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Benedict to Take Up Residence at Vatican Benedict Takes Up Residence at Vatican
(about 5 hours later)
VATICAN CITY — Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, is set return to live in the Vatican on Thursday afternoon, beginning an unprecedented cohabitation: a retired pontiff living alongside a reigning one. VATICAN CITY — When Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, returned to Vatican City on Thursday, two months after his retirement, he inaugurated a living arrangement as unusual as it may be unpredictable.
After a two-month stay at the summer papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, Benedict is expected to return to Vatican City by helicopter. Pope Francis is scheduled to be waiting to greet him at Benedict’s new home, the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican Gardens. It is the second time the two men have met since Francis was elected: 10 days after his March 13 election, Francis traveled to Castel Gandolfo to meet his predecessor. Will Pope Francis head to Benedict’s new home, the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, located inside the Vatican walls, for heart-to-hearts with the one living man who understands the burdens of leading the world’s more than one billion Roman Catholics? Will they casually bump into each other while strolling the landscaped gardens of the tiny sovereign state of Vatican City?
The unusual living arrangement has raised eyebrows among some Vatican watchers concerned that the presence of the former pontiff might somehow influence Francis, whether consciously or not. Or will they studiously avoid contact, to squelch any concerns about the potential influence — deliberate or not — that the retired pontiff may have on his successor?
Benedict has tried to assuage those concerns, holding fast to his pledge that he will remain “hidden from the world” after his retirement, which began on Feb. 28, nearly eight years into his pontificate. He was the first pope to resign in 600 years. “It’s all a very new situation, there are no examples of any kind,” said Roberto Rusconi, a church historian at Roma Tre University. “Basically, you’d need a crystal ball.” He said the nuts and bolts of the cohabitation “will really depend on the new pope and how he chooses to develop the relationship.”
Benedict will live at the convent with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is also the prefect of the papal household, and the four women of the Memores Domini association, lay nuns with the Communion and Liberation movement, who have been part of the papal household for years, cleaning and cooking the pope’s meals. A room has also been set aside for visits by the pope’s older brother, Georg Ratzinger, who is a priest and lives in Germany, Vatican officials said. Benedict, in any case, received a heartfelt homecoming when he arrived by helicopter Thursday afternoon, after staying for two months at the summer papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, southeast of Rome. Some of his former top advisers turned out to form an ad hoc welcoming committee at the Vatican helipad, though Francis was not there; he waited for Benedict at the monastery, “welcoming him with great and fraternal warmth,” according to a Vatican statement. The two then went to the chapel of the monastery “for a brief moment of prayer,” the statement said.
The monastery was occupied for 20 years by a succession of orders of cloistered nuns entrusted with praying for the pope and the Roman Catholic Church, a task the pope emeritus has pledged to continue. The meeting was their second since Francis became pope: On March 23, ten days after his election, Francis went to Castel Gandolfo for lunch.
They left in November, when restoration work on the structure began. That occasion was also the only time that Benedict had been seen in public since leaving the Vatican, and he appeared tired and frail, raising concerns about his health. The Vatican did not release any photos of the pope emeritus’ arrival Thursday.
Benedict has been seen in public only once since his retirement, during his visit with Francis. He appeared tired and frail, raising concerns about his health. Vatican officials say Benedict is not suffering from any specific illness, and link his decline to his age. “He’s 86 and the last eight years took their toll,” the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said Thursday. Benedict became pope in April 2005.
Vatican officials say that he is not suffering from any specific illness and that his decline is linked to his age. Benedict will live at the monastery with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is also the prefect of the pontifical household, and the four women of the Memores Domini Lay Association — an offshoot of the Communion and Liberation movement — who have been part of the papal household for years, cleaning and cooking the pope’s meals.
“He’s 86 and the last eight years took their toll,” the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said Thursday. In the past, the pontifical household included a vast cast of characters that ministered to the pontiff, including barbers and official wine tasters, according to Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, a historian specializing in the history of the papacy. But more modern papacies have streamlined the retinue to a skeleton staff, often consisting of nuns.
Pope Francis still has no household staff, not even a personal butler. Since his election, he has declined to move into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, preferring to remain in the Casa Santa Marta, the modest Vatican City guesthouse where the cardinals stayed during the conclave.
“He likes to eat with others, so there’s no need for a butler,” said Father Benedettini. “He hasn’t shown any desire to change” his living conditions, he said.
The Mater Ecclesiae Monastery was restored for the pope emeritus’ arrival. The small cells were restructured to make them more comfortable, “though they are still quite small,” Father Benedettini said, and a room was transformed into a study where Benedict can receive guests. His piano was moved in, and his books and papers now fill the shelves of a library. A bedroom has been set aside for visits by the pope’s older brother, Georg Ratzinger, who is a priest and lives in Germany.
The Vatican covered the costs of the restoration, and will cover the pope emeritus’ living expenses, Father Benedettini said.
Nearly 20 years ago, Pope John Paul II designated the monastery as an international center “for contemplative life within the walls of Vatican City,” as it is described on a Vatican Web site.
Since then, four orders of nuns — the Poor Clares, the Carmelites, the Benedictines and most recently the Visitandines — have occupied the Mater Ecclesiae, praying for the pontiff, and the church, a task the pope emeritus has pledged to continue.
“It’s a very quiet place,” said Sister María Begonia Sancho Herreros, who lived in the convent until November, when renovations began. “It invites one to prayer.” The convent abuts the remains of the ninth-century walls that Pope Leo IV built to protect Vatican hill from the Saracens.
Sister Sancho Herreros lived there with six other members of the contemplative order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, founded in 1610 in France. “It was a time of grace,” she said of her three-year stay, during which the pope visited twice.
Like Benedict’s former apartment in the Apostolic Palace, the convent offers a breathtaking view of Michelangelo’s cupola at St. Peter’s Basilica. In the back, a massive baroque fountain provides a gurgling bass line to the chirping of the birds that make the gardens their home. They are the most common form of wildlife in a garden where many animals, including gazelles — imported by Leo XIII — once ran free.
After announcing his resignation on Feb. 11, Benedict said he would live his life out in the monastery, a recluse, yet unrestricted in his movements. Shielded by an evergreen hedge, the cloistered areas of the convent cannot be seen from those strolling along the avenues of the Vatican gardens.
Vatican officials have repeatedly tried to assuage concerns that Benedict could influence the new pope by his proximity. And they have dismissed the objections of those who have remarked on the dual role of Archbishop Gänswein, who lives with the pope emeritus as his secretary even as he juggles his day job as the prefect of the pontifical household, attending public outings with Francis.
Vatican journalists have reported that Francis will probably complete an encyclical that Benedict was working on when he retired, much like Benedict’s first encyclical was based on the writings of John Paul II.
But the rest is uncharted waters.
The retired pontiff and the reigning pope “have a relationship of friendship and respect,” said Father Benedettini. “'I think that there will be a certain amount of spontaneity.”