On Tuesday last nearly all the monks of Ampleforth Abbey were at a special meeting at the Abbey for the election of our abbot.

Some of the monks during an interval in the Election Chapter

It happens when an Abbot retires or every eight years, and is an unusual event that has happened several times so far for me. It is when perhaps a Benedictine Abbey is most clearly distinct from any other Catholic Religious Order and is always a moment for the monks of “excitement in the Holy Spirit”.

After the election monks ready for a photo in the Abbey Church.

On the Tuesday morning of our deliberations, when we came out of a long discussion together, we were greeted by the astonishing news that Pope Benedict would retire at 8pm on Thursday 28^th February.

Pope Benedict on Ash Wednesday 13 February 2013

That news has caught the interest of the World from China to Cuba and all countries in between! Nobody expected it, and it happened for me when the Ampleforth monks’ minds were distracted. We re-elected Abbot Cuthbert Madden, already abbot for eight years and all of us sensed in different ways that the Holy Spirit had been present with us at Ampleforth as He is always with the Church.

Abbot Cuthbert after his election as Abbot of Ampleforth 12 February 2013

A monastery is a small and complete “Church”, because it is constituted within the living structure of the universal Church, and recognised and welcomed by the highest authorities. The presence of the Holy Spirit will always be there as long as the monks remain in communion with the whole Body of Christ, the Church.

Every authentic natural Christian family is also a complete “Church” when it too belongs to and is in communion with the living Church. The Holy Spirit will be present in such a family, the smallest cell of the Church.

So it is with the Universal Church and it is now to be expected that the Holy Spirit will guide all those responsible for the choosing of the new Pope. Before Easter we will have a new successor of St. Peter, a new Bishop of Rome who is the centre of the unity of the whole Church. People will debate at length who may be the “front runners” for this noble task, and some if not most, will do so forgetting that the Holy Spirit is the one who guides the Church, big, or small. They will look at the process from below, whereas believers are invited to look at it from above. For the whole Church is present “Where two or more are gathered in the name of Jesus”, and the Church, in its universality or its smallest unity is guided by the Holy Spirit.

Bishops in session at Vatican 2 in St. Peter’s Basilica

It is in this context that it is worth looking at what happened when Pope Benedict declared publicly his resignation. It came in a very ordinary way: during a gathering in which he was going to declare that three persons would be declared saints. It came without any fanfare and as bolt from the blue. However Pope Benedict had in fact hinted at this decision when he gave an interview to the German journalist, Peter Seewald. “When a Pope comes to the clear awareness of not being able physically, mentally or spiritually to carry out the task entrusted to him, he then has the right and even the duty, in some circumstances, to resign.”

Nearly everyone seems to think this Pope Benedict has done a brave and noble deed and that is my own opinion. People will speculate about it, but underneath I think we have among us a straight-forward, highly intelligent, wise and loving Pope, a disciple of Jesus like St. Peter, a man who understands his limitations, and who like his master simple says yes when he means yes, and no when he means no. He made his statement below, in a spirit of trust and loving confidence.

“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. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with 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 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. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.”

Our Archbishop of Liverpool, Patrick Kelly made a short statement about this too:

“During his visit to this country in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI clearly appreciated the gift of God of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Two phrases from Blessed John Henry Newman’s hymn ‘Praise to the Holiest’ capture for me the Cardinal and then the Pope whom I have been blessed to know: ‘the loving wisdom of our God’ and ’the wisest love’.

Pope Benedict broke open for us, especially during his visit to our country, the wisdom above all given to us in the Word of God and to that Word of God a word of love for us. He has been a herald with only one concern; that in the words of John the Baptist: ‘the Lord must increase and I must decrease’.

Therefore in the deepest sense it is no surprise that such a disciple of the Lord, when he discerns that the resources of body and mind are inadequate to fulfil the mission entrusted to him, comes to the clear humble and selfless decision to resign.”

Pope Benedict bless the ashes on Ash Wednesday, one of his last Liturgical official functions.