Pope Benedict XVI leaves…

Pope Benedict XVI leaves…

For all of us, this was an enormous surprise: in a short message that does not leave anything to imagination, nothing to interpretation, the Pope announced his decision to abdicate.

After this first choc, there followed several question points, but also general respect and  esteem for this courageous decision of the Holy Father.  It was obvious that his state of health was no more that it had been: we noticed personally the increasing lack of the Pope’s health at the closure of the Synod, in October 2012.

The so-called ‘Vatican experts’ now live their days of glory predicting or presuming and above all being mistaken with respect to the daring analysis of predicting and interpreting  future evolutions and circumstance completely unforeseeable. As a faithful, one has simply to follow these facts with a strong dose of common sense and trust in the future.

Since April 2005, the Church has been directed by a very intelligent man who, thanks to his simple force and perspicacious reasoning has faced uncountable difficulties, even certain internal and external thunderstorms.  Who can therefore pretend to be able to value immediately and with exactitude et precision  this extremely difficult pontificate ? A refrain states:  the big storms knock at the big doors, and this is equally true for the Vatican !

We thank the Holy Father who never wished to be the ‘grande vedette’ of the Catholic Church, we thank His Holiness who faced situations often dramatic, who had to cut numerous Gordian knots with a profound faith, a sharp spirituality, a deepened knowledge, a more than intelligent perspicacity and a remarkable modesty.

Therefore thanks to this great Pope Benedict XVI for an almost impossible pontificate surpassing human forces.

We turn towards future and look at it with hope and confidence praying that the Holy Spirit may guide the new Pope and support him firmly walking along a path among the most difficult ones …

G. Bourdeaud’hui