excited the pope was just starting to branch out into social media and more modern forms of communication with his followers.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision to abdicate his position on Feb. 28 during a meeting of Vatican cardinals Monday morning.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By Tom Moseley Posted: 11/02/2013

Bookmakers think the next Pope could come from Africa, following the resignation of Benedict XVI.

Up to 120 cardinals from all over the world will vote on who will succeed 85-year-old Benedict, who is standing down for health reasons.

Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze and Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana are the front-runners with William Hill and Ladbrokes respectively.

Arinze, seen as a staunch conservative on issues like birth control, was a hot favourite for the post last time around and is the 2/1 favourite with William Hill.

Turkson, the 5/2 favourite with Ladbrokes, is president of the Vatican’s council for justice and peace and has also been linked with the top job. Last year he was embroiled in a row over an ‘anti-Muslim’ video.

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UNITED STATES
Baptists Today

Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he plans to step down at the end of the month — the first pope in 600 years to resign voluntarily rather than clinging to power and dying in office.

Benedict has not been my favorite pope: his strict orthodoxy and less-than-tolerant approach to others dialed back years of progressive movement in the Catholic church, and his failure to quickly ride herd on priestly pedophilia was a great disappointment.

I’m not Catholic, so I really have no skin in the game, but I affirm the 85-year-old Benedict’s decision to resign rather than stay in a job long after he’s physically capable of doing it well. Those who elected him — at age 78 — should have known he would not be able to serve effectively for long.

What Benedict did well (from his perspective) was to appoint so many conservative cardinals, including a disproportionate number of Europeans, that his conservative legacy is almost certain to live on in the next pope, and that orthodox stamp is likely to be his most lasting contribution.

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VATICAN CITY
Gay Star News

11 February 2013 | By Joe Morgan

The top three candidates for Pope are all vehemently anti-LGBT, with one defending African laws punishing gay people with death.

Pope Benedict XVI resigned earlier today (11 February), with the 85-year-old citing ill health and his advancing age.

Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has said many of the laws imposed on gay people in Africa are an ‘exaggeration.’

Last year, the National Catholic Register reported the Cardinal saying it is important people understand the ‘reasons’ why some African governments have created legislation against homosexuality.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

An Australian victim’s group has welcomed Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign, saying he has done little “to stop the reign of terror of child rapist priests”.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) Australia said victims hope he is replaced with a more co-operative pontiff.

“Victims welcome the resignation of a church official with immense power who has done so little to stop the reign of terror of child rapist priests and other religious,” Nicky Davis of SNAP Australia said in a statement.

“In the eyes of many victims, Joseph Ratzinger has personally done much to add to the huge number of victims and exponentially increase the suffering of those already harmed.

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VATICAN CITY
PolicyMic

Michael McCutcheon

Cardinal Peter Turkson is one of the names being floated as a possible successor to Pope Benedict XVI as the next head of the Catholic Church. He would be the first black Pope in the history of the Church and is Ghanaian-born.

It would be a historic moment. The Church is continuing to grow quickly in Africa and choosing a non-European would speak volumes about the Church’s plans for growth and be a nod to its emerging members.

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VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Martin Baccardax

February 11, 2013

If a week is a long time in politics, eight years is an epoch in the modern Papacy

The shock resignation – the first in more than six hundred years – of the eighty-five year old Pope Benedict XVI comes at the end of an eight year rule of the Holy See that has seen the foundations of the Catholic Church shaken as never before.

A man most defined by his strict adherence to the oldest and most challenged portions of Church doctrine was always going to struggle to unite a global faith that was already reeling from what His Holiness himself had called the “cloud of filth” of a decades-long sexual abuse scandal that rose to the very feet of the Vatican’s cosseted leadership.

In fact, the allegations involved the man himself, who, as Joseph Ratzinger, severed as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising in the late 70s and early 80s and was said to have personally approved the transfer of a priest accused of molestation to his diocese in order to receive treatment and therapy.

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VATICAN CITY
New Jersey Herald

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Benedict XVI always cast himself as the reluctant pope, a shy bookworm who preferred solitary walks in the Alps to the public glare and the majesty of Vatican pageantry. And on Monday, the Vatican announced that the leader of the world’s billion Roman Catholics was stepping down – the first pontiff to do so since 1415.

The German theologian, whose mission was to reawaken Christianity in a secularized Europe, grew increasingly frail as he shouldered the monumental task of purging the Catholic world of a sex abuse scandal that festered under John Paul II and exploded during his reign into the church’s biggest crisis in decades, if not centuries.

More recently, he bore the painful burden of betrayal by 1 of his closest aides: Benedict’s own butler was convicted by a Vatican court of stealing the pontiff’s personal papers and giving them to a journalist, 1 of the gravest breaches of papal security in modern times.

All the while, Benedict pursued his single-minded vision to rekindle faith in a world which, he frequently lamented, seemed to think it could do without God.

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VATICAN CITY
KKOB

(NEW YORK) — A new pope is elected by the College of Cardinals in Rome, who gather under Michelangelo’s famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel under strict security measures. Only cardinals under the age of 80 can vote, which means 118 members are eligible to vote for Pope Benedict XVI’s successor.

This process is called a conclave and it will take place at the end of March to elect a new pope in place of Benedict, who announced on Monday that he is stepping down.

The cardinals are totally cut off from the outside world during conclave, as television, phones, newspapers and computers are all banned. They are housed in private rooms in the Santa Maria house until a new pope is elected.

Aside from the cardinals, about 70 other people are allowed in the Santa Maria house such as doctors, cooks and housekeepers.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, February 11, 2013

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny will hear demands for a state apology when he meets survivors of the Magdalene Laundries on Monday.

The Fine Gael leader will receive the survivors at a meeting in government buildings on Monday afternoon.

The Irish PM has been criticised for failing to accept the state’s blame in the Magdalene Laundry scandal after the publication of a government report last week.

Now the survivors will make their demand personally at the Dublin meeting according to the Irish Times.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters | Feb. 11, 2013 Distinctly Catholic

Last night, of course, I anticipated writing an update about the U.S. bishops’ response to the HHS mandate revisions. And, in search of information about Cardinal Consalvi, the greatest Secretary of State in the history of the Holy See, I was reminded about the circumstances of the election of Pope Pius VII. His predecessor, Pius VI, had died in August 1799, a prisoner of Napoleon. The City of Rome had been proclaimed a Republic, forcing the conclave to meet in Venice under the protection of the Austrian emperor. The conclave began its deliberation on November 30, 1799 and, given the high stakes, political and ecclesiastical, the cardinals deadlocked. It was not until March 14 that Chiaramonti was elected the new Pope.

The news of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation may lead the Church to the most interesting conclave since that conclave of 1799-1800. There will not be the political pressures from the crowned heads of Europe as existed then – after the 1903 conclave that elected Pope Pius X, the right of certain monarchs to veto a candidate was brought to an end. But, the ecclesiastical situation is sure to be just as contentious as many prior conclaves and, given the virtually unprecedented quality of Pope Benedict’s decision to resign, those tensions will include some new dynamics.

What are the key dynamics, both immediate and long-term? The most obvious is that the decision to resign may be the most modernizing decision Pope Benedict has taken. (Quick question: Who is the person most upset with the decision? Queen Elizabeth II. You can bet that she took a call from Prince Charles this morning asking if she was watching the tele!) In a single moment, the Pope has removed some of the aura of the papacy, the idea that it was a vocation rather than a ministry, something that cannot be abandoned without somehow affronting the Holy Spirit. Today, the Pope indicated that the Petrine ministry is a ministry, a very specific ministry to be sure, but more of a job than a vow.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Telegraph

Tim Stanley

Dr Tim Stanley is a historian of the United States. His biography of Pat Buchanan is out now. His personal website is www.timothystanley.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter @timothy_stanley.

Are we headed towards an apocalypse? First an asteroid comes close to the Earth, then the British start eating horse and now … the Pope resigns. Resigning is something that Popes very rarely do. That last time it was done voluntarily was by Celestine V in 1294; Gregory XII stepped down under political pressure in 1415. By contrast, John Paul II remained in his position regardless of his declining health – a testament to the man’s extraordinary will power.

How wonderful it is to be part of a church that has a memory stretching back centuries. Alas, its prophesies don’t reach much further in to the future. According to Saint Malachy’s Prophecy of the Popes (published in 1595), Benedict is the penultimate Pope before the End of Times begin. The Prophecy has actually been eerily accurate in predicting the identity of each Pope in turn, which is why it makes for such troubling reading today. After Benedict will come Peter of Rome, under whose watch “the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people.” Given the terms of current EU equality law, the Prophecy might well be undone by the forced election of Cherie Blair. But if it does come true, if Peter is elected and Armageddon is upon us, I’m really going to have to get my house in order before the judgement begins. I’m clearing my internet history as I type…

I converted to Catholicism not long after Benedict took over, so he’s always been “my” Pope. And I’ve been lucky. He’s an uncommonly intelligent man who has embodied what’s best about post-Vatican II Catholicism. Contrary to his divisive image encouraged by some in the media (who understand Catholicism as well as they do Aramaic) he put reunifying the Church at the heart of his pontificate. That meant reaching out to the Eastern Orthodox and permitting a revival of traditional liturgy for homegrown conservatives. The latter has led to a revolution in the English Church. Back in 2005, to request a traditional Mass (Latin, pre-60s liturgy and absolutely no tambourines) was akin to requesting a sausage sandwich at a Green Party Vegan fundraiser. Traditionalists were treated like embarrassing relics and it’s not an exaggeration to write that some were persecuted for their beliefs. But Benedict brought a new reading of Vatican II that stressed living tradition and encouraging greater reverence and beauty in the Mass. That might mean more people receiving communion on the tongue or a more semantically precise liturgy, but the greatest innovation was to free traditionalists to explore the Old Rite. He was our Gorbachev.

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UNITED STATES
U.S. Catholic

By Bryan Cones

I say that in all seriousness, and not because Pope Benedict XVI has not been my favorite pope of all time.

Pope Benedict’s resignation tells me that he knows his role, both his role as bishop of Rome, and his role as successor to Pope John Paul II. Joseph Ratzinger was elected as a short-term caretaker pope, and eight years (or nearly eight) is a sufficient amount of time to let the aura of Pope John Paul II’s too-long papacy dissipate. But I also think Ratzinger knows his limits and what the church needs in a way that Wojtyla did not. While I think Pope John Paul II saw himself as personally called by God to live out the end of his papacy as he did, Benedict, on the other hand, leans into the job with the mind of a professor: The work he set for himself to do is done; now it is time for someone else. And he has had the courage to admit it; I suspect it will become a “tradition,” especially given the long lives contemporary popes can expect to have.

Just who that someone else will be is an important question. Benedict has been steadily promoting Archbishop of Manila Luis Antonio Tagle over the past couple of years, and I wonder if Tagle is not in some way Ratzinger’s chosen successor. Tagle is sufficiently theologically conservative, an outspoken promoter of justice for the poor (without ever crossing the line to liberation theology), and he is from the Phillippines, which means he is from the Global South, from a country of encounter with Islam, and from Asia, or at least the zone of Asia. I’ll be interested to see how Benedict participates (or doesn’t) in the selection of the next pope. He is too old to vote in the conclave, and he’s technically not a cardinal anyway, so I suspect whatever he does will be behind the scenes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Jim Melwert

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation (see related story) comes as a surprise to Vatican insiders, and especially to Philadelphia-area Catholics. Some church-goers at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul hadn’t even heard the news when they arrived for morning mass, today.

For one woman, the first thing she thought of was the Pope’s planned visit to Philadelphia (see related story), “In 2015, so I don’t know where that leaves us because we made all the arrangements for him to be here. So, I don’t know.”

As far as Pope Benedict’s legacy, people say it’s hard to follow someone as popular as Pope John Paul II, but one woman said she believes Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) was running the Vatican leading up to Pope John Paul II’s death.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Saying he no longer has the strength to exercise ministry over the universal church, Pope Benedict XVI announced Feb. 11 that he would be resigning at the end of the month.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the pope told cardinals gathered for an ordinary public consistory to approve the canonization of new saints.

Pope Benedict, who was elected in April 2005, will be the first pope to resign in almost 600 years.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

The second longest-serving pope in history, John Paul II, who died in office in 2005 at the age of 84, has rather habituated us of late to the idea that popes are expected to carry on until they pop off. And it is true that while diocesan bishops must resign once they reach 75 and cardinals can no longer join a conclave past 80, no such rules apply to the Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church (to name just two of his titles).

But popes can, and do, resign. Not often, but they do. Back in 1045, the irredeemably outrageous Benedict IX – the only man to be pope more than once, and the only one ever to sell the papacy – stepped down, essentially for the cash. Accused by St Peter Damian of “feasting on immorality”, by Bishop Benno of Piacenza of committing “many vile adulteries and murders” and by Pope Victor III of being a pope “so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it,” Benedict ostensibly resigned to get married – but not before he had sold the office to his godfather, who became Gregory VI (and had to resign himself the following year because, even by the standards of the 11th century, buying the papacy wasn’t really on).

More edifying is the case of Celestine V in 1294. A former Benedictine hermit, Celestine had never wanted to be pope. After a mere five months in office he issued a solemn decree declaring it permissible for a pope to resign and then promptly did so himself, citing “the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life”. His successor, Boniface VIII, however, refused to allow him to return to a life of solitary contemplation and instead had him locked up in the castle of Fumone, where he died in May 1296 (some suggest Boniface had him murdered).

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

No pope has resigned in almost 600 years. But Pope Benedict’s surprise announcement is not entirely unprecedented. More than 260 men have reigned as Pope since Saint Peter was martyred in Rome in the third decade after the death of Christ, and at least four of them have resigned.

We spoke to medieval historian Doctor Donald Prudlo, Associate Professor of History at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, about the history of papal resignations.

Vatican Radio: It’s been centuries since a Pope has resigned the See of Peter. Can you tell us about the last Pope to resign?

Dr. Donald Prudlo: The last Pope to resign was almost six hundred years ago. It was Pope Gregory XII, who, in a very sacrificial gesture offered to resign so that the council of Constance could assume his power and appoint a new Pope, and in so doing bring an end Great Western Schism. So that was the last pope who actually resigned. So this is quite an unprecedented event.

VR: At one point there was a question of whether it was possible for a Pope to resign. When and how did the Church determine that this was possible?

DP: Certainly. At the end of the 13th century, a very holy hermit named Peter was elected as Pope Celestine V in order to break a deadlock in the conclave that had lasted nearly three years. He was elected because of his personal holiness, sort of a unity candidate. And once he got there, being a hermit, not used to the ways of the Roman Curia, he found himself somewhat unsuited to the task, that it wasn’t just holiness but also some shrewdness and prudence that was also required. So within six months he knew that he was really unequal to the task, and so he gathered the cardinals together in a consistory, just as was recently done, a couple hours ago, and he announced to the cardinals his intention to resign. Because of the Pope’s position as the supreme authority in the Church, Celestine declared that the pope could freely resign, that it was permissible, and that, because, as supreme authority, it did not have to be accepted by anyone. It just had to be freely manifested, as it says today in canon 332 of the Code of Canon Law. As long as it is freely and properly manifested it is to be accepted by no one. The Pope is the supreme authority. Because of this, his successor Boniface VIII in his redaction of Canon Law called the Liber Sextus inserted this constitution of Celestine V and it became normative Catholic law.

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VATICAN CITY
ABC News

[with video]

By NICOLE WINFIELD and VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press

VATICAN CITY February 11, 2013 (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he lacks the strength to fulfill his duties and on Feb. 28 will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The announcement sets the stage for a conclave in March to elect a new leader for world’s 1 billion Catholics.

The 85-year-old pope announced the bombshell in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, surprising even his closest collaborators, even though Benedict had made clear in the past he would step down if he became too old or infirm to do the job.

Benedict called his choice “a decision of great importance for the life of the church.”

Indeed, the move allows the Vatican to hold a conclave before Easter to elect a new pope, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn’t have to be observed.

It will also allow Benedict to hold great sway over the choice of his successor. He has already hand-picked the bulk of the College of Cardinals — the princes of the church who will elect the next pope — to guarantee his conservative legacy and ensure an orthodox future for the church.

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VATICAN CITY
The Economic Times

PARIS: With Pope Benedict’s stunning announcement that he will resign later this month, the time may be coming for the Roman Catholic Church to elect its first non-European leader and it could be a Latin American.

The region already represents 42 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion-strong Catholic population, the largest single block in the Church, compared to 25 percent in its European heartland.

After the Pole John Paul and German-born Benedict, the post once reserved for Italians is now open to all. Who gets the nod depends on the profile of the new pope that the cardinals who elect him at the next conclave think will guide the Church best.

Two senior Vatican officials recently dropped surprisingly clear hints about possible successors. The upshot of their remarks is that the next pope could well be from Latin America.

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ROME
adnkronos

Rome, 11 Feb. (AKI) – Italian politicians on Monday voiced shock at Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement at the end of February.

“I am extremely shaken by this,” commented Italy’s outgoing technocrat prime minister Mario Monti, who declined to comment on whether it would change relations between the Vatican and the Italian state.

Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of Italy’s centre-left Democrat party, which is tipped to win national elections later this month, said Benedict’s move may set a new precedent for future pontiffs, who traditionally die in the job.

“This is news of historic importance, that has only happened twice down the centuries,” Bersani commented.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

By Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press

Early morning mass attendees at Divine Child Catholic Church in Dearborn expressed disbelief after learning of Pope Benedict XVI’s plan to resign at month’s end.

“No way. Oh my goodness,” exclaimed Joy Siedlik, 57, an office manager from Livonia as she exited the 6:30 a.m. service.”You just shocked me.”

“I’m just wondering what’s going to happen in the Catholic Church,” said Siedlik. I hope we find another pope as spiritual as he has been.”

The 85-year-old pope, who became pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II, said Monday morning that health concerns prompted his historic decision. Historians said it was the first time in nearly 600 years that a leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church has resigned as pope.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

Aaron Langmaid
From:Herald Sun
February 11, 2013

AUSTRALIA’S most senior Catholic says last night’s resignation of Pope Benedict XVI caught him by surprise.

Cardinal George Pell AC, the Archbishop of Sydney, will cast his vote on the Catholic Church’s new leader in Rome by the end of the month, following the first resignation of a Pope since 1415.

“Pope Benedict has always loved the Church and worked to do what was best for her. His resignation came as a surprise to me. We thank him for his years of devoted leadership and service, and his brilliant teaching. We’ll pray for him as he enters retirement. We must also pray for the church as she prepares to choose the next successor of St Peter,” Cardinal Pell said in a brief statement.

More:Pope resigns because of age, health

The 85-year-old German Pope told Vatican cardinals his age and health were factors in his decision to step down, making him the first Pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
WTMJ

[with video]

By Jay Sorgi

MILWAUKEE – With the impending resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, speculation has already moved toward former Milwaukee Archbishop and current New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan as a potential candidate to take over.

However, Marquette University professor Fr. Steven Avella says that there is a long list of candidates that the College of Cardinals will consider when they hold their conclave and decide the next Pope.

“Dolan’s name will likely come up,” said Fr. Avella, who joined both Newsradio 620 WTMJ’s “Wisconsin’s Morning News” and TODAY’S TMJ4’s “Live at Daybreak.”

“Anything can happen. I’ll be the last person to go on the air and say it’s impossible for him to be elected, but at this point, the speculation is going to range wide.”

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

With reference to Fr. Tony Flannery’s current situation, allow me to share the following event which occured this weekend. In the Diocese of Cloyne, a celebrant, recently ordained, used the homily as a personal attack on Fr. Tony Flannery, CSsR. The celebrant used the homily, which is meant to be a breaking the God’s Word, in a partisan manner. A small number of the congregation were motivated to walk out of the Mass, thereby depriving themselves of the Eucharist. This was not the response of ‘mavericks’. Some of those who walked out are actively involved in the parish. Committed Catholics walked out as their only response to the abuse of a homily.

On another occasion, another parishioner, whilst praying the way of the Cross after a Mass, was informed by the same priest that she was late for Mass and thus should not have received the Eucharist at Holy Communion. The lady in question had brought her children with her to the same Mass. One therefore may conclude that the intention of the lady was good. She was met with hostility.

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AUSTRALIA
9 News

Australian Catholics will be surprised to find Pope Benedict XVI is resigning, but will be supportive of his decision, a senior member of the Catholic church says.

The 85-year-old Pope Benedict XVI announced his decision to step down during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning (local time) – saying age prevented him from carrying out his duties.

He will officially resign on February 28, making him the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

Father Brian Lucas, the general secretary of the Australian Bishops Conference, said he saw the news break on TV on Monday night and had no prior knowledge of the decision.

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9 News (Australia)

As the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI reached the world, those on Twitter have come up with some amusing theories on why he decided to step down.

“The Pope said he’s resigned because he didn’t have the strength to go on. It’s Monday. We all feel like that,” Steve N Allen wrote.

David Litchfield figured he knew where the Pope was on Monday night and what he was singing.

“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight losing my religion” … Pope at karaoke last night,” he tweeted, quoting the lyrics from R.E.M.’s 1991 hit song.

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UNITED KINGDOM
AFP

By Katherine Haddon (AFP)

LONDON — 1246 GMT: Meanwhile, the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby — the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans — has issued a statement expressing sadness at the news.

“It was with a heavy heart but complete understanding that we learned this morning of Pope Benedict?s declaration of his decision to lay down the burden of ministry as Bishop of Rome, an office which he has held with great dignity, insight and courage,” he said.

1244 GMT: British Prime Minister David Cameron has issued a statement saying Pope Benedict will be “missed as a spiritual leader to millions.”

1240 GMT: There have been other popes who stepped down in different circumstances.

There have been up to five papal abdications in 2,000 years.

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VATICAN CITY
The Times (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict XVI is to resign because of ill health and old age – the first pontiff to renounce his ministry for almost 600 years.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision during a canonisation ceremony at the Vatican this morning, taking by surprise an assembly of cardinals who had gathered to hear the declaration of three new saints.

Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that Benedict made the announcement in Latin and admitted that there was a “moment of hesitation” before his audience caught up with what he was saying.

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AUSTRALIA
Courier Mail

AAP
February 11, 2013

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI marks a historic moment, which many Australian Catholics will greet with great emotion.

The Pope will resign on February 28, saying his age prevented him from carrying out his duties – an unprecedented move in the modern history of the Catholic church.

He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years and the decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new Pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

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VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Paul Owen
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 February 2013

Pope’s resignation – eyewitness account

John Hooper has been speaking to Mexican prelate Monsignor Oscar Sanchez, who witnessed the pope’s resignation.

Standing in the colonnade that encircles St Peter’s square, his vestments draped over one arm, Monsignor Oscar Sanchez Barba from Guadalajara in Mexico told Hooper he had come to Rome to be told the date for the canonisation of the Blessed Lupita Garcia, a nun. Sanchez said:

We were all in the Sala del Concistorio in the third loggia of the Apostolic palace. After giving the date for the canonisation, the 12th of May, the pope took a sheet of paper and read from it.

He just said that he was resigning and that he would be finishing on February 28.

We were all left … [he tailed off, lost for words]

The cardinals were just looking at one another. Then the pope got to his feet, gave his benediction and left. It was so simple; the simplest thing imaginable. Extraordinary. Nobody expected it.

Then we all left in silence. There was absolute silence … and sadness.

Here’s more from the press conference being given by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.

Lombardi has said the pope took his decision “aware of the great problems the church faces today”. His decision showed “great courage” and “determination”, Lombardi said.

It was Benedict’s own personal decision made without any outside pressure.

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VATICAN CITY
Tidewater Review

Reuters
7:26 a.m. EST, February 11, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – A new pope will probably be elected by the end of March, a Vatican spokesman said on Monday, after Pope Benedict left his aides “incredulous” with his announcement that he would resign because he was too weak to fulfill the duties of his office.

Benedict said he would step down on February 28 and would not take part in the conclave to elect a new pope, Father Federico Lombardi told reporters at the Vatican.

After resigning, the former pope will move to a summer residence near Rome. After that, he will live in a former monastery within Vatican territory, Lombardi said.

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VATICAN CITY
Perth Now

POPE Benedict XVI, who has announced his intention to resign this month, will be remembered as a staunch defender of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, a diehard traditionalist and a lightning rod for controversy.

The German intellectual succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005 aged 78 after serving nearly a quarter-century as the Church’s doctrinal enforcer, earning himself the nickname “God’s Rottweiler”.

The 85-year-old, who blamed his age for preventing him from continuing at the head of the papacy, will be the first pope to do so in centuries.

“I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics said as he would step down on February 28.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign on February 28th, saying he no longer had the strength to fulfill the duties of his office.

By Nick Squires, Rome, Barney Henderson and Malcolm Moore
12:26PM GMT 11 Feb 2013

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he told the cardinals.

“I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiriual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

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GERMANY
PhillyBurbs

Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The pope’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, says the pontiff had been advised by his doctor not to take any more transatlantic trips and had been considering stepping down for months.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28.

Talking from his home in Regensburg to the news agency dpa, Georg Ratzinger said his brother was having increasing difficulty walking and that his resignation was part of a “natural process.”

“His age is weighing on him,” the 89-year-old said of his 85-year-old brother. “At this age my brother wants more rest.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

Feb. 11, 2013

Editorial

To those familiar with the protocols of the Catholic hierarchy, the news was stunning. The archbishop of Los Angeles publicly rebuked his predecessor, a cardinal, for his failures in dealing with the priest sex abuse scandal.

The action by Archbishop Jose Gomez, relieving Cardinal Roger Mahony of “any administrative or public duties,” was remarkable on two levels.

First, it broke with the unspoken but nearly ironclad rule of the culture of Catholic hierarchy that bishops do not publicly criticize other bishops. That courtesy extended even to the most egregious examples of ecclesial malfeasance — the deliberate and persistent hiding of criminal activities by priests. No one to this point had uttered a word against a predecessor, not in New York or Connecticut, not in Philadelphia or Milwaukee, not in Seattle or Santa Fe. There were “mistakes made,” they would say, and offer vacuous apologies. For reasons yet unknown, Gomez broke the code.

Second, the language Gomez used was blunt and unqualified. The behavior he found in the files, he said, was “evil.” The acts themselves and the handling of these matters, as the files revealed, showed more than mistakes made, they showed a “terrible failure.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by NCR Staff | Feb. 11, 2013

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez’s public rebuke of his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, at the end of January was quickly described as unprecedented.

Sharply critiquing Mahony’s handling of sex abuse cases after the long-delayed release of church files made clear the cardinal had shielded abusive priests from public scrutiny and possibly law enforcement at the expense of children’s safety, Gomez announced Jan. 31 that his predecessor would “no longer have any administrative or public duties” in the archdiocese.

In a hierarchical system long known for prelates reluctant to criticize one another, the public rebuke was certainly rare. Yet a question remained: What does it mean?

On one level, Gomez’s move against Mahony has little practical impact. Following his initial announcement, Gomez clarified Feb. 1 that Mahony remained a bishop “in good standing,” able to celebrate the sacraments and minister regularly.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 11, 2013

Before his name became connected with failing to adequately address clergy abuse of minors, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles was better known for his reputation as one of the nation’s leading church advocates of social justice, particularly for farmworkers and immigrants.

As a young priest in Fresno, Calif., during the 1965-70 Delano Grape Strike, Mahony became a nationally known figure.

Joining forces with nationally noted labor priest Msgr. George Higgins and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Donnelly of Hartford, Conn., in the U.S. bishops’ ad hoc Committee on Farm Labor, the three helped mediate the conflict between California grape growers and their predominantly Mexican and Filipino migrant workers.

During his seminary years, Mahony became fluent in Spanish while working with the braceros, temporary Mexican farmworkers brought into the U.S. yearly to harvest crops. His work as the key on-site coordinator for the committee’s mediation work eventually led to the formation of Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers, as well as to major advances in just wages and working conditions for farm laborers.

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NEW JERSEY
The Record

Sunday, February 10, 2013

BY MATTHEW MCGRATH, KAREN SUDOL AND ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

Church of the Sacred Heart parishioners in Rochelle Park were told by their pastor Sunday that a priest living at the rectory, who admitted fondling a teenage boy years ago, has agreed to leave the parish.

The Rev. Robert Wolfee, the pastor of Sacred Heart, said at the end of 10 a.m. Mass that the Rev. Michael Fugee was “in the process of moving” in response to media reports about his criminal history. Wolfee didn’t say where Fugee would be moving.

Officials with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark acknowledged last week that Fugee had been living at the Terrace Avenue church, assisting the pastor with some duties, and that he is considered a priest in good standing.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers came under fire earlier in the week after it became public that Fugee was working as an administrator in charge of raising money for missionary work and had been given an additional influential title.

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IRELAND
YouTube

Published on Feb 5, 2013

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald discuss the publication of the inter-departmental report into the State’s involvement in Magdalene Laundries.

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KENYA
Identity Kenya

NAIROBI, Feb 9 – THE SON of a former politician is suing the Catholic Church for years of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of missionary priests in seminaries here in Kenya and in the UK.

Emmanuel Shikuku, the son of Martin Shikuku, one of Kenya’s fiery and well known politician who died in 2012, is alleging he was sexually abused by several clerics as he was studying for the priesthood.

He also alleges that one of his abusers – he says they were 6 in total – was a former Bishop of the Ngong Diocese but who was removed a few years back after cases of abuse started to appear.

In an exclusive interview with The Saturday Standard, Mr Shikuku claims he was a victim of a series of rapes and other forms of abuse between 1978 and 1994.

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AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser

Danny Lannen | February 11th, 2013

Fr Kevin Dillon

GEELONG Catholic priest Fr Kevin Dillon will tell a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into institutional abuse that an existing response system for victims ignores rules of compassion and justice and it is beyond repair.

The St Mary’s parish priest will on Friday become the first cleric to present to the state inquiry, during the second of two sittings in Geelong.

Fr Dillon said yesterday he would call for victims to have a greater voice in how a response system might help them rebuild their lives.

He regularly counsels about 40 people who have suffered abuse from within the Catholic church.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

FORMER Christ Church music teacher admits molesting multiple young boys because he found them ‘appealing’ but thought he could keep his urges under control.

Lindsay William Hutchinson, 63, is on trial for committing six counts of carnal knowledge against nature, six counts of indecently dealing with a child, and three counts of unlawful and indecent assualt, for the repeated sexual abuse of a young student, between December 1983 and September 1985 in several places including country hotel rooms, a school music camp and a deanery.

Mr Hutchinson, who was the music director at Claremont’s Christ Church Grammar School and organist at St George’s Cathedral in the 1980s, has pleaded guilty to some of the charges, but has denied the more serious allegations, including rape.

Other witnesses during the trial have testified about inappropriate sexual touching and behaviour, including having photographs taken of them by Mr Hutchinson for a fake “speedo competition”, but the allegations do not form part of the charges Mr Hutchinson is facing.

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GERMANY
Kyiv Post

BERLIN – The German government said it was “moved and touched” by the surprise resignation of German-born Pope Benedict on Monday.

“As a Christian and as a Catholic, one can’t help but be moved and touched by this,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a regular government news conference.

“The German government has the highest respect for the Holy Father, for what he has done, for his contributions over the course of his life to the Catholic church. He has been at the head of the Catholic Church for nearly eight years. He has left a very personal signature as a thinker at the head of the Church, and also as a shepherd. Whatever the reasons for this decision, they must be respected,” Seibert added.

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VATICAN CITY
Yahoo! News

Sky News

Reaction to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to resign as head of the Catholic Church has started to come in from around the world.

Anne Widdecombe MP described him as a “very decisive character” and said: “If he feels that he can’t do justice to the post, then (this decision) is very typical of him.”

“He’s given the church stability,” she added. “He was very much an authority figure and he was very, very trusted by church.”

Father Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk, told Sky News: “My reaction is one of great shock and surprise.

“He’s reached out very strongly to non-believers and fully recognises that people today won’t necessarily join the church.

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VATICAN CITY
Courier Mail (Australia)

February 11, 2013

POPE Benedict XVI says he will resign on February 28 because his age prevents him from carrying out his duties, an unprecedented move in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

He is the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years and the decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new Pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old Pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the Pope told the meeting.

“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 recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Pope Benedict in shock resignation: Pontiff, 85, is first in 600 years to stand down because he ‘no longer has the strength to carry on’

By Simon Tomlinson and Richard Hartley-parkinson

Pope Benedict XVI is to stand down as leader of the Catholic church, it was announced today.

The 85-year-old Pontiff said his strength was ‘no longer adequate to continue in office due to his advanced age’.

He said: ‘I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.’

He said he was making the decision in ‘full freedom’ but was ‘fully aware of the gravity of this gesture’.

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VATICAN CITY
The Irish Catholic

Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28. His full statement is below:

“Dear Brothers, I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, 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. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

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VATICAN CITY
Chicago Tribune

Reuters
5:27 a.m. CST, February 11, 2013

ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict said on Monday he will resign on Feb 28 because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.

The 85-year-old pope said he had noticed that his strength had deteriorated over recent months “to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me”.

“For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter,” he said according to a statement from the Vatican.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday said he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th. Below please find his announcement.

Full text of Pope’s declaration

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, 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. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

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