Tag: pope benedict resigns

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI promised “unconditional” obedience to his successor during a farewell meeting with cardinals on Thursday (Feb. 28).

“Among you, in the College of Cardinals, there is the future pope, to whom I promise my unconditional reverence and obedience,” he said in the last official act of his pontificate before his resignation becomes effective at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

On Saturday, one day before Pope Benedict XVI's final blessing in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican lashed out at the media over what it called defamatory and false reports it says are an attempt to influence the election of the pope's successor, according to the Associated Press.

"Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents," the AP reported.

Surprise is what many Spokane Catholic leaders first felt when they heard the news that Pope Benedict XVI would be retiring at the end of this month; but accord and appreciation is what quickly followed after the news sank in.

“My gosh. I had no idea it was coming,” said the Rev. Kevin Codd, pastor of St. Thomas More Catholic Student Center in Pullman.

Pope Benedict XVI has announced his decision to resign the Papacy effective Feb. 28. It has been 600 years since a pope has resigned his election to the Seat of Saint Peter and thus, for the more than one billion Roman Catholics in the world today, it is a first. Various news agencies are atwitter with reactions from across the globe concerning who knew what when and what will happen next.

Pope Benedict XVI announced today that he will be the first pope in 600 years to resign, effective Feb. 28.

Benedict, 85, cites his age as the reason.