Archbishop Vigneron reacts to Pope Benedicts resignation

As news reports have indicated, Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign at the end of February. Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron has offered the following statement in regards to this unexpected development:

"Like most of my fellow-Catholics I woke this morning to the very surprising news that Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is resigning his service as the successor of St. Peter. Quickly after the surprise followed sadness, a sense of grief at losing his fatherly care for all us, bishops, clergy, and faithful. We have come to love him very much and will miss him.

"Most of us know in our own personal lives what it means to see a parent grow old and decline in ability. That is the sense we bring to this announcement. Our spiritual father has determined, by the best light given to him in prayer, that for the good of us all he must lay down his office.

"It was with the support of our daily prayers that Pope Benedict passed his years in the Chair of Peter and has come to this point. I invite all Catholics to pray all the more ardently for the Holy Father Pope Benedict, that God sustain him in these last weeks of his papacy and guide him through what lies ahead. And we look to the future with confidence, that the Lord who has given us this great pope and loving father, will give us a new shepherd of equal merit."

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron
Archbishop of Detroit
11 February 2013

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Audio clips from the archbishop's press conference on Feb. 11, 2013

Following the announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation at the end of the month, Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron offered comments and answered questions about the pope, what he has meant to the Church, and the impact of his announcement. The following are audio sound bites from the archbishop’s press conference the morning of Feb. 11 at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit: