Four days before the 85-year-old Benedict’s often troubled eight-year rule ends, new talk of scandal hit the cardinals who will choose his successor; one of them, a Scottish archbishop, had to deny news media accusations of misconduct with priests in the 1980s.
With an American cardinal urged not to go to the electoral conclave because of his role in handling sexual abuse cases in the United States, and the Vatican accusing media of running smears to influence the vote, the Church faces a stormy succession.
Benedict, however, defended his shock decision to resign as dictated by his failing health; his address to tens of thousands of well-wishers was met with calls of “Viva il Papa!”
“The Lord is calling me to climb the mountain, to dedicate myself even more to prayer and meditation,” the German-born pontiff said in Italian, his voice strong and clear.
“But this does not mean abandoning the Church. Actually, if God asks this of me, it is precisely because I can continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love I have shown so far,” he said, adding that he would be serving the Church “in a way more in keeping with my age and my strengths”.
As he spoke, two of the some 117 cardinals who will enter the conclave next month to choose his successor as leader of the 1.2 billion Roman Catholics were mired in controversy.
Britain’s top Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Edinburgh, rejected claims in The Observer newspaper that he had been involved in unspecified inappropriate behavior with other priests.
The paper said Cardinal O’Brien, 74, known for his outspoken views against homosexuality, had been reported to the Vatican by three priests and a former priest, who said they had come forward to demand he resign and not take part in the conclave.
“Cardinal O’Brien contests these claims and is taking legal advice,” a spokesman for the cardinal said.
He was the second cardinal to be caught up in controversy over his attendance ahead of the conclave. On Saturday, Catholic activists petitioned Cardinal Roger Mahony to recuse himself from the conclave so as not to insult survivors of sexual abuse by priests committed while he was archbishop of Los Angeles..
In that post from 1985 until 2011, Cardinal Mahony worked to send priests known to be abusers out of state to shield them from law enforcement scrutiny in the 1980s, according to church files unsealed under a federal district. court order last month.
The minds of those in the crowd in St Peter’s Square on Sunday, some holding banners reading “Thank you Holy Father,” were not on scandals, real or potential, but on the Church history unfolding around them.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Sarah Ennis, 21, a student from Minnesota who studies in Rome. “Bitter because we love our Pope Benedict and hate to see him go, but sweet because he is going for a good reason and we are excited to see the next pope.”
Others, however, saw it as a possible harbinger for the Church.
“This is an ill wind blowing,” said Marina Tacconi, a midwife. “It feels like something ugly could happen. I’m 58 years old, I have seen popes come and go. But never one resign.”
The Sunday address was one of Benedict’s last appearances as pontiff before the curtain comes down on a problem-ridden pontificate.
On Wednesday, he will hold his last general audience in St. Peter’s Square and on Thursday he will meet with cardinals and then fly to the papal summer retreat south of Rome.
The papacy will become vacant on Thursday night.
Cardinals will begin meetings the next day to prepare for a secret conclave in the Sistine Chapel.
They have already begun informal consultations by phone and e-mail in the last two weeks since Benedict announced his abdication in order to build a profile of the man they think would be best suited to lead the Church.
On Monday, the pope is expected to issue slight changes to Church rules governing the conclave so that it could start before March 15, the earliest it can be held under a detailed constitution by his predecessor John Paul.
Some cardinals believe a conclave should start sooner than March 15 in order to reduce the time in which the Church will be without a leader. But some in the Church believe that an early conclave would give an unfair advantage to cardinals already in Rome and working in the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, which has been at the center of accusations of ineptitude that some say led Benedict to step down.
The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope elected by mid-March and then installed before Palm Sunday on March 24 so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter.
