By Br. Alexis Bugnolo
There being few in the Church today who know the Latin tongue well enough to read and analyze a canonical text, I offer here my own translation of the discourse which Pope Benedict gave during the Consistory of Feb. 11, 2013 A. D.. You can find modern translations of this discourse at the Vatican Website, with notable errors and seemingly purposeful misrepresentations. Compare my own with theirs, if you like, to know which words have been altered in the vernacular versions.
– – – –
Declaration of Pope Benedict XVI, Feb. 11, 2013 A. D.
Not only for the three canonizations have I called you to this Consistory, but also so that I may communicate to you a decision of great moment for the life of the Church. Having explored my conscience again and again before the Lord, I have arrived at certain recognition that with my advancing age my strengths are no longer apt for equitably administering the Petrine Office [munus Petrinum].
I am well aware that this office [munus], according to its spiritual essence, ought to be exercised not only by acting and speaking, but no less than by suffering and praying. Moreover, in the world of our time, subjected to rapid changes and perturbed by questions of great weight for the life of faith, there is more necessary to steer the Barque of Saint Peter and to announce the Gospel a certain vigor, which in recent months has lessened in me in such a manner, that I should acknowledge my incapacity to administer well the ministry [ministerium] committed to me. On which account, well aware of the weightiness of this act, I declare in full liberty, that I renounce the ministry [ministerio] of the Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, committed to me through the hands of the Cardinals on April 19, 2005, so that on February 28, 2013, at 20:00 Roman Time [Sedes Romae], the see of Saint Peter be vacant, and that a Conclave to elect a new Supreme Pontiff be convoked by those whose duty it is [ab quibus competit].
Dearest brothers, I thank you with my whole heart for every love and work, by which you bore with me the weight of my ministry [ministerii], and I ask pardon for all my failings. Moreover, now We confide God’s Holy Church to the care of Her Most High Shepherd, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and We implore His Mother, Mary, to assist with Her maternal goodness the Cardinal fathers in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. In my own regard, I wish to serve in the future by a life of prayer dedicated to the Holy Church with my whole heart.
[From the halls of the Vatican, Feb. 10, 2013]
Translator’s Commentary
As can be seen from Ganswein’s talk at the Pontifical Gregorian University in May of 2016, and from the other comments made by Benedict XVI afterwards, this text regards the resignation of ministry, not office. If one were to say it effects the resignation of office, he would be in substantial error, as I have demonstrated elsewhere.
Unlike Archbishop Ganswein, when he spoke at the Pontifical Gregorian University in May of 2016, I translate munus as office, following not only all the Latin Dictionaries which I have at my disposal, but the Latin text of Canon 145, which defines every office in the Church as a munus. See also, Pope Paul VI’s decree, Christus Dominus, which uses the same term for office.
I translate vacet as the main verb of a subordinate subjunctive clause of purpose, introduced by ita ut, “so that”. Those who opine that such a form of vaco, vacare can be translated as could be vacant know nothing about Latin and how as a Classical tongue it lacks the conditional mood. (Cf. my Ecclesiastical Latin Grammar, for an explanation on how to translate the subjunctive mood in Latin, into English).
Having spoken with one of the most eminent Latinists who has worked at the Vatican, I note that the Sedes Romae refers to the time Zone, and is not an appositive to Sedes Sancti Petri. Note there are 2 things declared: that I renounce... and that a Conclave be convoked…. Note also, that in the original text the commisso in the phrase, “committed to me through the hands of the Cardinals” was erroneously written and spoken as commissum. (Cfr. Pope Gregory XIII’s 1582 edition of the Decretales Gregorii IX. Book. I, Tittle III, de Rescriptis, c. XI.)
Finally, if you find any typographical errors, let me know. as I understand there are some out there who hate the truth so much, that if they find one, they believe the rest of a text by a translator is of no value.
Your citation of the Latin Grammar is inconclusive, because you have to give examples. In Ecclesiastical Latin ita ut introduces a subordinate clause of purpose. Its a grave error found in many modern Latin grammars in English to attempt to reread into Latin the expansin of moods and tenses which we have in Modern English. There is no conditional mood in Latin, you can never translate the subjunctive of any verb as could, unless it be the verb “can” [posse]. You can only use the English subjunctive or may or might, depending upon the Latin construction. I explain this in my Latin Grammar published by The Francisan Archive. But as is said in argument 13, If you renounce something, which is of itself not the substance of the thing which is to be renounced, you have not renounced the substance of the thing. Just as if a Father renounces acting like a Father, he remains the Father. Only a phenomenologist would disagree. But the Church is Thomistic and Aristoelian in its laws, because the Church is founded on realities not appearances. If you reject only the accident of a thing, you still have the thing. Christ shows us this in the Eucharist, when He has renounced all the accidents of His Humanity to appear as Bread. But its still Him.