WASHINGTON – Early on the morning of Feb. 11 as he was preparing his Ash Wednesday homily, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl received a call from Rome verifying reports that Pope Benedict XVI had announced he would resign at the end of February.
Meeting with the media a few hours later that morning at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, Cardinal Wuerl said that the news came as “an enormous surprise” to him. “My first reaction was this is very startling. I was totally unprepared for it.
“It’s a sign of the great humility of this pope, his love for the Church and his courage” that the pope has come to the conclusion that he is no longer physically able to lead the Church.
“Clearly the Holy Father made this announcement after praying over it,” he said.
Cardinal Wuerl said that the last time he saw Pope Benedict about a month ago, he did not notice any health problems. The 85-year-old pope walked with a cane but seemed very alert and energetic, he said.
When the pope presided over the monthlong synod on the new evangelization last October in Rome, “he had no problem at all speaking with great clarity and wisdom,” said Cardinal Wuerl, who was the relator general of that Synod of Bishops, summarizing and reporting on the sessions.
When asked how the world’s Catholics should take the news after the initial shock, Cardinal Wuerl said, “The life of the Church goes on unchanged. The life of the Church is lived out primarily in parishes,” and the upcoming papal resignation and election of a new pope would have no real impact on parish life.
“I would ask all people around the world to pray for the Holy Father, and to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit” as Cardinal Wuerl and the other cardinals from around the world gather for the upcoming conclave to elect the next pope.
Transitions are not new in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history, the cardinal emphasized, but he said that the resignation of a pope for health reasons is a new situation, “but the work of the Church” will remain the same.
The cardinal said he would not speculate on the identity of the next pope, but he expected Pope Benedict’s successor to “be a person of great continuity” who would carry forth the Church’s doctrines and spiritual traditions, which he said are the bedrock of the Catholic faith. The pope has said that this Year of Faith marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council is a special time for Catholics to carry out the call of the new evangelization, to deepen their faith and share it with others.
“Pope Benedict’s legacy is his engagement of faith with the modern world,” Cardinal Wuerl said, adding that the pontiff demonstrated that faith and reason could be directed to the same good.
The pontiff’s great gift, the cardinal added, was encouraging people to focus on their “spiritual relationship with God.”