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POPE BENEDICT XVI will meet cardinals from around the world today in his final hours as leader of 1.2 billion Catholics before he becomes the first pontiff to resign since the Middle Ages.
The 85-year-old pontiff stunned the globe when he announced his momentous decision in a surprise speech in Latin on 11 February, saying he no longer had the “strength of mind and body” to carry on in a fast-changing modern world.
“I took this step in full awareness of its gravity and novelty but with profound serenity of spirit,” the pope told a cheering crowd of 150,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square in his final public farewell yesterday.
The theologian pope – a shy academic whose papacy has been overshadowed by infighting within the Roman Catholic Church and a toxic sex abuse scandal — said his eight-year pontificate had seen “sunny days” and “stormy waters” but added: “I never felt alone”.
The Vatican has said that the moment the pope’s powers officially expire at 7pm GMT, the ex-pontiff will officially be known by the new title of “Roman Pontiff Emeritus” although he will still be addressed as “Your Holiness”.
He will also keep his papal name of “Benedict XVI” and will not be referred by his original name as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Once he takes up residence as planned in a former convent on a hilltop within the Vatican walls, the Church will be in the unprecedented situation of having a pope and his predecessor living within a stone’s throw of each other.
Vatican analysts have even suggested his sudden exit could set a precedent for ageing popes in the future and many Catholics say a more youthful, pastoral figure could breathe new life into a Church struggling on many levels.
The run-up to the exact moment that will go down in history as only the second voluntary resignation of a Roman pontiff in the Church’s 2,000 years has been filled with emotion but perhaps surprisingly low-key for the Vatican.
There will be a small parting ceremony with some of his staff in a Vatican courtyard at 3.50pm GMT and a few minutes later the pope will board a white helicopter emblazoned with the papal insignia from the Vatican grounds.
The soon-to-be former pope will see the Vatican City — the world’s smallest state — from the sky one last time as its sovereign ruler and fly to the 17th-century papal residence of Castel Gandolfo on a rocky outcrop near Rome.
There the pope will begin a quiet life of prayer and academic research.
Within a couple of months, the pope is expected to return to the Vatican and take up residence in an ex-nunnery with breathtaking views of Rome surrounded by extensive well-manicured gardens.
Benedict has said he will live “hidden from the world” but the Vatican has said he is ready to help and could provide “spiritual guidance” to the next pope although he could not intervene directly or contradict him in public.
“I am not abandoning the cross,” Benedict said yesterday — a response to Stanislaw Dziwisz, secretary to his popular predecessor John Paul II, who said his mentor’s agonising final years showed “you don’t come down from the cross”.
At a meeting with hundreds of tearful priests of Rome — the pope’s diocese — Benedict spoke off-script about his experiences as a young reformer during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s which changed the face of Catholicism.
“I will always be with you,” he said, as they chanted “Long live the pope!”
Some of the pope’s parting words have been harsh, such as his condemnation of “religious hypocrisy” and “rivalry” in the Church at his final mass in St Peter’s Basilica where his exit was accompanied by waves of applause.
“The face of the Church… is at times disfigured,” he said, following months of intrigue over a hugely damaging leak of confidential papal papers and cloak-and-dagger goings-on at the Vatican’s secretive bank.
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Why is it on us? We can’t control the amount of packaging these days. Guess who can? Oh yeah!-the conpanies who package their goods. Deal with them.
@a: Totally agree that we should hold these companies accountable. I’ve even written to some companies in relation to this.
However, we can also have a huge impact by not buying products with wasteful packaging. If we don’t buy the products, they won’t keeping making them.
We should also buy more local and second hand products. Charity shops are great for Christmas shopping.
@a: Exactly, you will see ‘My M&S’ ‘My this’ & ‘My That’ but when it comes down to it you will also see ‘YOUR WASTE’ – yourwaste.ie
They don’t want the waste yet they allow it to be produced.
@a: I wrote to my local TD (a green party TD) and never received any response but this was the gist of it. More expensive everyday items you buy in the likes of Dunnes generally (but not always) comes in packaging that is recyclable- stuff such as apples etc. But your same lower priced items in Lidl/Aldi etc do not and it’s this that is making a difference. There is also confusion amongst many between the difference of ‘made from recycled material’ and ‘recyclable material’ it confuses most and the packaging can be difficult to discern based on that. The onus should be on suppliers/packaging companiez/sellers and government to make it impossible to sell in non recyclable material.
No convenient recycling facilities available for polystyrene so this still goes into the general waste. Only lip service from companies to reduce reuse recycle but the consuner gets the blame
@Dangling Damo: Even though most of the bin collectors don’t allow it they will actually separate it in the recycling center. It’s purely a cost thing so it’s not a heinous crime like including wet waste or something which can mean an entire trucks worth of recycling is ruined.
I try to avoid such packaging when I can but I don’t feel one bit bad about sending it off in the bin when I do happen to need to get rid of some and I don’t have enough other stuff to justify a run to a bring site.
Limit your contacts,
Limit your travel ,
Limit your waste ,
Sure why don’t I limit oxygen aswell while I’m at it this Christmas
@JillyBean: You could
Selection boxes drive me mad. Complete waste of cardboard and plastic.
@Caroline Otoole: Absolutely right. Yet people still buy them and blame the companies who make them for the waste.
Kids don’t care about the box. Just buy a few chocolate bars instead.
@Caroline Otoole: Not just that they are packaged using cardboard and plastic, they make the packaging oversized to make it appear you are getting more than you actually are, an even bigger waste.
I am less concerned about the cardboard, but the plastic needs to be removed.
If the Govt implemented a returns process for that kind of plastic (like 10c per pack) going back to the point of purchase, those shops would then put pressure on suppliers to produce without the plastic.
Got a package from Amazon this week that would usually be wrapped in a box or plastic bag, but this came in a paper bag. It can be done.
@Conrad Shields: actually saw a post on twitter during the week about this. It was a photo of the packaging alongside the bit of chocolate thats in one. It was quite jarring.
@Caroline Otoole: totally agree! Over sized packaging!! I don’t buy selection boxes for this reason
I am calling on all journal readers to boycott these polls until a serious controversial topic is put up for discussion. The odd seasonal topic is OK, but not a relentless diet of them.
I made a perfectly valid point and was censored by the moderator.
@SteveBuzzard: I believe the moderator is fond of a box of After Eights. Do you see where I am going with this? :-)
Celebrating with my parents this year, thankfully, and they live in a zero waste household so I have no choice.
Make up gift sets and perfume packaging are the worst offenders next to children’s toys. I’m trying as best I can to avoid buying them. It’s not easy though.
@Teresa O’Donnell-Joyce: Keep it up. All we can do is our best. We just need to be conscious consumers.
Consider making your own gift sets with individually selected products instead of prepackaged sets. It’s a much more thoughtful gift. It’s not easy and takes extra time of course. I understand that sometimes it’s just not an option.
Good luck with the Christmas shopping.
@Jim Smith: My family will be given home baking gifts. Shame about my dodgy baking skills. It’ll be fun.
Yes I won’t be buying as much food this year like tins of sweets crisps biscuits etc. Wasted do much ladt year
Will buy some nice crackers cheese and maybe some nice meats to go with.
Stove ,free heat ,end of story.
I’m bought three rolls of wrapping paper last year, and I am still using it. But then again, the gifts weren’t huge to wrap.
@Lisa Saputo: gift bags are handy as you can reuse them next year once you don’t write on the tag
Moderator doesn’t like musical notes either. We’ll it’s their loss. It was a a wonderful comment;-)
and if people cannot limit their waste by eating and drinking moderately, they can recycle personal waste by using a compost lavatory.
No
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! We have been doing are bit for ages and didn’t even know it. Lol
I can’t be ars@d to wrap gifts, so this poll is perfect for me. I just used gift bags, that my Mammy saves and reuses the next Christmas!! Lol
have your say