Pope Benedict was made an offer he couldn't refuse.
Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign Feb. 28 — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals on Monday morning.
He emphasized that carrying out the duties of being pope — the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires "both strength of mind and body."
"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," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.
"However, 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 St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths 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 last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.
Benedict called his choice "a decision of great importance for the life of the church."
Last year, Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict's personal butler from 2006 to 2012, was believed to have leaked stolen information belonging to the Pope to the author of the best selling book,"Sua Santita" ("His Holiness"). He was held by Vatican police, who claim to have found classified documents in his apartment, and was pardoned by Pope Benedict. Gabriele told investigators he acted because he saw "evil and corruption everywhere in the church".
Pope Benedict XVI has pardoned his former butler, Paolo Gabriele, weeks after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for leaking the pope's private papers, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said. The pope visited Gabriele in prison "in order to confirm his forgiveness and communicate in person his decision to grant Mr. Gabriele's request for pardon, thereby remitting the sentence passed against the latter," said a Vatican statement. "This constitutes a paternal gesture toward a person with whom the Pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years." Gabriele was immediately released and has returned home, the statement said.
The Pope's butler's fate will be decided by court "Since he cannot resume his previous occupation or continue to live in Vatican City, the Holy See, trusting in his sincere repentance, wishes to offer him the possibility of returning to a serene family life," it said. Gabriele, one of the pope's closest personal assistants, was convicted in October of aggravated theft for leaking secret papers from the pontiff's personal apartment to an author who included them in a best-selling book. During the high-profile trial, Gabriele declared himself not guilty, but said he had abused the pope's trust. He asked forgiveness of the pontiff for his actions, which he said were intended to expose wrongdoing. The Holy See media office had previously indicated that Gabriele could be pardoned. He was held in a cell in Vatican City since October. Gabriele was arrested in May, following a Vatican investigation into how the pope's private documents appeared in the book "Sua Santita" ("His Holiness"), by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi. The book, based on the papers, revealed claims of corruption in the church's hierarchy. At his trial, police told how they found more than 1,000 important documents among a stash of hundreds of thousands of papers in Gabriele's apartments in Vatican City and Castel Gondolfo, a town near Rome. Among them were original papers signed by Pope Benedict XVI, some of them stamped with an order for destruction, according to the journalists allowed to attend the trial. Also found in his possession were a gold nugget belonging to the pope, a signed check made out to Pope Benedict XVI for 100,000 euros and an original version of Virgil's Aeneid from 1581.
His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI (Italian: Sua Santità . Le carte segrete di Benedetto XVI) is a book published by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, consisting of confidential letters and memos between Pope Benedict XVI and his personal secretary. The letters in the book portray the Vatican as a corrupt hot bed of jealousy, intrigue and underhanded factional fighting.
Nuzzi's book reveals details about the Pope's personal finances, and includes tales of bribes made to procure an audience with him. It reproduces confidential letters and memos to and from Benedict and his personal secretary. It contains letters from a very senior Vatican administrator to Pope Benedict in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The documents also cover a 2009 scandal concerning the ex-editor of the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, a dinner between Benedict and Italy's president, and a 2011 letter from an Italian talk show host to the pope enclosing a cheque for 10,000 euros for his charity work – and asking for a private audience in exchange. Diplomatic cables include Vatican embassies from Jerusalem to Cameroon, as well as conclusions of the pope's inquiry into the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order - where he is warned that the financial situation of the order, beset by a scandal over its paedophile founder, "while not grave, is serious and pressing". The documents portray the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a particularly negative light.
COULD BERTONE BECOME, THE LST POPE?
The following was a thread post at realistnews.net, posted on April 9, 2012
Tarcisio "PIETRO ROMANO" Bertone (Peter the Roman)
Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone may very well be the "Peter the Roman" that many have prophesized as "the last pope", "the black pope" a potential "antichrist" etc. etc.
Pietro is an Italian form of the name "Peter" and this right-hand man to the current pope was born in "Roman"o Canavese.
It is also interesting to note several reports last year about the possibility of the current Pope Benedict XVI resigning/being assasinated etc. in the near future.
In addition, although some sources have debunked the claim, there have been speculation of the Pope resigning shortly after his 85th birthday in the middle of April 2012.
St. Malachy's Prophecy of The Last Pope - "PIETRO ROMANO"
(Peter the Roman)
WHO IS PETER THE ROMAN? THE LAST POPE
Perhaps the new pope will be 'Tarcisio Pietro Evasio Bertone'
Pietro = Peter Born in Romano Canavese, Italy = Roman Peter the Roman
Maybe it will be
Peter Turkson of Ghana
Francis Arinze of Nigeria, and Marc Ouellet of Canada were among the cardinals hotly tipped by bookmakers to take over from Pope Benedict XVI.
Marc Ouellet
Francis Arinze
Bookmakers named 80-year-old Arinze as their favorite to replace the pontiff following the shock announcement of the pontiff’s resignation with odds of 2-1, followed by Turkson at 5-2.
Bookmakers also offered odds of 8-1 on Archbishop Angelo Scola of Italy and 10-1 on Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras. At the humorous end of the scale, a bookmaker, Coral, was offering 2000-1 on disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong becoming pope.
By the way,
There are reports that the Vatican has a Telescope in Arizona called "Lucifer".
Quote from this Article: "And yes," according to Popular Science, "it's named for the Devil, whose name itself means "morning star."
Isaiah 5:20-21
(20) Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (21) Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
Revelation 17:1-5
(1) And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: (2) With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (3) So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (4) And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
(5) And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Take a look at the blue sky or a star filled night sky.
Catch a glimpse at a flower which is still alive on a chilling winter's day.
Notice an elderly whose bones, brittle with time, continues to do daily chores.
Hear the hysterical laughter of children at play.
Glance at 2 lovers kissing in a warm embrace in public.
Recall one of many times your eyes have met with a stranger who offered to help and did.
Smell how the day has changed by falling rain or a different place you have travelled to.
Listen to the musical tones of people from a different land.
Silently laugh at a certain memory with your family or friends or a happening you noticed while out walking or even at home by yourself.
Ponder on the mystery of pregnancy, child birth, life and death, sickness and disease and we will all find that we are not very different from each other.
Times such as the above mentioned are just a few of many instances when we may take the opportunity to enjoy all the good that there is in this world and to even be appreciative of the sorrows we have experienced and learned of and from-- for if we did not have good, there would be no measure to know evil.
At death, while in the funeral parlor waiting our turn to be embalmed for burial or prepared for cremation, we are all laid naked and next to strangers of various ethnicity and economic status. The bounty of our labors, legacy or fortunes are not stored aside to be enclosed with us. We are then merely a lifeless, quickly atrophying body without thoughts of the evil doers who put us there or of the disease which was not diagnosed, misdiagnosed; no thoughts of how perhaps this could have been prevented by having health insurance or a better one.
Finger Pointing
This method named, Finger pointing, is learned from observing our politicians who have passed the buck back and forth, placing blame on other countries, maligning leaders, alliances and anything they can differ to, rather than taking responsibility.
The Way I C It, Life may have been better if people learned to accept, appreciate and respect that the earth is a gift with enough land for all to live on, feed from and thrive from without monetary cost and tariffs to outside entities; each part of the earth was given a natural resource to barter with.
Once people learned greed, many lives were taken and peaceful existence on earth has been digressing ever since. It is forbidden to interfere in the ways of man and his evolution.
Finger Pointing After The Loss of a Loved One.
Had it not been for the reckless driver distracted by a mobile text message or call alert, the surgeon, pilot or friend who lacked sleep, was impaired by drugs or lack of knowledge, this death would not have occurred.
What if this death occurred due to The Illuminati's plan to depopulate the world in order to have better control of those left to survive and engage in so called the New World Order? Perhaps thoughts like, "This is the fault of the government and it's simpatico bias for the rich, the poor, the Jews, Christians, Protestants, Mormons..." would be entertained as well.
This list of finger pointing and blame could go on and on in the lives of our loved ones left behind grieving our loss and trying to make sense of an event which is truly promised to us all. Death.
T3ZUAECU3QN5
I would prefer to believe that our last thoughts are like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this post. I don't know about you but if I had any choice in the matter of which would be my final memories, the good ones would erase any bad ones and if any thought of malice or evil popped into my soul's experience while travelling to its' destiny to the other side, I could hopefully try to find the brighter side or replace it with one of the tiny fingers of an infant.
