"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."Pope
Benedict XVI, announcing his plans to resign the papacy on February
28.
I am
impressed. Having watched families struggle to maintain parents in
homes and apartments where they should no longer be living, and
having been a person who had that struggle and had to force a change, it is a gift to have a
model of a powerful person who honestly says he just cannot do what
needs to be done. Whether it is a job or way of living or being in the world, it takes wisdom and courage to face the truth of diminishing capacities.
I am
grateful for the good example and wish the Pope grace and peace.
