For seven centuries the lesson of the hermit pope served as a reminder that it was a job for life. Then Benedict caught the world by surprise.
When, in 1294, Celestine V stood aside as pope after five miserable months in the job, he vowed to the church he would return to his previous life as a hermit and head for a cave in the Abruzzi mountains.
Pope Francis greets a group of nuns at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican on August 17.Later this week Francis plans to visit the central Italian city of L’Aquila and its basilica, which has fuelled speculation of a possible announcement of his resignation. L’Aquila’s basilica is the burial place of St Celestine.
“I think he suffers a lot of pain from sciatica, and as someone who suffers from arthritis of the knee, I can sympathise with him,” Collins says. “But there are certainly no signs of any mental decline, certainly nothing like what we saw with John Paul II.” “Francis has certainly shifted the spiritual approach of the church away from that kind of rigid ideology of John Paul II and Benedict XVI that, you know, ‘either you do this and believe this or you’re not really a Catholic’.”
The title “pope emeritus” has been a point of fierce contention for some within the church during the past decade, including Cardinal-designate Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit theologian and canon lawyer who will be one of four new cardinals aged 80 or over Francis will elevate later this week as a symbolic honour to thank him for his service to the church.
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