Bill McMurry, a lawyer from Kentucky, who has sued the Vatican for sexual abuse allegations going back as far as 1928, has told Karen McVeigh in New York it was difficult for him to believe that Benedict had stepped down for health reasons.

Thank you Paul, Steve and your Guides!
*** gavin

Pope Benedict Resigns

It’s most probable that the resignation of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, the auditing of Queen Elizabeth of  England, and the resignation of Pope Benedict are related and are part of the accountability sweep we’ve been long expecting. If so, things are moving quickly at the present time.

Posted by Steve Beckow 

Pope Benedict XVI announces resignation

Paul Owen, Guardian, Feb. 11, 2013

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/pope-resigns-live-reaction

Summary

Here is a summary of today’s key events:

• Pope Benedict XVI has resigned, saying that at his age he cannot carry out all his tasks adequately and is losing strength in body and mind. His brother Georg suggested he was finding it difficult to walk and had been advised to stop making transatlantic journeys.

• The pope will step down on 28 February. A papal conclave will follow to elect his successor, who will be in place by the end of March, and perhaps in time for holy week on 24 March.

• Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze, Canada’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and Italy’s Angelo Scola emerged as some of the leading candidates to succeed Benedict.  One of the next pope’s first trips abroad is likely to be to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day on 1 July.

• Benedict says he wishes to continue to serve the Catholic church “through a life dedicated to prayer”. He will revert to his former title of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger upon his resignation, the Catholic church in England said. There was “absolute silence” this morning when the pope told cardinals the news, according to Mexican prelate Monsignor Oscar Sanchez, who witnessed his resignation.

• The pope made his decision over the last few months, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said, and it took all his closest aides by surprise. He will honour his commitments until he steps down. Lombardi said this was Benedict’s own personal decision. Upon resigning, he will go to the papal summer residence near Rome, and then will move to a cloistered residence in the Vatican, which may make life difficult for his successor.

• The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the head of the Anglican church, said he had learned of the pope’s resignation with a “heavy heart but complete understanding“.

• The last pope to resign was Gregory XII, in 1415.

• Child abuse victims in Ireland and the US criticised Benedict for not having done more to deal with the scandals of paedophile priests in the Catholic church.

I’m going to hand over to my colleague Tom McCarthy in New York now for continuing coverage of the reaction to Pope Benedict’s resignation.

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Here’s the front page of today’s Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

41m ago

Bill McMurry, a lawyer from Kentucky, who has sued the Vatican for sexual abuse allegations going back as far as 1928, has told Karen McVeigh in New York it was difficult for him to believe that Benedict had stepped down for health reasons.

He said: “The world is stunned. We don’t see in the history of the papal world a pope stand down. It makes you wonder what’s going on.”

McMurry said he personally held Benedict responsible for “decades” of cover-up of the sex abuse scandal in the US, giving the example of his instructing bishops to send more paedophile priests from one district to another. He told the Guardian: “It is a good day when a bad pope or a bad leader of your religion steps aside.”

 http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/02/pope-benedict-resigns/