Pope Benedict’s decision to resign the papacy will have far-reaching
consequences. Undoubtedly, the move will make it easier for future Popes to resign if they feel it is an appropriate decision.
It may also lead to the College of Cardinals opting for a younger man with the understanding that he can resign.
Papal resignations are obviously extremely rare with only four in the past 1,100 years and almost every case involved Popes who were pressured to step down.
Only the voluntary resignation of St Celestine V in 1294, a man well-known to Benedict XVI, can offer relevant parallels to help Catholics make sense of the free and willful resignation of Pope Benedict.
Innovative
The case of Pope Celestine also resulted in some innovative changes that he brought with his decision to resign.
According to Joshua Birk, a Rome-based expert in medieval history, the principles behind Pope Celestine’s decision to step down and “how Celestine articulated the ability of a Pope to resign are incredibly important,” as is the papal bull he issued establishing rules for an abdication.
The late 13th-Century Pope also “established the ground rules for how papal conclaves will operate in selecting the Pope,” according to Prof. Birk.
The formal process used for centuries to select a new Pope, a process that generally follows the death of a Pope, is actually the model St Celestine established for how to select a Pope after a resignation.
Before Celestine, the selection process was less formalised and often operated much differently from one papal selection to the next.
“Celestine is the one who really lays down the papal bulls establishing the rights of the conclave and how they’ll act under these circumstances” of a vacant see, Prof. Birk said.
Just as Pope Celestine’s bold move carried with it important and lasting norms and traditions, so too, may Pope Benedict’s decision usher in a new approach, the scholar said.
Conservative
“For a Pope that is generally viewed as incredibly conservative and very traditionalist, this resignation actually shows a remarkable innovation on his part,” he said.
While the idea of resignation may have been bandied about with other Popes, only Pope Benedict has really embraced it with the “modern understandings of health, illness and the abilities of modern science to prolong life even in times of sickness,” he said.
“The innovation Benedict has shown in resigning may give the College of Cardinals more leeway and may allow them to be more innovative and perhaps more forward-thinking in their selections,” he said.
It’s difficult to evaluate the problems caused directly by Pope Celestine’s resignation and those caused by his successor, Pope Boniface VIII, the historian said.
Boniface imprisoned his predecessor out of fear his many political enemies might “use Celestine against him,” try to set him up “as an antipope or even make the argument that Celestine’s resignation is illegitimate and that Boniface isn’t exactly Pope”.
The Church will have to grapple with what having a retired Pope in the wings will mean, he said.
Though there is no danger of any harsh medieval treatment, the Church will have to simply look at “how this transfer is negotiated” or handled and Celestine’s case “can be tremendously useful for us to look at”.
Pope Benedict has expressed great affection for St Celestine.
He declared a Celestine Year from August 2009 to August 2010 to
commemorate the 800th anniversary of the saint’s birth and he visited
the saint’s relics twice during his pontificate. During a trip to L’Aquila in 2009, Pope Benedict placed the long woolen pallium he received when he was elected on the saintly Pope’s casket and left it there as a gift.
Was this an early sign that, even then, Benedict XVI was considering resigning at some stage in the future?
Reluctance
Celestine is mostly remembered for “his reluctance to take up this sort of burden of the Apostolic See” and “actually flees when he hears word he is going to be made Pope,” according to Prof. Birk.
He was plucked at the age of 79 from his secluded life as a Benedictine monk and hermit and thrust into the pontificate after the College of Cardinals broke a two-year-long deadlock and elected him in 1294.
While he never fled, Pope Benedict never kept his reluctance to become Pope a secret.
The then-78-year-old Pontiff told a group of German pilgrims the day after his installation that he equated the growing consensus among cardinals to elect him Pope as “an axe” getting ready to fall on his head.
He had been looking forward to a life of peaceful retirement and said he felt “inadequate” for a job that demanded great “dynamism” and strength.
Pope Benedict’s coat of arms features a bear carrying a pack, symbolising the weight of the episcopate.
Pope Benedict has said the image gave him the encouragement to carry out his ministry like a beast of burden, but with confidence and joy.
Pope Celestine is often identified as the nameless individual referred to by Dante: “I saw and recognised the shade of him / Who by his cowardice made the great refusal.” (Inferno III, 59–60).
However, if that was how Dante saw the man, Benedict’s view was entirely different. After praying at the relics of his predecessor in July 2012 he told pilgrims: “He knew how to act according to his conscience, in obedience to God, and therefore without fear and with great courage.
“Even in difficult moments, as the ones from his brief pontificate, he never feared losing his dignity, knowing that it was full of truth,” Benedict said of his predecessor.