The Pope Who Inspired Pope Benedict’s Resignation

benedict-celestine — Pope Benedict's resignation is patterned after that of St. Celestine V. Here Pope Benedict visits the relics of St. Celestine V.

There haven’t been that many popes who have resigned, and none of them offer an exact parallel to the case of Pope Benedict.

However, there is one pope–St. Celestine V–who is by far the closest parallel.

Who was he? Why did he resign? And what does his strange case tell us about Pope Benedict’s decision to resign?

In this episode, Dr. Andrew Jones and I discuss the most recent papal resignations, including that of St. Celestine V.

We comment on how Pope Benedict is modeling his resignation after that of Celestine V and what light this sheds on Pope Benedict’s thinking.

We also discuss what this means for the future and why Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation may be as momentous an event in the history of the Church as the development of the conclave.

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