In recent months, I felt that my strength had decreased, and I asked God with insistence in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me take the right decision – not for my sake, but for the good of the Church.

—Pope Benedict XVI, February 27, 2013

For the Record

As a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate whose rule and life in a particular way is a profession of faith in the authority and ministry of the Successor of St. Peter, I wish to profess my love and loyalty to Benedict XVI as he leaves office today. This abdication is for the good of the Church.

Likewise, and after the example of His Holiness, “I vow unconditional reverence and obedience to the future Pope.” And I formally reject a priori any and every pretext for counting the successor of Pope Benedict unfit, unqualified, not sufficiently traditional, or sufficiently evangelical to run the Church. I also reject the parallel “magisterium” of academics, pundits, propagandists and ideologues who will inevitably “know better” than the next pope. Continue reading →