Benedict XVI Still Pope, Prof. Violi on the "Renunciation" of BXVI not "Resignation"...Part 3

 Benedict XVI Still Pope,
Prof. Violi on the "Renunciation" of
BXVI not "Resignation"...Part 3

The Resignation of Benedict XVI
Between History, Law and Conscience
Prof. of Canon Law, Stefano Violi
Theological Faculty of Emilia Romagna – Faculty of Theology (Lugano)

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In the thinking of the Fathers of the Church, the definitive trait of the pastor is not
so much that of being the head as being useful.
32 To be the head becomes, then, the instrument of being useful; the principle of legitimacy in the Church is founded, therefore, in its spiritual utility and advantage for the community.
From the knowledge of the diaconal-ministerial foundation of the munus
[office] and of the potestas [power] it follows, then, that where the pastor finds himself in the impossibility of being useful to the people, there is diminished the legitimating cause of his being head. Thus, Ivo of Chartres, writing to Urban II, affirmed: “Since I see myself as being head, but not being useful, I often think of giving up pastoral care...”
33 Along these lines, following in the footsteps, already cited, of Godfrey of Fontaines, Peter of Auvergne, Egidio Romano and John of Quidort, there will be Benedict XVI: “In theselast months I have felt my energies declining, and I have asked God insistently in prayer to grant me His light and to help me make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step with full awareness of its gravity and even its novelty, but with profound interior serenity. Loving the Church means also having the courage to make difficult, painful decisions, always looking to the good of the Church and not of oneself.”
34 3.1 “Because of old age.”
The expression ingravescente aetate,used by Benedict XVI, expressly recalls the
conciliar decree Christus Dominus, which, in n. 21, invites bishops to resign
spontaneously on their own or following requests for resignation, when advanced age (obingravescentem aetatem) or other grave reason impedes them from carrying out their mission.
35 In the same tenor appears to be the prayer directed by the Council Fathers to
parish priests in n. 31.
36 Paul VI, giving effect to the votes of the Council Fathers, will, with his Motu
Proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae of August 6, 1966, invite bishops and pastors to resign from the governance of dioceses and parishes “not later than age 75”; with his Motu Proprio Ingravescentem aetatem, he will apply the same rule to cardinals, inviting them to present their resignations from office at age 75, establishing besides loss of the right to vote for the election of the Roman Pontiff, and consequently of the right to enter the Conclave, at age 80. Precisely the decline of his powers on account of old age will be put forth by Benedict XVI as the grounds for his resignation.

Footnotes Page 7:
33«Unde video me praeesse, sed nulli fere proesse, saepe delibero renuntiare curae pastorali, et ad pristinam quietem redire», Ivo of Chartres, Epistle 25.
34 Benedetto XVI, Udienza generale del 27 febbraio 2013.
35 «Cum igitur pastorale Episcoporum munus tanti sit momenti tantaeque gravitatis, Episcopi dioecesani aliique in iure ipsis aequiparati, si, ob ingravescentem aetatem aliamve gravem causam, implendo suo
officio minus apti evaserint, enixe rogantur ut, vel sua ipsi sponte vel a competenti Auctoritate invitati, renuntiationem ab officio exhibeant. Competens autem Auctoritas, si illam acceptaverit, et de congruenti renuntiantium sustentatione et de peculiaribus iuribus iisdem recognoscendis providebit».
36 «Parochi autem, qui ob ingravescentem aetatem aliamve gravem causam, ab officio rite et fructuose adim plendo impediuntur, enixe rogantur ut sua ipsi sponte, aut ab Episcopo invitati, officii renuntiationem faciant».

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3.2 The innovative formula of resignation introduced by Benedict XVI.
Turning now to the formula used to state the resignation, two data emerge from
the declaratio: in the first place, the lack of any reference to can. 332 § 2; in the second place a lexical choice different from that of the norm of Quoniam alicui of Boniface VIII, which speaks of resignation from the papacy (renuntiare papatui), and from the wording of the Code, which provides for the renuntiatio muneri (renunciation of office). The declaratio [by Benedict XVI] in fact affirms the renuntiatio ministerio [renunciation of ministry]. The novelty of Benedict XVI’s formula can be grasped in all its magnitude by reconstructing the argumentative joints of the text.
After having recalled the primacy of conscience, Benedict affirms: “my strengths,
due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.”
37The awareness of conscience concerns the supervening unfitness to administer rightly the Petrine office (munus). Through this formulation (vires meas... noniam aptas esse ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum), the office (munus) is distinguished from its administration. His powers appear unfit for the administration [exercise] of the munus [office], not for the munus itself.
The inadequacy of the administration of an office being recognized, the
resignation would appear to be a duty. What is opposed [in Benedict’s declaration] to a resignation so understood, however, is the eminently spiritual essence of the Petrine munus.
In fact, reading the resignation under the optics of modern efficiency the sacred
ministry is equated to the delegated administrator of a “Church society” which, when he is no longer capable, submits his mandate to the “shareholders”; the resignation, still considered according to modern optics, would exit the Pope from the public sphere to allow him to return to his privacy. Such logic is difficult to reconcile with the spiritual essence of the Petrine ministry, as witnessed by John Paul II until death. It was precisely the exemplum or authoritative precedent of Blessed John Paul II who despite the incapacity to govern, did not renounce his office, that represented the deeper spiritual objection to resignation.
In reality, his own spiritual understanding of the munus allows Benedict XVI to
establish the legitimacy of his resignation without denying the choice of his predecessor.
“I am well aware that this ministry (munus), due to its essential spiritual nature, must becarried out (exequendum) not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.”
38 In the cited passage Benedict XVI proposes two fundamental distinctions in the
order of the Petrine munus: in the first place he distinguishes munus [office] from executio muneris [execution of office], evoking the Gratian distinction between the potestas officii [power of office] and its executio [execution] 39 and taking up anew the distinction between munus and its administration; in the second place, he distinguishes between the different activities which accompany the executio, between an administrative-ministerial executio (agendo and loquendo
[acting and speaking]) and a more spiritual one (orando and patiendo[praying and suffering or endurance])

Footnotes Page 8:
37 Benedetto XVI, Declaratio, 10 febbraio 2013.
38 Benedetto XVI, Declaratio, 10 febbraio 2013.
39 Cfr. Decretum Gratiani, c. 24, q. 1, dict. post. c. 37 

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 The executio of the Petrine office is carried out, then, not only with actions and
words but also, not in a lesser degree, with prayer and suffering. To the administrative-ministerial fulfillment, which consists in actions and in teachings, is added a more spiritual fulfillment, consisting in suffering and prayer.
In the light of these considerations, there appears as legitimate and meritorious the
choice of John Paul II to fulfill the munus entrusted to him with prayer and suffering and with the illness that debilitated the functions of government in the strict sense, that is the administrative-ministerial.
In respect to the time of John Paul II, however, historical circumstances are
changed: “In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”
The reference to present circumstances (nostri temporis) with the changes
occurring now rendered a different choice obligatory for Benedict XVI. Vigor of body
and soul are necessary to govern and to proclaim the Gospel. Seeing his own incapacity to administer the goods of the ministry entrusted to him, he declared his renunciation from the ministerium.
Not from the papacy, according to the dictate of the norm of Boniface VII; not from the munus according to the dictate of can. 332 § 2, but from the ministerium, or, as he will specify in his last audience, from “the active exercise of the ministry.”
40 On the day of his election to the pontificate he had devoted in a new way his whole life to the good of the Church once and for always; the decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry did not revoke this: “I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord. I no longer bear the power of office for the governance of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, in the enclosure of Saint Peter”
41; to dedicate life to prayer and meditation “does not mean abandoning the Church; indeed, if God asks me this it is precisely so that I may continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to do so until now, but in a way more suited to my age and strengths.”
42 The service to the Church continues with the same love and the same dedication,
although outside the exercise of power. The object of the irrevocable resignation, in fact, is the executio muneris (execution of the office) by speaking and acting (agendo et loquendo) not the munus [office] entrusted to him once and forever.

Footnotes Page 9
40 Benedetto XVI, Udienza generale del 27 febbraio 2013.
41 Ibid.
42Benedetto XVI, Angelus del 24 febbraio 2013

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Conclusions
On February 11, 2013, in full harmony with the tradition of the Church, Benedict
XVI declared his renunciation of the Petrine ministry. Concerning the dictate of the
canon, however, he declared his renunciation not of the office but of its administration. A renunciation limited to the active exercise of the munus constitutes the absolute novelty of the resignation of Benedict XVI. At the juridical base of his decision is not, then, canon 233 §2 which governs a renunciation of office different from that pronounced by Benedict XVI. The theologico-juridical foundation is the plenitudo potestas sanctioned by can. 331. Precisely in the bundle of these inherent powers is included as well the exclusive power or rather the faculty of freely and irrevocably renouncing all of the powers themselves without renouncing the munus.
Taking cognizance that his strengths were no longer fitted to the administration of
the munus entrusted to him, with a free act Benedict XVI has exercised the fullness of power by depriving himself of all of the power inherent to his office, for the good of the Church, without however abandoning his service to the Church; this continues through the exercise of the most eminently spiritual dimension inherent to the munus entrusted to him, which he did not intend to renounce.
The supreme act of self-abnegation for the good of the Church constitutes in reality the supreme act of power put in place by the Pope emeritus, as well as the last solemn act of his Magisterium.
The spiritual munus, in being fully carried out, can comport with a renunciation of
its administration; this does not in any way determine renunciation of the mission
inherent to the office, but constitutes its truest accomplishment. With this gesture of
renunciation, Benedict XVI has rather incarnated the most elevated form of power in the Church, according to the example of Him who, having all power in His hands, laid aside His garments43, not in this way divesting Himself, but rather bringing to completion His office of service to men, that is, our salvation.

Footnotes Page 10:
43 Cfr. John 13:2-4, but also Phil. 2:5-7: “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and inhabit found as a man.”