Pontif-ex

“Coscientia mea iterum atque iterum coram Deo explorata ad cognitionem certam perveni vires meas ingravescente aetate non iam aptas est ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum”.

When Pope Ratzinger announces, locked in the Consistory, speaking in latin, his unimaginable “non possum”, Saint Peter’s square is shaken by a terrible storm, with lightnings that tear apart the sky, aiming straight at the chapel of the Basilica. Only a few pilgrims roam around, some Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s sisters, and herds of japanese tourists. No ocean-like mass, however, no people praying; just the ordinary, unaware flow of people, which sizes up the emptiness that accompanies the modern “refusal” of Benedict XVI.