In 2013, Benedict XVI announced his intent to do something no pope had in more than 600 years: resign
The Prayer Wheel: A Daily Guide to Renewing Your Faith With a Rediscovered Spiritual Practice.e announced it in Latin, which was like him. Because of that choice, and because the event on the morning of Feb. 11, 2013, had been scheduled as a routine piece of Vatican business, several of the Cardinals present didn’t immediately realize what they had just heard.
Under normal circumstances—that is, if the conclave following his resignation had picked a pope who kept the barque pointing the same way Benedict had—his departure’s impact might have taken decades to clarify, and discussions of it would have been a bit theoretical. Years later people would still rehearse it for you. Fr. Thomas Reese, a church liberal whom Benedict once forced to, lauded the retirement decision.
However, in office, Francis shocked many by de-emphasizing Church animus against active homosexuals and remarried Catholics, and seemingly devoting as much energy to pursuing immigration justice and environmental stewardship as to banning abortion.
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