BXVI Still Pope, Prof. Violi on the "Renunciation" of BXVI not "Resignation"...Part 1

 Benedict XVI Still Pope:
Prof. Violi on the "Renunciation"
of BXVI not "Resignation"...Part 1

  

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

 Introduction
“Knowing well the gravity of this act, with full liberty, I declare that I renounce
the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Successor of St. Peter.”

With these words, which in a few seconds traveled around the world, Pope
Benedict XVI, on February 11, 2013, before the Cardinals met in consistory, declared his resignation in Latin. The gesture, seemingly unheard of,1 appears to be in full harmony as much with the history of the Church and its juridical order as with the personal history of the Bishop of Rome or Pope emeritus.2

The name Benedict itself, chosen by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on April 19, 2005,
at the moment of his election to the throne of Peter, already recalled the renunciation of the papacy, effectuated according to some historians, by Benedict V (964).3
Benedict IX (1045) also resigned the papacy, at least according to the tradition accepted and proposed by St. Peter Damiani in De Abdicatione E Episcopatus, a work written to legitimate his renunciation of the dignity of the cardinalate.4 From the canonical point of view, the legal institution found its first normative formulation in the Liber Sextus promulgated by Boniface VIII, born Benedetto Caitani.
To that norm is referred Canon 332, §2 CIC 1983 which repeats, with slight modifications, Canon 221 of the preceding Code, promulgated by Benedict XV in 1917

Footnotes:
1 I use the expression [“unheard of”] employed by the cardinals who opposed the attempt to resign by Celestine III around Christmas of 1197, a few days before his death: «Sed omnes cardinales una voce responderunt, quod illum conditionaliter non eligerent, dicentes, quod inauditum erat, quod summus Pontifex se deponeret», Ruggero di Howden, Chronica, ed. Stubbs, London 1871, IV, 32.
2 “It is evident that a Pope who resigns is no longer Pope, therefore he no longer has any power in the Church and cannot intervene in any affair of government. One may wonder whether he will retain the title Benedict XVI. We think the title Bishop Emeritus of Rome should be attributed to him, as with any other diocesan bishop whose office ceases.” (G. Ghirlanda, Cessation of the Office of the Roman Pontiff, in La Civiltà Cattolica, 3905 (2013), pp. 445-462 at p. 448. Benedict XVI, disregarding the indication byGhirlanda, decided instead to be called Pope Emeritus.
3 Cfr. O. Guyotjeannin, voce Rinuncia, in Dizionario storico del papato, Milano, 1996, 1263 ss.; P. Grandfield, Papal resignation, in The Juris, 38 (1978), pp. 118-123. With some reserve, also A. M. Piazzoni,Storia de lle elezioni pontificie [History of Pontifical Elections], Casale Monferrato, 2003, pp. 69,
102, 155. Of a different view, V. Gigliotti,La re nuntiatio Papae nella riflessione giuridica medievale [The Papal Resignation in Medieval Juridical Reflections], in Rivista di Storia del diritto italiano [The History of Italian Law], LXXIX (2006), pp. 316 ff.
4 The holy monk, unwillingly elected Cardinal and Bishop of Ostia in 1057, in adducing precedents to legitimate his own resignation, referred expressly to the exemplum of Benedict, who did not hesitate to renounce the office he had received: «Porro autem et B. Benedictum instar magni cujusdam pontificis, possumus ad exemplum imitationis inducere, qui videlicet commissum non ambigitur regimen dimisisse», Opusculum XIX. De abdicatione episcopatus, PL 154, p. 441C.

(TEXT Continued) PAGE 2:
1. Historical precedents, doctrinal debates and normative formulations.
As is known, in the first centuries of the Church, accounts of the resignation of a
Bishop of Rome are not evidenced in the documentary production sufficiently to permit a deep critico-philological study. An episcopal resignation or deposition tended to be equated with apostasy.5 The three cases of resignation most widely received in the medieval literature of
the “presumed popes” Clement of Rome, Ciriaco and Marcellino, while today appearing to be untenable, from the 12th to the 15th century were used as examples or authoritative precedents to argue for the liceity of papal resignations. Greater historical reliability seems to be present with the resignations of Popes Pontian (231-235), Cornelius (251-253) and Liberius (352-366).6
According to more recent historiography the resignation of Pontian, deported to Sardinia and condemned ad metalla [to work in the mines] during the persecution by Maximinus Thrax [the Roman emperor, Maximinus I]), constitutes the first documented resignation in the history of the Church.7 For further testimonies regarding renunciations of the papacy, it will be necessary
to wait until the 11th century. From the end of the 4th century to the 10th century, the sources evidence resignation from the episcopate for the motive of zelum meliorus vitae [the desire to lead a religious life] or because of malitia plebis [serious opposition from the faithful].8
Requesting that Pope Nicholas accept his resignation from the episcopate, St. Peter Damian adduced as the principal cause old age, an age more suited to the contemplative than the active life.9
Meriting particular mention is the attempted resignation by Celestine III, by then
near death, which took place at the end of 1197, to which the Cardinals refused their consent. Innocent III, his successor, in a discourse on the consecration of the pontiff, invoking the topic of the sprituale coniugum [spiritual espousal] between the Supreme Pontiff and the Church of Rome, declared the link indissoluble unless it be on account of death; continuing the nuptial metaphor, he declared the divorce illicit, be it accomplished....

PAGE 2 Footnotes:
5 On the presentation of true or presumed resignations from the papacy, I follow V. Gigliotti, La Renuntiatio Papae nella riflessione giuridica medieval [The Papal
renuntiatio in medieval juridical reflection], op. cit., pp. 301 ff, to which I refer here for in-depth analysis.
6V. Gigliotti, La Re nuntiatio Papae, op. cit., p. 310.
7A. M. Piazzoni,Storia delle elezioni pontificie, op. cit., p. 22.
8 Doubtful cases are those of Martin I (654-655), Benedict V (964), John XVIII (1009?), Benedict IX, Gregory VI, Gregory VI. On this point cf. V. Gigliotti,
, La Renuntiatio Papae, op. cit., pp. 314-315; 321-326.
9 Thus the opening words of the written supplication addressed to Nicholas II: «Orat pontificem summum, suppliciterque obsecrat, ut sibi episcopatus onus deponere permittat: causas praecipuas affert, quod senior sit, et idcirco quieti magis quam laboribus idoneus; quod illud laboriosum munus non sponte, sed coactus
susceperit, et denique quod propter sua peccata, ut ipse inquit, indignus sit qui in tam excelso honoris et dignitatis fastigio sedeat. Licere autem, si ita tempus aut ratio postulet, episcopatu se abdicare, plurimis sanctorum virorum et exemplis et auctoritatibus comprobat. In fine Deum precatur, ut eam pontifici mentem det, qua suis votis satisfaciat»; Pier Damiani, Opusculum XIX.De abdicatione episcopatus, PL 145, p. 423A

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...voluntarily (renuntiatio) or induced involuntarily (depositio),[the latter being] admissibleonly in the case of heresy.10 The position stated by Innocent III will constitute one of the principal articles in
the debate concerning renuntiatio [resignation]. In fact, at the end of the 12th century there begins the canonical reflection on resignation. The few and sketchy sources regarding papal resignation led to the adoption of a model of resignation taken from the case of a bishop.11 The basic elements will be found in decretal doctrine in the case of resignation and in the defectus superiorus [lack of a superior] or in the impossibility of submitting a resignation to a hierarchical superior. Baziano, in a gloss attributed to him and reported in one of the first apparatuses (collection of texts) of the Gratian decretals, recognized as a valid grounds for a legitimate resignation the desire to embrace the religious life (religionem migrare), infirmity (egritudine) and old age (senectute). Uguccione of Pisa added to the cited causes the phrase:
si expediret; alias peccaret:12 resignation will be recognized as the right of a pope only in the measure in which the good of the Church derives from it. The introduction of the principle
bonum commune Ecclesiae [common good of the Church] transfers the question of renunciation from the plane of objective law to that of the internal forum of the conscience.13 The Decretals of Gregory IX do not touch upon the theme of papal resignation, limiting themselves to the discipline, in Chapter IX of Book I, of episcopal resignation. This, according to the decretal Licet quibusdam of Innocent III, is not acceptable when the requester can still exercise the episcopacy with usefulness.14
In the decree Nisi cum predem the cases in which episcopal renunciation is admissible are weakness of body, awareness of a sin, irregularity, hostility of the people, a grave scandal, and lack of the necessary knowledge.15 Old age, understood as a cause of debi litas corporis, togetherwith sickness, constitutes one of the principal legitimizations for resignations.16

Page 3 Footnotes:
10 «Sacramentum autem inter Romanum pontificem et Romanam Ecclesiam tam firmum et stabile pers everat, ut non nisi per mortem unquam ab invicem separentur; quia mortuo viro mulier, secundum Apostolum, “soluta est a lege viri (Rom. VII)”. Vir autem iste alligatus uxori, solutionem non quaerit, non cedit, non deponitur; nam “suo domino aut stat, aut cadit (Rom. XIV)”. – “Qui autem judicat, Dominus est (I Cor. IV)”. Propter causam vero fornicationis Ecclesia Romana posset dimittere Romanum pontificem. Fornicationem non dico carnalem, sed spiritualem; quia non est carnale, sed spirituale onjugium, id est propter infidelitatis errorem», Innocent III, Sermones de diversis [various sermons]», III, PL 217, pp.664D-665A.
11 Cfr. V. Gigliotti, La Re nuntiatio Papae , cit., p. 330.
12 «Sed numquid papa hodie posse se ipsum deponere uel abrenuntiare et intrare monasterium? Credo quod sic, si expediret; alias peccaret. Et nunc eo uiuente substitueretur», Uguccione da Pisa, Summa Decretorum, glossa tuo ore a D. 21 c.
13 Cfr. V. Gigliotti, La Re nuntiatio Papae, cit., p. 332.
14 «Quando potest episcopus praeesse pariter prodesse, non debet cedendi licentiam postulare, aut etiam obtine re» (X.3.31.18).
15 «Intueri te itaque, venerabilis frater noster in Christo, volumus, quod haec sunt illa, per quae cedendi episc opus officio pastorali licentiam potest postulare: conscientia criminis, debilitas corporis, defectus scientiae, malitia plebis, grave scandalum, irregularitasque personae» (X.1.9.10).
16 «Alia vero causa est debilitas corporis, propter quam aliquis potest petere ab onere sollicitudinis pastoralis abso lvi, quae videlicet vel ex infirmitate, vel ex senectute procedit; nec tamen omnis, sed illa solummodo, per quam impotens redditur ad exsequendum officium pastorale» (X. 1.9.10)