Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto

Like so many others, I am stunned and grieving. I was baptized in 2005 just a month before Pope Benedict’s election, and his hand on the tiller is the only one I’ve really known.

We can but pray. Francine and I are beginning the Camino de Santiago shortly after Easter, and I will now offer it for the intentions of two Popes.

Here is the abdication pronouncement as the Holy Father gave it, in Latin.

Most of the Cardinals in the room do not speak Latin, to the shame of the Church, and did not understand what was happening until the Italian translation was given them.

He sounds so very tired.

Let us pray for the Pope.