Pope Benedict XVI to Resign

I was extremely surprised to learn this morning that Pope Benedict XVI, 85, has decided to renounce the papal chair on the grounds of advancing age and deteriorating health. In my opinion he has been the best pope since Pius XII. That’s not to say I have agreed with him across the board, as you may note here. But his restoration of the classical Latin liturgy (which was always about far more than mere language) places him at the front rank of modern churchmen, most of whom are aesthetically and liturgically tone deaf.

In a piece I wrote for The American Conservative, unfortunately not available online, I explained the significance to the non-Catholic world of Benedict’s liturgical restoration. A great many non-Catholics in 1971 signed a petition urging the retention of the Church’s traditional liturgy, for good reason: it inspired a great proportion of the artistic and musical corpus of the West.

Here I explained why Benedict allowed the 1962 Missal (the most recent codification of the traditional Latin Mass) to coexist with full rights alongside the modernized liturgy, and here I give an overview for beginners.

And, of course, I wrote a book about this.

News reports will call him a “staunch conservative.” But remember that these reporters think Sean Hannity is a conservative. Benedict has been many things, but a conservative in the mold of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani or Pope St. Pius X he is not. He occupies a rightmost spot along the existing spectrum of opinion within the episcopate, which is well to the left of where it was before Vatican II.

I have not been as close a Vatican watcher over the past several years as I once was, so I don’t have a sense of the plausible papal candidates. My guess would be that speculations about an African pope will be in vain, at least this time around. Italians have lived through 35 years of non-Italian popes. One suspects this will not continue.

Anonymous

Are you sure you meant pre-1962? Because the 1962 edition seems to be the missal most traditional groups use.
Luke Sunderland

I certainly didn’t agree with everything Benedict XVI has stood for, but my hat goes off to anybody who is willing to voluntarily set aside that much power and authority.
http://www.TomWoods.com Tom Woods

Yeah, I meant the plain old ’62. Don’t know why I said that.
http://rosarynovice.stblogs.com/ Augustine

I think that George Weigel said that the first grace obtained by Bl. John Paul II was the election of Benedict XVI. Certainly the bright man at the right time. And having admired Benedict and trusted his dedication to the chair of Peter and the Church, I trust him in this heavy decision.

I’m not afraid. The Church founded by Jesus Christ will go on as she has for 20 centuries, in spite of her members like myself.
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.ward.7712 Matthew Ward

Tom, you said that you felt he has been the best pope since Pius XII. I am not saying anything against Pius or Benedict, as they were both great pontiffs (although I do not know about Pius XII firsthand), you wouldn’t regard Bl. John Paul II as one of the best popes of the modern era? I just find this a bit surprising, as most Catholics (myself included) hold him in such high regard.
http://www.TomWoods.com Tom Woods

Unfortunately, John Paul saddled us with countless horrid appointments. When he refused to accept the mandated resignation of Abp. Weakland, that proved to me that his defenders attributed to him thoughts he did not have. I think he handled the various scandals atrociously, and his ecumenism would have horrified all his predecessors. Not to mention that every form of liturgical foolishness was tolerated, but the old Mass was treated like a radioactive moon rock.
Anonymous

Doesn’t Obama get to appoint the new Pope? Or even be the replacement?
Travis Province

As an Orthodox Christian, I thought I’d share the statement made by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew:

http://www.goarch.org/news/epbartholomew-benedict-02112013

I’ll be praying for the Pope’s health and for his successor.
http://twitter.com/phattonez Tony Fernandez

I’m still saddened by the news. Pope Benedict has done such great things to bring back our Catholic identity. I hope that the next pope continues what he started and ends all the inanity of the past decade. May the New Evangelization continue and spread! Btw, thank you Mr. Woods for your great works that brought me into a more serious faith than I had previously. It’s been wonderful.

Heh, that word makes a great pun: Sean Hinanity. I kill myself.
vox

Tom, I couldn’t agree with you more. It is so refreshing to hear an honest and knowledgable scholar say that even Benedict XVI is not a conservative in the mold of Ottaviani or St. Pius X. I went to Catholic school in Morristown, NJ (from kindergarten to 5th grade; as is typical, the school closed for lack of enrollment; I was there from 1984 to 1990). In 1991, my family moved my brother and I and we fell out of the Church. Being “nostalgic” and hungry for my religion (I had always heard of my parents speaking about the Latin Mass of their childhood), I visited the church where I had first received Communion. Now an adult, I became cognizant of the fact that that church, of a modern design, had two stained-glass windows of two non-Catholics: Martin Luther King and a U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold.

To say the least, I became more suspicious. All this coincided, and was reinforced by my learning of Austrian economics and revisionist history. Fundamental and traditional Catholic beliefs were still present in me, even if they were latent. I discovered the Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priest, and then the SSPX. I have read the great biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais. I hope to attend a traditional church, but work life, etc. makes this difficult. The secular world doesn’t care about our spiritual needs, which really rule us.

Anyone interested in Catholic history, and/or deepening their faith, should take a look at Papal encyclicals written by Pius XII and previous popes. If only Catholics were studying their own religion. I treasure your book, “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization,” and all your other writings. You helped my journey to rediscover Catholicism and what it really is. I watched your counterpart to the book on EWTN. Fantastic.

I love Benedict XVI very much, but like you, disagree with him on many points. Other readers may be unaware that he was a modernist peritus (expert/adviser)to Karl Rahner at Vatican II. As Pope, he has made warm remarks on the scholarship of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit modernist. Definitely a mixed bag Pope. Nonetheless, I pray for him and especially for the Church.

I received Confirmation late at 29. When I expressed admiration and adherence to traditional teachings (and love for Pius X), I too was treated like a radioactive moon rock. While this was unpleasant, it only steeled my resolve. How far off course modern Catholics are! So many of our leaders in the Church, for so long, have been eager to embrace a world at odds with all its teachings…a world quickly moving to cast off 2000 years of experience in combating sin and human error. I believe the Remnant will grow, if ever slowly. Slow growth may be best anyway.
vox

P.S. I am also a hardcore Rothbardian. I accept Catholic authority with respect to faith and morals, but realize that it should not be delivering policy or economic prescriptions; especially since it is so far divorced from the origins of economics at Salamanca. Tom and Murray Rothbard have taught me so much. I thirst for more!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Sedkowski/100001467305337 Paul Sedkowski

As an ex-catholic, now agnostic, but with continuing interest in Vatican – there was, in my view, really only one pope worthy of real praise and respect. Sadly, he only lasted 33 days. John Paul I, Albino Luciani.
vox

P.P.S. In Morristown, NJ, on Sussex Ave., exists the Rabbinical College of America, one of the largest Chubad Lubavitch Chasidic Yeshivas in the world. It has trained thousands of Rabbis. It is a stone’s throw from my former home. It was once a Catholic high school that went bankrupt (I believe it went belly-up in the 1970s; Bayley-Ellard, a Catholic high school in nearby Madison, established in 1880, closed in 2005). Certainly I am not anti-semitic, as I treasure whatever I know of the Old Testament and the richness of the West’s Jewish heritage.

Sadly, however, the loss of Catholic educational institutions is part and parcel of the decline of the West. If only Catholics could learn something about fidelity and cohesion from Orthodox Judaisim. If we did, we could once again be the greatest voluntary force for good in the world.

(During my Catholic school days, the school did not have enough money to own their own buses and we had to use the public school buses of the town. Angry parents of public school children fought us on the use of them. The challenge was taken seriously by local officials, so my father organized Catholic parents to march on town hall where they got some coverage from local media. It was a no-brainer: Catholic parents obviously had to pay taxes for the public schools and buses. Thankfully, we affirmed our right as tax-forced “customers” to continue riding. For me, it is another charming memory of my late Dad. He was a bright guy who had attended Catholic schools himself. He went through 4 years of Latin, but only knew a little in his adult years.)
Luke Sunderland

I’m sure there are some out there who think it’s only racism that keeps him from being appointed as the new Vicar of Christ.
Mark

Just an other pedophile-protecting money-laundering mafia antichrist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GULiww2RQlQ
AJP

I for one was not surprised by the resignation of the pope. Why? Last year I read a book called “Petrus Romanus” by Tom Horn and Chris Putnam, which predicted that this pope would resign near the end of 2012. There’s some interesting stuff in that book, but you have to go into it open-minded.
Luke Sunderland

So, in other words, they wanted your money in order to fund their “services,” but then wanted to refuse you the use of those “services” when you dared disagree with them. Typical statists.
George

Feminazis go topless to hail pope’s resignation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/topless-femen-activists-hail-popes-resignation-shout-no-more-homophobe-notre-dame_n_2670611.html

Have to do as Putin did with the slut of Pussy Riot. They did rioting in the Russian Church and received the deserved punishment.
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.ward.7712 Matthew Ward

That’s interesting. I did not know that. I’m definitely going to look more into it now.