“Pope Benedict XVI announcing his resignation on Monday at the Vatican.
At left is Msgr. Franco Camaldo, a papal aide.”
Photo credit: >L’Osservatore Romano, via Associated Press in The New York Times

JZ suggests that RSE students be aware of potential other reasons Pope Benedict resigned in such haste, with only 2 1/2 weeks notice provided. The issue is clear that his age was far from the factor in his resignation. After all, he was already 78 years of age when elected Pope in 2005 and knew about his elevated age when he allowed his name to be submitted then.
JZ added, “He [Pope Benedict] is quitting due to pressure from the worldwide sexual abuse scandal by priests and their subsequent coverup by The Vatican. Ratzinger has held the office and known about of all these cases! And more!”

– “Pope’s sudden resignation sends shockwaves through Church”
“Pope Benedict stunned the Roman Catholic Church on Monday [February 11, 2013] when he announced he would stand down, the first pope to do so in 700 years, saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to carry on,” quoting Reuters.
Read more

– “Pope Gregory XII, the last pope to resign, stepped down amid the Great Western Schism in 1415”
“Gregory XII was elected to pope by cardinals in Rome in 1405 and stepped down a decade later in order to resolve a conflict that saw three men claiming to be the leader of the Catholic Church,” by Philip Caulfield, New York Daily News.
Read more

– International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) issues legal advisory against Pope in January, 2011:
“Two of the main practitioners of this genocide of the innocent – the Vatican and the Crown of England – are effectively immune from prosecution under existing laws and customs.
It is therefore incumbent upon all citizens to take action to safeguard their children in the face of the refusal of courts and governments to bring to justice those who threaten public safety and wellbeing.

On this basis, our Tribunal has been established to enforce common law and try and convict the institutions and their officers responsible for such historic and ongoing crimes against humanity.
We therefore constitute a de jure Court under common law, with full power of arrest, conviction and enforcement.
We have issued a Public Summons to Joseph Ratzinger (aka “Pope Benedict”) and six senior cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, inc. to appear before our opening session on September 12, 2011 in London.
A similar Summons will be delivered to other church and state officials in the coming months.

Our Court and tribunal derive their ultimate authority from the self-evident Natural Law which resides within the reason and compassion of every man and woman, and from the Common Law right of the informed citizenry to establish their own Courts, Policing and Laws when normal institutions fail or refuse to uphold the liberty, rights, safety and well being of the community.
Issued by the Legal Advisory Committee of the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State – January 3, 2011”
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– “Roman Church admits the Pope’s Guilt: Joseph Ratzinger to Evade Justice and Hide out in the Vatican for his own legal immunity and ‘protection'”
Read more from the ITCCS, February 16, 2013.

– Two years ago, on February 14, 2011, criminal charges WERE brought before the The International Criminal Court in The Haag, Netherlands against Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
Read more from that document.

– “Lightning strikes St Peter’s dome at the Vatican on February 11, 2013”
on the day Pope Benedict resigns.
Click here to see the photo from the Washington Post.
Click here for The Weather Channel video.

– “Lightning bolt hit Vatican not once but TWICE hours after Pope’s shock resignation”
Read more from UK’s Mirror.

– “Was Pope Benedict fired by the Knights of Malta?”
“Popes don’t resign. They get fired”
Read more
from Veterans Today, by Kevin Barrett.

– “Pope Names German Industrialist to Head Vatican Bank”
“Vatican experts said that the choice of Mr. von Freyberg was a sign of the waning influence of Italian and American banks in the Vatican’s finances and the rising power of German banks.

‘In this case, the Knights of Malta beat out the Knights of Columbus,’ said Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican expert for the Italian newsweekly Panorama, referring to Mr. von Freyberg and Carl Anderson, the head of the Knights of Columbus, an American Catholic organization, who also serves on the board of the Vatican Bank.

‘This is the last stroke of a power struggle,’ he added,” quoting Rachel Donadio in The New York Times.
Read more

– Month-long “credit card ban lifted in Vatican” on day after Pope resigns
From Wanted in Rome.
Read more

– Pope to receive legal immunity from allegations
“Vatican officials and legal experts say that Benedict’s choice of long-term residence will allow him to maintain his private police detail. He’ll enjoy legal immunity from allegations that might be lodged, related to the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church.”
Read more from MSN and Reuters.

– Pope resigns 365 days after assassination potential released by a Cardinal
“A senior Vatican cardinal has sensationally claimed Pope Benedict XVI could be ‘the victim of an assassination plot’ within the next 12 months, it emerged today [Feb 10, 2012].

Cardinal Paolo Romeo is said to have revealed the details while on a visit to China and that another cardinal who was told of the comments, then submitted a top secret report to the Vatican Secretary of State.
Read more from Nick Pisa in UK’s Daily Mail.

– “Pope Benedict XVI’s leaked documents show fractured Vatican full of rivalries”
“There was no such confusion within Vatican walls. Benedict had installed Viganò to enact a series of reforms within the Vatican. But some of Rome’s highest-ranking cardinals undercut the efforts and hastened Viganò’s exile to the United States,” by Jason Horowitz, the Washington Post.
Read more

– “German calendar might have freakishly predicted Pope’s resignation”
Read more of the Sunday, February 10, 2013 story on MSN.

– “Vatican scandal cited in Pope resignation”
“Pope Benedict XVI resigned after an internal investigation informed him about a web of blackmail,
corruption and gay sex in the Vatican, Italian media reports say, quoting the Sydney Morning Herald.
Read more

– UPDATE: February 5, 2014
“U.N. Report: Vatican Policies Allowed Priests To Rape Children”
By Alexander Smith, NBC News.
Read more