Quo Vadis

Nov 17, 2022

In this video we share Benedict XVI's Final Journey Home.

Benedict the sixteenth became the first pope in 600 years to resign when he renounced the papacy in 2013.

He said that he didn’t have the strength of body and mind to guide the Catholic Church.

During the entire papacy of Pope Francis, Benedict the sixteenth has lived in a converted monastery in the Vatican gardens, occasionally greeting visitors and writing, but by and large keeping to his vow to live “hidden to the world.”

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI spoke about the “slow waning” of his physical strength and his “pilgrimage towards Home” in a letter sent to an Italian newspaper on Tuesday.

“It’s a great grace, in this last, at times tiring, stage of my journey, to be surrounded by a love and goodness that I could have never imagined,” Benedict wrote.

The letter, dated February 5, was hand-delivered to Massimo Franco, a columnist for Corriere della Sera, the most prestigious newspaper in Italy, which takes the role of “newspaper of record” that the New York Times does in the United States.

The pope emeritus was responding to a question sent to him by the newspaper about his well-being, and Benedict said he “cannot but be thankful” to the readers and others for their concern.

In his February 7 column accompanying the letter, Franco noted that the signature of Benedict is “now tiny, almost shrinking along with his physical force.”

The newspaperman said the pope emeritus “accepts his fragility” and said Benedict’s words are “a thanksgiving, and at the same time, almost a farewell.”

The pope emeritus resigned in 2013, saying the physical demands were becoming too much for him, and said he would retire to a life of prayer in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens.

Benedict turned 95 earlier this year, and according to those close to him, is no longer writing on theological topics.

Benedict XVI has serious " difficulties in expressing himself ".

This was reported a year ago by the new Maltese cardinal, Mario Grech, speaking of his visit to Benedict at the end of the Consistory.

Ratzinger, at the beginning of his meeting with Pope Francis and the new cardinals, said: "The Lord took my voice from me to make me appreciate the silence; according to what Cardinal Grech told the Vatican News, "but he tried to encourage us to go forward in the adventure with the Lord.

Mirrored from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIB6IMAInI