Retiring pope faces uncharted territory
2013-02-12 20:36
Vatican City - For months, construction crews have been
renovating a four-storey building attached to a monastery on the northern edge
of the Vatican gardens where nuns would live for a few years at a time in
cloister.
Only a handful of Vatican officials knew it would one day
be Pope Benedict XVI's retirement home.
On Tuesday, construction materials littered the front
lawn of the house and plastic tubing snaked down from the top floor to a cargo
container.
The restoration deadline has become even more critical
following Benedict’s stunning announcement that he will resign 28 February, and
live his remaining days in prayer.
From a new name to this new home to the awkward reality
of having a reigning pope and a retired one, Benedict is facing uncharted
territory as he becomes the first pontiff in six centuries to retire. The
85-year-old Benedict said on Monday he was stepping down because he simply no
longer had the strength in mind or body to carry on.
Although no date for a conclave has been announced, it
must begin within 20 days of his 28 February retirement. That means a new pope
will likely be elected by the College of Cardinals by Easter – 31 March this
year.
The decision immediately raised questions about what
Benedict would be called, where he would live - and how that might affect his
successor.
The Vatican's senior communications adviser, Greg Burke,
said on Tuesday the fact that Benedict had chosen to live in a monastery is
significant.
"It is something that he has wanted to do for a
while," Burke said. "But I think it also suggests that his role is
going to be a very quiet one, and that is important so you don't have a
situation of... two different popes at the same time, and one influencing the
other.
"I think the obvious thing is when he says
retirement, it really means retiring," he said.
As for his name, Burke said Benedict would most likely be
referred to "Bishop of Rome, emeritus" as opposed to "Pope
Emeritus”.
The Vatican's spokesperson, The Reverend Federico
Lombardi, also said Benedict would take some kind of "emeritus"
title.
Other Vatican officials said it would probably be up to
the next pope to decide Benedict's new title, and wouldn't exclude that he
might still be called "Your Holiness" as a courtesy, much as retired
presidents are often referred to as "President”.
It was not clear
whether the retired pope will retain the name Benedict - or revert to being
called Joseph Ratzinger again.
Unfinished business
Benedict had important unfinished business before his
retirement: He has been widely expected to issue his fourth encyclical,
concerning faith, before Easter.
But Lombardi on Tuesday ruled out that the encyclical
would be ready before his retirement.
Already, he was changing his schedule to take into
account his new circumstances.
He had been scheduled to go to a church on Rome's
Aventine hill for the annual Ash Wednesday service this week starting the
church's Lenten season; the service will take place in St Peter's Basilica in
Rome instead.
The official reason given by Lombardi is that a larger
space was needed to accommodate the throngs expected to greet the outgoing pope
- but observers suspect the Vatican may also want to spare Benedict from the
crowds along the hill.
Immediately after his resignation, Benedict will spend
some time at the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, overlooking Lake
Albano in the hills south of Rome where he has spent his summer vacations
reading and writing. By March, the weather may start to warm up and he should
be able to enjoy the gardens and feed the goldfish in a pond near a statue of
the Madonna where he often liked to visit.
If he's interested, he can do some star gazing; The
Vatican Observatory is located inside the palazzo, complete with a telescope
and a world-class collection of meteorites.
Lombardi said Benedict would eventually return to the
Vatican and live at a monastery inside the Vatican gardens. Asked if he might
like to go somewhere else, Lombardi said the pope would feel "much
safer" inside the Vatican walls.
Inside the Vatican walls
The Mater Ecclesiae monastery was built in 1992, on the
site of a former residence for the Vatican's gardeners.
Pope John Paul II had wanted a residence inside the
Vatican walls to host contemplative religious orders, and over the years
several different orders would come for spells of a few years, said Giovanni
Maria Vian, the editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
The last such order of nuns left the residence in
October, and renovation work began immediately afterward, Vian told AP.
He said Benedict had decided to retire last April after
his taxing but exhilarating trip to Mexico and Cuba in March.
"Many people thought they were doing the renovations
for new sisters, but it was for the pope," Vian said.
He said only a few people knew of the pope's plans, yet
the secret didn't get out.
"That shows the seriousness and loyalty of the few
senior Holy See officials who were aware," he said - a reference to the
2012 scandal over leaked papal documents by the pope's own butler.
Benedict has visited the monastery, with its own chapel
on the grounds, a handful of times over the years.
There's a garden right outside the front door, where nuns
living in the residence would tend to the lemon and orange trees and the roses,
which are used in liturgical ceremonies or sent as gifts to the pope.
No chemical fertilizers were used, just organic fertilizer
sent straight from the gardens at Castel Gandolfo.
- AP
