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DECLARATIO PONTIFICALIS
Below is the text of the resignation statement delivered by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 February 2013 as it was originally posted on the Vatican's website with one typo (`hora 29' for `hora 20' ) corrected but two grammatical errors, which have now been corrected on the official web page, left unchanged and highlighted in red. The first of these mistakes was presumably by the Vatican employee who typed the text into a computer after the Pope had read it out. The second was made by the Pope himself as can be heard on the recording of him speaking to the cardinals. The reader who wants to test his or her own grammatical skills can attempt to correct the endings of the two words before either going to the Vatican site or looking at an explanation of the errors.
A pdf file with translations of the speech into English and other major European languages can be downloaded from the button at the bottom of this page. The Italian journalist who, alone amongst her colleagues, understood the Latin as it was read out and was thus the first to break the story, gave her account of what happened to the BBC, and another BBC report (`Pope resignation: who speaks Latin these days?') looks at the communicative use of the language inside and outside the Church.
Hong Kong journalist John Carney's 10 March 2013 Sunday Morning Post article about the papal statement and the Circulus Latinus Honcongensis is available on the SCMP site. Benedict himself explained in a interview in 2016 with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera why he had chosen to make the declaration in Latin: `Il testo della rinuncia l’ho scritto io. Non posso dire con precisione quando, ma al massimo due settimane prima. L’ho scritto in latino perché una cosa così importante si fa in latino. Inoltre il latino è una lingua che conosco così bene da poter scrivere in modo decoroso. Avrei potuto scriverlo anche in italiano, naturalmente, ma c’era il pericolo che facessi qualche errore.'
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Fratres carissimi
Non solum propter tres canonizationes ad hoc Consistorium vos convocavi, sed etiam ut vobis decisionem magni momenti pro Ecclesiae vitae communicem. Conscientia mea iterum atque iterum coram Deo explorata ad cognitionem certam perveni vires meas ingravescente aetate non iam aptas esse ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum.
Bene conscius sum hoc munus secundum suam essentiam spiritualem non solum agendo et loquendo exsequi debere, sed non minus patiendo et orando. Attamen in mundo nostri temporis rapidis mutationibus subiecto et quaestionibus magni ponderis pro vita fidei perturbato ad navem Sancti Petri gubernandam et ad annuntiandum Evangelium etiam vigor quidam corporis et animae necessarius est, qui ultimis mensibus in me modo tali minuitur, ut incapacitatem meam ad ministerium mihi commissum bene administrandum agnoscere debeam. Quapropter bene conscius ponderis huius actus plena libertate declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commissum renuntiare ita ut a die 28 februarii MMXIII, hora 20, sedes Romae, sedes Sancti Petri vacet et Conclave ad eligendum novum Summum Pontificem ab his quibus competit convocandum esse.
Fratres carissimi, ex toto corde gratias ago vobis pro omni amore et labore, quo mecum pondus ministerii mei portastis et veniam peto pro omnibus defectibus meis. Nunc autem Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam curae Summi eius Pastoris, Domini nostri Iesu Christi confidimus sanctamque eius Matrem Mariam imploramus, ut patribus Cardinalibus in eligendo novo Summo Pontifice materna sua bonitate assistat. Quod ad me attinet etiam in futuro vita orationi dedicata Sanctae Ecclesiae Dei toto ex corde servire velim.
Ex Aedibus Vaticanis, die 10 mensis februarii MMXIII
Translation of the text into Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish:
A pdf file with translations of the speech into English and other major European languages can be downloaded from the button at the bottom of this page. The Italian journalist who, alone amongst her colleagues, understood the Latin as it was read out and was thus the first to break the story, gave her account of what happened to the BBC, and another BBC report (`Pope resignation: who speaks Latin these days?') looks at the communicative use of the language inside and outside the Church.
Hong Kong journalist John Carney's 10 March 2013 Sunday Morning Post article about the papal statement and the Circulus Latinus Honcongensis is available on the SCMP site. Benedict himself explained in a interview in 2016 with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera why he had chosen to make the declaration in Latin: `Il testo della rinuncia l’ho scritto io. Non posso dire con precisione quando, ma al massimo due settimane prima. L’ho scritto in latino perché una cosa così importante si fa in latino. Inoltre il latino è una lingua che conosco così bene da poter scrivere in modo decoroso. Avrei potuto scriverlo anche in italiano, naturalmente, ma c’era il pericolo che facessi qualche errore.'
__________________________
Fratres carissimi
Non solum propter tres canonizationes ad hoc Consistorium vos convocavi, sed etiam ut vobis decisionem magni momenti pro Ecclesiae vitae communicem. Conscientia mea iterum atque iterum coram Deo explorata ad cognitionem certam perveni vires meas ingravescente aetate non iam aptas esse ad munus Petrinum aeque administrandum.
Bene conscius sum hoc munus secundum suam essentiam spiritualem non solum agendo et loquendo exsequi debere, sed non minus patiendo et orando. Attamen in mundo nostri temporis rapidis mutationibus subiecto et quaestionibus magni ponderis pro vita fidei perturbato ad navem Sancti Petri gubernandam et ad annuntiandum Evangelium etiam vigor quidam corporis et animae necessarius est, qui ultimis mensibus in me modo tali minuitur, ut incapacitatem meam ad ministerium mihi commissum bene administrandum agnoscere debeam. Quapropter bene conscius ponderis huius actus plena libertate declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae, Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commissum renuntiare ita ut a die 28 februarii MMXIII, hora 20, sedes Romae, sedes Sancti Petri vacet et Conclave ad eligendum novum Summum Pontificem ab his quibus competit convocandum esse.
Fratres carissimi, ex toto corde gratias ago vobis pro omni amore et labore, quo mecum pondus ministerii mei portastis et veniam peto pro omnibus defectibus meis. Nunc autem Sanctam Dei Ecclesiam curae Summi eius Pastoris, Domini nostri Iesu Christi confidimus sanctamque eius Matrem Mariam imploramus, ut patribus Cardinalibus in eligendo novo Summo Pontifice materna sua bonitate assistat. Quod ad me attinet etiam in futuro vita orationi dedicata Sanctae Ecclesiae Dei toto ex corde servire velim.
Ex Aedibus Vaticanis, die 10 mensis februarii MMXIII
Translation of the text into Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish:
| resignation__of_the_pope_in_latin_and_six_other_lang.pdf |
