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Pope prepares to say goodbye Citing health reasons, Benedict XVI says he will resign at month’s end
Special message from Archbishop Nienstedt
By Carol Glatz and Cindy Wooden
Like you, I was completely surprised by the news this week of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, set for the end of this month. I am also saddened by the thought of losing his strong leadership for our Church. He is a holy man and a learned scholar of the highest order. He has been for us an inspirational and deeply pastoral ARCHBISHOP shepherd these past NIENSTEDT eight years. At the same time, I am impressed by his humility. He has shown great courage in recognizing his deteriorating health as an impediment for the kind of vibrant leadership he believes is needed for the Church at this time in history. The decision to step down was no doubt a difficult one. I understand he reached his decision only after extensive prayer and reflection. As he said in his statement, “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.” In the time since his announcement, I have reflected a bit on our Holy Father’s legacy. Indeed, the bishops of Minnesota, North and South Dakota and I met with him just last March as part of our “ad limina” trip to Rome. During the eightday pilgrimage, my brother bishops and
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Catholic News Service
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 an eight-year Minnesotans pontificate. “After having reand others peatedly examined respond my conscience beto pope’s fore God, I have come to the cerdecision tainty that my — Pages 8-9 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 more than 600 years. He told the cardinals, “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 St. 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.” Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told journalists at a briefing that the pope’s decision was not PLEASE TURN TO LAST ON PAGE 21
CNS photo / Paul Haring
Pilgrims have their cameras ready as Pope Benedict XVI makes his way through the crowd in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican before a general audience in 2007. The 85-year-old pontiff said he no longer has the energy to exercise his ministry over the universal church and will resign at the end of the month.
PLEASE TURN TO SPECIAL ON PAGE 8
St. Valentine: Stuff of legend is matter of prayer in Italy Catholic News Service The liturgical feast of St. Valentine, removed from the general church calendar in the late 1960s, continues to be celebrated with special Masses, a marathon and fireworks in Terni, Italy, which claims the saint as its former bishop. While the Catholic Church remains convinced there was a third-century martyr named Valentine, a lack of specific information and the possibility that there may have been more than one St. Valentine led to the removal of the liturgical feast from the church’s general calendar. But the feast still appears on the calendar of some local churches, particularly the Diocese of Terni, Narni and Amelia in Italy’s Umbria region. The diocese says it has hard evidence that the martyred Bishop Valentine was known and venerated in Terni, about 65 miles north
of Rome, as far back as the seventh century. And history books report that Pope Zachary met Liutprand, king of the Lombards, at the Basilica of St. Valentine in the mid-700s. The first Basilica of St. Valentine was built in the fourth century on burial grounds just outside the Terni city walls and, according to the diocese, a body believed to be that of St. Valentine was found there in the early 1600s. The diocesan website makes it clear that the connection between St. Valentine and romantic love is the stuff of legend. One version says that St. Valentine, working in the garden, heard a young couple fighting and carried a rose out to them. He offered them the flower, asking both of them to hold it, but to do so tenderly because of the thorns. He then explained to them what it meant to be of “one heart.”