The Year of Faith Pope Benedict XVI

I'm still feeling a little shocked over yesterday's news that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to resign.  I never would have guessed that I'd be seeing that story when I sat down to eat my breakfast.  My thoughts went from this story is a hoax (I got the news from a Huffington Post article.) to absolute shock that the story was, in fact, true.

I've still yet to make my way through the book Light of the World, which I had actually pre-ordered ages ago,  but I do recall there was a question posed to the Holy Father about whether he'd ever resign from the Papacy.  And if I recall correctly, the way he worded his answer made it look like he wouldn't rule out such a possibility, so perhaps maybe we shouldn't be as shocked and stunned as many of us are.  But still, there's no discounting the surprise that many of us got yesterday morning.

I've done my best to stay away from media broadcasts on this subject.  Bryan told me some of what he was hearing on the news and I've read plenty of blog posts that have reported similar things where reporters who are unversed in what Catholicism really is decide to be arm chair theologians and spout out their thoughts on what the Catholic Church needs.

Yesterday one of my initial worries about the Pope retiring was whether this might create a schism within the Church.   I'm sure the Holy Father has thought through that and has prayed on it, so I will just have to have faith that this won't happen.  The pessimist in me worries about such things.  I did reflect later in the day that it seems even more fitting that this is the Year of Faith.  I came across this video clip of Cardinal Arinze's reaction to the Holy Father's resignation.  And I think it's worth taking a few minutes to watch.



So while I am sad that our Pope has decided to step down,  I'm confident that he has the best interests of the Catholic Church at the heart of this decision.