Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will resign in two weeks.
Here is his full statement:
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 bark of Saint 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 Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April
2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of
Rome, the See of Saint 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, 10 February 2013
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