Veteran reporter Giovanna Chirri was starting to doze off in the Vatican press room on a slow holiday when all of a sudden the Latin she learned in high school made her perk up — and gave her the scoop of a lifetime.
“Hearing this ‘ingravescente aetate’ I started to feel sick physically, a really, really violent reaction,” Chirri recalled years later.
Years later, Chirri still searches for the right words to express the emotional, physical, professional and intellectual combustion that that headline, and all it implied, caused her.Aside from the fact that she truly liked Benedict as a pope, Chirri couldn’t comprehend that the conservative German theologian who spent his life upholding church rules and doctrine would take the revolutionary step of resigning.
It was a holiday in the Vatican that day — the anniversary of the Lateran Accords between Italy and the Vatican — and only a handful of other reporters were even in the press room to hear the in-house broadcast of the ceremony.“Certainly, if I hadn’t been an Italian who studied Latin in the 1970s in Italy, I never would have understood a thing,” Chirri said of Italy’s classics-heavy public high school curriculum.
Benedict knew well what was required to make the announcement legitimate: Though only a handful of popes had done it before, canon law allows for a papal resignation as long as it is “freely made and properly manifested.” In 2009, during a visit to the earthquake-ravaged city of L’Aquila, Benedict prayed at the tomb of Pope Celestine V, the hermit pope who stepped down in 1294 after just five months in office. Benedict left on Celestine’s tomb a pallium — the simple white woolen stole that is a symbol of the papacy.
“If a pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign,” Benedict said in “Light of the World.”“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” he said.
México Últimas Noticias, México Titulares
Similar News:También puedes leer noticias similares a ésta que hemos recopilado de otras fuentes de noticias.
Benedict’s 2013 resignation shook a routine Vatican ceremonyThe reporter who was covering a routine ceremony by Pope Benedict XVI on Feb. 11, 2013, never expected what unfolded, or that her high school Latin would give her the scoop of a lifetime.
Leer más »
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI body lying in state at VaticanPope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s body is lying in state as thousands of people lined up across St. Peter’s Square before dawn to pay their respects. Public viewing will continue through Wednesday before Thursday's funeral which will be led by Pope Francis.
Leer más »
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI body lying in state at VaticanPope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s body is lying in state as thousands of people lined up across St. Peter’s Square hours before dawn on Monday to pay their respects
Leer más »
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI Begins Lying in State at VaticanPope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s body is lying in state as thousands of people lined up across St. Peter’s Square hours before dawn on Monday to pay their respects.
Leer más »
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI body lying in state at VaticanPope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s body is lying in state as thousands of people lined up across St. Peter’s Square hours before dawn on Monday to pay their respects.
Leer más »
Pope marks New Year as Vatican prepares to mourn BenedictPope Francis has marked the New Year by presiding over Mass in St. Peter's Basilica and praying for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a day after his retired predecessor's death.
Leer más »