2013-02-11 · Vatican City
Pope Benedict XVI Resigns
On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation from the papacy, becoming the first pope to voluntarily resign in nearly six hundred years and opening the way for the election of Pope Francis.
Nobody saw it coming. On the morning of February 11, 2013, Benedict XVI addressed a routine consistory of cardinals in Latin and calmly announced that he was resigning the papacy, effective February 28. Several cardinals present did not immediately understand what he had said. When the news spread, the shock was global. Popes did not resign. The last voluntary papal resignation had been Celestine V in 1294, and he had been a reluctant pope pressured into the job. Gregory XII's resignation in 1415 had been part of a negotiated solution to the Western Schism. Benedict's situation was different. He was 85, visibly frail, and said plainly that he no longer had the physical and mental strength to govern the Church. He had examined his conscience and concluded that the job required energy he could no longer provide. The resignation was entirely voluntary and, as Benedict stressed, entirely valid under canon law. What followed was unprecedented in the modern era. Benedict left the Vatican by helicopter on February 28. The cardinals gathered for a conclave and on March 13 elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, and the first to take the name Francis. For the remaining years of Benedict's life — he died on December 31, 2022 — the Church had both a reigning pope and a retired one, a situation that canon lawyers and theologians had to navigate in real time. Benedict's decision changed expectations about the papacy. He demonstrated that the office is not a life sentence and that stepping aside when age or health makes effective governance impossible is an act of responsibility, not weakness.
Why it matters
First voluntary papal resignation in nearly six hundred years, changing expectations about the papacy and opening the way for the election of Pope Francis.
What Happened
On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced in Latin to a consistory of cardinals that he would resign the papacy effective February 28. He cited declining physical and mental strength. On February 28 he left the Vatican by helicopter. The subsequent conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013. Benedict lived quietly as pope emeritus until his death on December 31, 2022.
Why It Still Matters
Benedict's resignation shattered the assumption that the papacy is necessarily a lifetime appointment. While canon law had always permitted resignation, no pope in the modern era had exercised that option. Benedict's decision was an act of humility — he recognized his limitations and put the needs of the Church above personal prestige. It also created the novel situation of a pope and a pope emeritus coexisting, a circumstance the Church had to manage for nearly a decade.