When Pope Benedict died in Rome, the people of the Eternal City said that it was the second time he had made the city weep. The first time Rome wept because of the German pope, was almost 10 years earlier.
On February 28, 2013, a snow-white helicopter left the Vatican territory with the man on board who had made history. Pope Benedict XVI had become the first pope in 700 years to resign from his office.
The search for why he resigned leads us to Bavaria, where about two hours away from Munich lies the small town of Marktl am Inn. It was in this house that Josef Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927.
Dr. Franz Haringer is the Theological Director of the Birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI. He explains, “Marktl am Inn is only one of many stations on this family’s journey. There are some memories from, how the very small Joseph celebrated Christmas here for the first and second time, how he stood in front of the Christmas tree with big eyes, how he also experienced the church here.”
Dr. Haringer continued, “He, the man of words, of books, learned to speak and to believe here, in the midst of a family that held together closely. This certainly also had a great impact on him from the beginning.”
Ratzinger was baptized the same night that he was born. The current bishop of Ratzinger’s home diocese, Bishop Stefan Oster, recalled another place that had a great influence on the future pope:
“He said again and again: ‘Altötting is my spiritual home.’ His most beautiful and earliest childhood experiences are in connection with Altötting. And he always said – and I think this is not insignificant for his spirituality – he learned the maternal dimension of the church through Altötting. And then of course he also processed and articulated that theologically.”
According to the Bavarians, Altötting is the most important place of pilgrimage in Germany. People have been making pilgrimages to the small town since 1489, and now a million pilgrims from all over the world come here every year. Just one year after his election as pope, Benedict also returned there.
Dr. Klaus Metzl is the Director of the Marian Shrine in Altötting. Dr. Metzl related a story from the shrine, “When Pope Benedict celebrated the Holy Mass on September 11, 2006 here in Altötting, he went to pay his respects to Our Lady, and to the surprise of all of us, he placed his bishop’s ring at Our Lady’s feet. This is the ring that his siblings Mary and George had made from an ancient gem. It shows a dove with an olive branch as a symbol of peace. He wore this ring from 1977 until he was elected Pope. Since then, Our Lady wears it in her scepter, so above Our Lady’s hand is the ring of Pope Benedict.”
In Marktl, we met with Peter Seewald.
He came closer to the pope than any other journalist and published several books of interviews with Cardinal Ratzinger and later also with Pope Benedict.
Seewald’s extensive biography of the German pope was published in 2020.
“It was a resignation with an announcement,” Seewald noted. “Already in 2010, during our interview for the book ‘Light of the World,’ I asked him if he had ever thought of resigning and he said: ‘Not yet.’ At that time, there was also the ‘Vatileaks’ story and with regard to other things, he said that one should not run away. You can only leave when everything is more or less back in order. He also said that for John Paul II, his time of suffering was part of his charism. For himself, however, he did not see it that way, nor did he want to repeat it.”
Seewald continued, “In 2010, he stated quite clearly that if a pope is physically and mentally no longer able to carry out his office, then he not only has the right to resign, but also the duty to do so.”
“Has this decision damaged the papacy?” asked Rudolf Gehrig, EWTN Vatican Bureau Producer.
Seewald answered, “Difficult question. If before it was true that the Vicar of Christ is taken away only by Christ himself, by God himself, he cannot decide for himself.”
He also highlighted, “It is very important to accept that Pope Benedict was seriously ill. Not only because of his heart condition, not only because of his left eye, which was blind, not only because of his constant headaches, he also had Parkinson’s disease. He noticed that his memory was failing and above all, what he then revealed to me a few weeks before his death, that he had suffered from insomnia since 2005 already after the World Youth Day in Cologne.”
“All these rumors that there are other reasons for his resignation, for example, Vatileaks, a conspiracy or blackmail and so on – all this is real rubbish and does not correspond to the truth. The truth is: he resigned for health reasons,” Seewald said.
“He was rock-solidly convinced that he would die before the end of 2013 after his resignation.”
The resignation was a relief for Benedict, says Peter Seewald. And he was careful about what he said about his successor, Pope Francis.
Seewald shared, “I always tried, as a journalist, to get something out of him and he said: No. In any case he did not want to give the impression that he was a kind of “shadow pope”, commenting on the conduct of his successor in office. So, there was nothing to get out of him, although of course it was clear that things like the withdrawal of free access to the Old Latin Mass affected him deeply.”
Seewald noted, “Nevertheless, he vowed obedience to his successor before he could even know him. Yes, and he kept to that. The pope is the pope. There are not two popes.”
To this day the Vatican has no official regulations providing guidance should there be another papal resignation. But that future pontiffs could also resign from their office is now no longer unthinkable, thanks to the pope from this small Bavarian town whose decision revolutionized the papacy.
According to Seewald, Benedict never regretted his resignation:
“I last visited him on October 15, 2022. He was going through a difficult time because of his health problems, but also with the attacks that never stopped, and I asked him, ‘Papa Benedetto, what comforts you?’ And then he said: ‘God keeps everything in His hands.’”
This article was originally published on 14 April 2023 and updated on 27 December 2024.
Adapted by Jacob Stein
