Pope Benedict's Devotion to Saint Celestine Signaled His Resignation from the Papacy

Pope Benedict's Devotion to Saint Celestine Signaled His Resignation from the Papacy

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

Pope Benedict venerating St Celestine, 

the only Pope Saint to have resigned

When I heard Pope Benedict's announcement this morning that he would be retiring from the Chair of St Peter at the end of February 2013, I was sad but not entirely surprised. In fact, here on the blog, we've been following Pope Benedict's devotion to Pope Saint Celestine for over two years now, and wondering whether our beloved Holy Father may be contemplating this decision. Saint Celestine, as you may know, was the last Pope to resign...and he is a canonized saint. Pope Benedict's visits to Saint Celestine's grave revealed that His Holiness was contemplating this decision.

Two and a half years ago, I posted an article on this site from Robert Moynihan called, "The Celestine Sign." In this article, Mr. Moynihan detailed Pope Benedict's growing devotion for Saint Celestine. As one who personally knows Pope Benedict, Moynihan speculated that Pope Benedict may have been subtly revealing his hand. The Holy Father's growing love for the saint that resigned from papacy may indicate the prayerful decision of his own heart.

Think about it for a moment. If you were a Pope and completely overwhelmed and feeling inadequate,  to whom could you turn?



Who could possibly understand the pressures of the Papacy? Who could rightly guide you in this difficult decision? The simple answer is, no one on earth. So instead, our Holy Father has turned to Saint Celestine - the only saint in Heaven who has experienced what Pope Benedict is experiencing.

I find it beautiful that the Catholic Church even has a patron saint for Popes that resign. Let us pray for our Holy Father. Moreover, let us seek the intercession of Saint Celestine in the days to come.

Question for readers: How do you feel about this announcement? Pope Benedict is the only Pope under which I have been a Catholic so I find it a bit emotional. Nevertheless, I trust that our Holy Father is doing the right thing, and I'm optimistic about our next Pope. He chose the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to reveal this and that's a great sign. Christ already knows who our next Pope is. Let's begin to pray for him and for the whole Church of Christ.

Please leave a comment and tell us whether you saw this coming and what you think the future holds. What will the conclave be like? Will Pope Benedict sit in on it?

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

Saint Celestine, pray for us.

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Pope Benedict XVI to Step Down Feb. 28

Pope Benedict XVI to Step Down Feb. 28 (11196)

The Holy Father, who became the leader of the world's more than 1 billion Catholics nearly eight years ago, says 'my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.'

by THE EDITORS 

– Wikipedia

Editor's note: Following is the full statement from Pope Benedict XVI resigning his papacy Feb. 28:

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 barque 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. 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 St. Peter, entrusted to me by the cardinals on April 19, 2005, in such a way, that as from Feb. 28, 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of St. Peter, will be vacant and a conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry, and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the holy Church to the care of our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the cardinal fathers with her maternal solicitude in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, February 10, 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

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Eleven Great Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI on Liturgy and the Holy Mass

Posted by Dr. Taylor Marshall 

Like most of you, I have enjoyed reading the Holy Father's thoughts on the liturgy and the Holy Mass over the years. Pope Benedict was undeniably prolific in his theological reflection on Liturgy and the Eucharist prior to his election as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. Even before I became Catholic, I was impressed by his forthrightness and clarity on what constitutes genuine and God-honoring liturgy.

A previous post on the Pope's condemnation of clapping at Holy Mass was popular, so here are eleven more Ratzinger-zingers on the Holy Mass. Please read them carefully, and digest what His Holiness is saying.

These are only the tip of the iceberg. I'd encourage you to read the books when you have time. Tell then, here goes:

Ratzinger on the Liturgical Reformers Creating a 'Fabrication, Banal Product'
The liturgical reform, in its concrete realization, has distanced itself even more from its origin. The result has not been a reanimation, but devastation. In place of the liturgy, fruit of a continual development, they have placed a fabricated liturgy. They have deserted a vital process of growth and becoming in order to substitute a fabrication. They did not want to continue the development, the organic maturing of something living through the centuries, and they replaced it, in the manner of technical production, by a fabrication, a banal product of the moment. (Ratzinger in Revue Theologisches, Vol. 20, Feb. 1990, pgs. 103-104)

Ratzinger on Those Who Appreciate the Latin Mass being Wrongly Treated Like 'Lepers'

"For fostering a true consciousness in liturgical matters, it is also important that the proscription against the form of liturgy in valid use up to 1970 [the older Latin Mass] should be lifted. Anyone who nowadays advocates the continuing existence of this liturgy or takes part in it is treated like a leper; all tolerance ends here. There has never been anything like this in history; in doing this we are despising and proscribing the Church's whole past. How can one trust her at present if things are that way?" (Spirit of the Liturgy, 2000)

Ratzinger on the Degeneration of Liturgy and 'Liturgical Fabricators'

"[W]e have a liturgy which has degenerated so that it has become a show which, with momentary success for the group of liturgical fabricators, strives to render religion interesting in the wake of the frivolities of fashion and seductive moral maxims. Consequently, the trend is the increasingly marked retreat of those who do not look to the liturgy for a spiritual show-master but for the encounter with the living God in whose presence all the 'doing' becomes insignificant since only this encounter is able to guarantee us access to the true richness of being." (Cardinal Ratzinger's preface to the French translation of Reform of the Roman Liturgy by Monsignor Klaus Gamber, 1992).

Ratzinger on the 'Disintegration of the Liturgy'

"I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing today is, to a large extent, due to the disintegration of the liturgy." (Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977)

Ratzinger against 'Homemade Liturgy'

"It is also worth observing here that the 'creativity' involved in manufactured liturgies has a very restricted scope. It is poor indeed compared with the wealth of the received liturgy in its hundreds and thousands of years of history. Unfortunately, the originators of homemade liturgies are slower to become aware of this than the participants..." (Feast of Faith p. 67-68)

Ratzinger on the Latin Mass as the 'Holiest and Highest Possession'

“I am of the opinion, to be sure, that the old rite should be granted much more generously to all those who desire it. It’s impossible to see what could be dangerous or unacceptable about that. A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent.” (Ratzinger Salt of the Earth (1997)

Ratzinger on the Danger of Creative "Presiders" at the Mass

In reality what happened was that an unprecedented clericalization came on the scene. Now the priest -- the "presider", as they now prefer to call him -- becomes the real point of reference for the whole Liturgy. Everything depends on him. We have to see him, to respond to him, to be involved in what he is doing. His creativity sustains the whole thing. 

Ratzinger on the Danger of 'Creative Planning of the Liturgy'

Not surprisingly, people try to reduce this newly created role by assigning all kinds of liturgical functions to different individuals and entrusting the "creative" planning of the Liturgy to groups of people who like to, and are supposed to, "make a contribution of their own". Less and less is God in the picture. More and more important is what is done by the human beings who meet here and do not like to subject themselves to a "pre-determined pattern". (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3)

Ratzinger on Why the Priest Should Not Face the People During Mass

The turning of the priest toward the people has turned the community into a self-enclosed circle. In its outward form, it no longer opens out on what lies ahead and above, but is locked into itself. The common turning toward the East was not a "celebration toward the wall"; it did not mean that the priest "had his back to the people": the priest himself was not regarded as so important. For just as the congregation in the synagogue looked together toward Jerusalem, so in the Christian Liturgy the congregation looked together "toward the Lord". (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3)

Ratzinger on the Priest and People Facing the Same Direction

On the other hand, a common turning to the East during the Eucharistic Prayer remains essential. This is not a case of accidentals, but of essentials. Looking at the priest has no importance. What matters is looking together at the Lord. (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3)

Ratzinger on the 'Absurd Phenomenon' of Replacing the Crucifix with the Priest

Moving the altar cross to the side to give an uninterrupted view of the priest is something I regard as one of the truly absurd phenomena of recent decades. Is the cross disruptive during Mass? Is the priest more important than Our Lord? (Spirit of Liturgy, ch. 3)

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