comment by
Annette Zoch
“After repeatedly examining my conscience before God, I have come to the conclusion that, because of advanced age, my strength is no longer fitted to properly exercise the ministry of Peter.” Benedict XVI spoke these sentences on February 11, 2013, Shrove Monday, in Latin, very quietly, he was sitting on a throne and reading from the page, and not all of the cardinals present understood immediately what the pontiff had said. For the first time in 719 years, a pope left the See of Peter by resigning rather than by death. At that moment, Joseph Ratzinger wrote church history.