Daily Lessons from Life 26 February 2013 - Ex-pope will have 'pontiff emeritus' title: Vatican

"Ex-pope will have 'pontiff emeritus' title: Vatican - AFP Feb 26, 2013
 
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI will have the official title of "pontiff emeritus" after he resigns on Thursday - the first leader of the Catholic Church to do so since the Middle Ages, the Vatican said.

Benedict can still be addressed as "Your Holiness Benedict XVI" and will have the title of "Roman Pontiff Emeritus", spokesman Federico Lombardi told the Vatican press corps on Tuesday.

Benedict can also still wear a white cassock normally reserved only for pontiffs and will continue using the shoes given to him by artisans in Mexico during a trip last year, Lombardi said.

The Vatican spokesman also said that a series of meetings of cardinals to settle on a date for the start of a conclave to elect Benedict's successor could start on Monday, March 4.

Lombardi said the pope had already sorted between the official documents from his papacy that will remain in the Vatican and personal notes that he will take with him into retirement.

Benedict holds a final general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday before he officially steps down at 1900 GMT on Thursday."

What is in a title?

Lessons for me are:

1. religions that have hierarchy and strict dress codes and what not are a mystery to me. All the rituals and what not makes the God or Gods so like human ritual and hierarchy;

2. the faith I seek is: as best as you can, do no evil act against fellow human being. 'Trying' is the key word. Keep trying. And it you failed, you have to take responsibility for it;

3. of course, most human beings turn to religions as they offer something more than the hierarchy and the rituals, that are mostly designed or created by human beings. Some looks for eternal life after this one. Some looks for enlightenment to be like the deities that they worshipped. Some just want to be not human like. Human who has no earthly attachments, no emotional, no feeling by choice though many professed a caring heart for fellow human beings.

May he lives well with or without the 'special title'. As a religious man, he should be able to without any title!