South Florida Catholics expressed shock and surprise after morning Masses Monday that their leader, Pope Benedict XVI, will resign Feb. 28.
Benedict, 85, has led more than a billion Catholics around the world since his election in 2005, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then 78.
He is stepping down because of deteriorating strength due to his advanced age, he said in a statement published on the Vatican News website.
At St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church in Pembroke Pines, worshipers at the 8 a.m. Mass were puzzled by the news and worried for the pope.
"I'm surprised that he's resigning, because [Pope] John Paul served until the end of his life," said Jaime Zambrano, who expressed nervousness about future changes to church doctrine. "I like the path the church is on and I'd like a conservative pope to follow Benedict."
Though he sometimes wore red shoes and was the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to have a Twitter account (@Pontifex), Benedict's conservative views included approval for dioceses to offer Masses in Latin. He also upheld teachings of the church that banned married priests, abortion and artificial birth control.
"I trust in Jesus that everything will be OK with our church," Zambrano said.
Gisela Monserrat said of the pope's departure that will happen during Lent, "We are in shock. For us this is the first time it has happened in 600 years."
That was when Pope Gregory XII resigned, and was one of at least four to have stepped down early, according to a Vatican Radio interview on the Vatican News website.
Monserrat said she "loved" Benedict's conservative outlook.
"That's what we need," she said. "You see the world around you? You need a light in the darkness."
She also called him "straightforward on the moral issues. He apologized for all of the mistakes of the church, with the pedophilia, which was and is a problem."
Said her friend Yolanda Ochoa, "I love him. I'm praying for him, for his health."
The German-born Benedict's last act will be "humble," Ochoa said. "He's putting the church before himself."
Parishioners expressed surprise that Pastor John Peloso did not mention the pontiff's resignation.
Peloso said after the service that he would defer to Archbishop Thomas Wenski to speak on behalf of the archdiocese, which numbers 1.3 million worshipers and spans Key West to Deerfield Beach.
The archbishop last saw Benedict in May, spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta said.
"I think the pope scooped everybody this time," Wenski said Monday, "and that's amazing, given the world we live in."
Once he had digested the news, however, Wenski said, "Maybe we should not have been that surprised, because when he was a cardinal, and finishing his service to Pope John Paul II, he said he wanted to retire to Rome and devote himself to scholarship."
During Benedict's trip to Cuba in March, 2012, Wenski said, "You could see that travel was taking a toll. And travel is a requisite of the modern day pope."
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/fl-pope-benedict-south-florida-20130211,0,6960705.story?track=rss
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