[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
male narrator: One of the most powerful men on Earth
holds a position that has existed
for nearly 2,000 years.
♪ ♪
As the world changes and faith evolves,
his authority remains.
What began with one apostle
has become 1.2 billion followers
under one man.
He is the head of the Catholic Church,
the pope,
and this is his path to power.
♪ ♪
In this episode,
what happens when the pope threatens
a 2,000-year-old tradition...
leaving two men at the helm of one divine office
for the first time in over 500 years?
♪ ♪
- We're following breaking news this morning.
Pope Benedict XVI has announced he is resigning.
- For the first time in 600 years,
a pope is retiring.
♪ ♪
- I was astonished when Benedict resigned.
It came completely out of the blue.
- Benedict's resignation was an amazing thing.
narrator: In the last 2,000 years,
only four other popes have resigned.
- [speaking Latin]
- It was wonderfully, comically announced.
He announced it at a papal audience in Latin,
and you had to see, all around the room,
anyone who understood what he was saying.
It was an astonishing thing to do.
- It raises so many questions.
You know, what happens now?
♪ ♪
narrator: Two weeks after Benedict XVI's resignation,
Pope Francis is elected,
and the papal crown is handed from one man to the other.
- We have two popes,
but only one is the pope.
The problem with having two popes
is that you have to decide who do you listen to?
- Benedict was 85 when he resigned.
He inherited the financial mess.
He inherited the mess of sexual abuse.
He inherited the administrative chaos.
Benedict resigned because he realized
that these problems were simply too great for him.
- It's not like other human institutions.
It's created, we believe, by God,
and this man is resigning from all of that.
That not what popes are supposed to do.
narrator: For 2,000 years,
the legacy of St. Peter has been a divine office
passed down from one pope to the next.
But can two men hold a legitimate claim
to one godly office?
[camera shutter clicks]
- It's left us with this situation
of a pope and an extra pope,
and that's always going to change
the nature of an institution.
Who's the real pope?
narrator: In 2013,
millions of people watch as Benedict XVI
peacefully hands the papacy over to Pope Francis.
But in the past,
two living men with claim to one legacy
has resulted in nothing but chaos.
- In the 10th and 11th centuries,
if you've got two popes, you've got two factions.
It's a-- an extraordinary episode.
♪ ♪
- Benedict IX was a teenager.
He was the most eligible member
of the powerful Roman family
that ruled the city of Rome.
They wanted him to be pope for their own financial gain,
their own territorial supremacy.
- The papacy was the legal center
of the Western world.
If a king needed a dispensation
to marry his brother's wife,
if people wanted to take possession of a local parish,
they would have to get permission, pay a fee.
At Rome, you are enormously powerful.
Immense responsibility.
narrator: But 19-year-old Benedict
has no interest in bureaucracy or public service.
♪ ♪
He is only interested in the privileges of power.
♪ ♪
- Benedict is someone who was clearly made pope
in order to enrich his family.
On the secular side,
not someone who had any sort of spiritual authority,
even spiritual training.
- Nepotism tended to produce
a group of wealthy parasites
who lived like grandees,
who were also clergy.
♪ ♪
- He was incompetent.
He was morally compromised in many ways.
- Benedict was up to his neck in robbery and murder.
He was using his position to gain wealth
at the expense of the people of Rome.
♪ ♪
narrator: By the year 1044,
the cardinals are fed up.
They decide the church needs
a real spiritual and political leader.
Something must be done.
♪ ♪
- The holiest priest in Rome came to him and said,
"You need to step down for the good of the church.
What can I give you?"
And made him some sort of offering.
- Benedict IX sold the papacy.
- Which, of course, is against the canons.
narrator: In the 11th century,
conclaves had not yet been invented.
Popes were often chosen by brute force
or nepotism.
- Buying church power was considered
one of the worst sins there was.
So the fact that he had actually sold the papacy
in return for money
was appalling to everyone.
♪ ♪
narrator: For the first time in recorded history,
a pope resigns in exchange for money,
which catapults the papacy
into the world of dirty politics.
- The papacy becomes a pawn
in the politics of central Italy.
narrator: But though the young pope
accepts the cardinal's bribe,
this will not be the last the world hears
of Benedict IX.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
narrator: In 1044,
after eight years of desecrating the papacy,
young Pope Benedict IX
accepts the cardinal's bribe to resign.
♪ ♪
- They ganged up together
and drove Benedict out of the city.
The Roman people picked a new pope,
and he took the name Sylvester III.
♪ ♪
narrator: Just weeks after
handing the papacy over to Sylvester,
the former Pope Benedict IX and his family decide
they want the throne back.
- And the awkward thing now is that there were two popes,
and both of them were claiming to be the heir of St. Peter.
Benedict, however, had a wealthier family
than Sylvester,
and so his family rallied behind him,
gave him an army.
He marched back into Rome,
and he drove Sylvester III out.
- You find yourself bewildered by this.
I mean, it's so far from the apostles
or how any Christian leader should be,
but that was the way the church was.
And it's about spiritual power
uncomfortably mixed with worldly power.
♪ ♪
narrator: Six months after accepting
the cardinal's bribe to resign,
Benedict IX is reinstated as pope.
♪ ♪
- Now their positions had reversed.
Benedict is in Rome,
and Sylvester III is in exile,
but they're both still claiming to be pope.
♪ ♪
- Benedict IX was the first pope that comes back,
and they have to decide, well, who's the real pope now?
narrator: With Rome's allegiances split
between Benedict and Sylvester,
the church faces a crisis of faith.
How does one decide who holds the legacy of St. Peter?
The Romans will not have long to figure it out.
♪ ♪
Only one month into Benedict IX's second papacy,
he complicates the matter even further.
- Benedict, then, in the way of impetuous young men--
he decided he didn't want to be pope anymore.
He'd had enough.
He wanted to get married.
♪ ♪
He handed the papacy over to his godfather,
and he became Pope Gregory VI.
♪ ♪
Then the really scandalous thing happened.
Benedict's lady love decided not to marry him after all,
and he decided he wanted the papacy back.
Gregory VI said, "No, I'm pope."
Sylvester III, who's still in the village outside,
probably said, "Don't forget about me."
So now we actually have three popes.
We have three popes,
and there is no one to declare
which one is the most legitimate.
narrator: Benedict's, Sylvester's,
and Gregory's factions
all fight in the streets of Rome
over who is the rightful heir to the papal throne,
and in the end,
Benedict IX's wealthy family
wins again.
♪ ♪
- Benedict was pope three times in the end.
♪ ♪
narrator: After Benedict's reign
sends the church into a tailspin,
the spiritual foundation of the papacy
has been shattered.
- All of this becomes a real problem for the church,
and you've got to sort that out.
narrator: In July of 1048,
Benedict IX is officially ousted
once and for all.
♪ ♪
The cardinals decide the fairest way
to consolidate papal power
is to ignore Sylvester
and Gregory's claims to the throne,
clear the decks,
and elect a new pope.
- One of the problems in the 11th century
was that there was no clear way of choosing a pope.
♪ ♪
It was a matter of, frequently,
murder...
♪ ♪
Bribery,
and also relationship.
The sons of popes sometimes became popes.
Choosing a pope, it's very confused,
and it's never a pretty sight.
- It's very clear that the office of the papacy
can belong to whoever has
the most military might to enforce it.
♪ ♪
narrator: The cardinals realize
they must solidify rules
for papal elections.
They convene in an effort
to solve this problem once and for all,
and the result
becomes one of the most iconic symbols of the papacy.
♪ ♪
- In the 12th century,
cardinals who were senior clergy in Rome
made what they called a college, and after that,
cardinals would choose a pope in public,
so that sort of regularized things,
but of course, you can always twist elections.
♪ ♪
narrator: After nearly 200 years
of corrupt public elections,
what is known today as the conclave is designed.
♪ ♪
The word "conclave,"
a Latin term meaning "with a key,"
signifies that the cardinals are locked in
to avoid the interference of outside politics.
As of 1274,
papal elections are held in secret.
- The cardinals would be cut off from the world,
enclosed, make their votes, vote again.
There would be that famous white smoke at the end.
♪ ♪
narrator: For the last 700 years,
papal elections have been held the same way.
Cardinals are locked in the Vatican
and vote again and again
until a 2/3 majority is achieved.
♪ ♪
- And each round of balloting is burned
so that nobody can see who voted for whom.
♪ ♪
That's what generates the smoke.
♪ ♪
narrator: In the Middle Ages,
cardinals added a damp straw
to the burning ballots
to create the black smoke,
signifying that no pope has been chosen.
The white smoke that hails a new pope
was made by burning the paper alone.
Today, chemical compounds are added to the ballots
to color the smoke.
♪ ♪
Modern conclaves usually only last for a few days...
♪ ♪
But in the 13th century,
they could go on for months.
♪ ♪
- In the 13th century, bribery would be involved,
the rivalries of kings.
People were basically stonewalling,
filibustering.
narrator: In 1292,
the cardinals assemble to elect a new pope,
but warring factions cannot reach the 2/3 majority,
and the conclave goes on for a full two years.
- Without the pope, Rome was a mess.
Marauders and robber gangs wanted to dominate the city
and to a great extent did
without the pope functioning as a--
as a sort of local king.
narrator: With Rome in shambles
and no end to the conclave in sight,
it looks as if the resignation of one teenage pope
may have unraveled St. Peter's legacy for good.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
narrator: In 1294, the cardinals are determined
to renew the spiritual supremacy of the papacy
by electing a pope through the proper channels.
♪ ♪
Warring factions are deadlocked,
which has left Rome without a leader
and in dire shape.
Frustrated by the delay and state of Rome,
a hermit monk named Pietro Angelerio
writes to the conclave.
- He was an example
of these kinds of crazy guys who live up a mountain
and live on beans,
and read nothing but the Gospel.
narrator: Angelerio warns the cardinals
that vengeance will fall on them
if they continue the stalemate.
Taking his letter as a divine sign,
the cardinals decide to elect him pope.
- In the 13th century, you had a great succession
of reforming popes.
Politicians thought that this is not how a pope should be.
So what they did was elect a pope
who was as unworldly as you could possibly hope for:
a hermit.
And they called him Celestine, the--
the heavenly one.
♪ ♪
- Celestine V does not want to be pope.
He'd rather be praying off alone by himself,
and he goes to do this papacy rather reluctantly.
- It's not super clear
that he even exactly knew what was going on.
It's not clear how sharp mentally he was.
- Celestine V was just hopeless.
He couldn't run the church at all.
narrator: After only five months in office,
Celestine V announces his retirement.
- And during that five months,
the French crown manipulated him
to get all sorts of concessions
and control over more power,
and the Roman contingent in the college of cardinals
became increasingly alarmed.
He was helped to retire by his successor,
who was a pro-Roman pope,
Boniface VIII.
It was said that he whispered through a hole
in the pope's cell where he prayed,
and that he said he was the voice of God
and told the pope to resign
so that he could be elected pope in his stead.
- He made a vow to become a monk
and simply living in retirement
for the good of his health,
the only pope who ever voluntarily did
before Benedict XVI.
- A couple of years before Pope Benedict XVI resigns,
Pope Benedict took a trip,
and he laid his pallium
on the grave of Celestine V.
People didn't know it at the time,
but that might have been a signal,
because a year and a half later,
he too would resign his papacy.
narrator: But despite the peaceful nature
in which Celestine V resigns,
and because of the violence and instability
surrounding the resignation of Benedict IX
250 years earlier,
the new pope must make sure
that Celestine is never heard from again.
♪ ♪
- After Celestine retired and Boniface became the pope,
he felt that it was dangerous to have two living popes.
- You can't have another pope knocking about
and threatening the pope.
[horse neighing]
- [grunts]
narrator: Immediately after
Celestine leaves the Vatican,
Boniface has him attacked
and locked up.
♪ ♪
- He didn't want Celestine talking to anybody.
He didn't want him to be able
to communicate with his supporters,
so essentially put him under house arrest
in order to protect his own legitimacy as pope.
- And so Celestine dies in captivity.
♪ ♪
narrator: In the 13th century, however,
a retired pope is not the only threat
to a sitting pope's power.
In a time when the lines
between church and state are fluid,
kings are just as threatening to papal power
as previous popes.
- There was always a bit of a problem
as to who was in charge.
Was it the king,
or was it the pope?
♪ ♪
- So much of the maneuvering and back-and-forthing
and jousting that goes on with the papacy
has to do with the fact that it was in Italy.
Italy is not a country yet.
Italy is basically up for grabs.
The Normans grab part of it.
The Franks grab part of it.
The Germans grab part of it.
Italy is always contested,
so if you're gonna control any major part of Italy,
you have to get the pope on your side.
♪ ♪
- You want to raise an army?
You need the pope's blessing.
narrator: Because of the volatile nature
of medieval European politics,
the papacy becomes dependent on the surrounding monarchies
for stability, and vice versa.
- The pope didn't have an army.
He didn't have anything other than moral persuasion
on his side,
and so what we see the early popes doing
are making these alliances with different secular leaders.
♪ ♪
narrator: At the end of the 13th century,
the most powerful monarch in Europe
is King Philip IV of France.
He had manipulated Pope Celestine
into siphoning him church money and land.
But after Celestine's resignation,
the new pope Boniface VIII
is not so easily manipulated.
- When Boniface VIII became pope,
he saw the French influence as something that had gone
way, way out of bounds,
and so he positioned himself essentially
as the anti-France pope.
So Philip IV and Boniface
had this very real clash of powers.
Boniface began to generate
some very, very harsh language
about the power of the papacy.
Here's a letter that he wrote to Philip IV of France.
He said, "Listen, son."
Literally, that's how he begins it.
"Son,
"God has set us over kings and kingdoms.
Let no one persuade you that you have superiority."
So it is this very explicit language
that says, the pope has control over the king.
narrator: But King Philip has an agenda,
and he does not intend to let one insubordinate pope
stand in his way.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
narrator: After the resignation
of his puppet Pope Celestine V in 1294,
King Philip IV of France is determined
to reassert his power over the papacy.
But the new pope Boniface VIII
refuses to give in to the greedy monarch.
♪ ♪
- Philip IV comes to the throne
at a time in which warfare is being fought
by purchasing armies,
and he, like other monarchs,
needs more and more money.
- And the church is very wealthy.
♪ ♪
narrator: So when Boniface dies,
King Philip ensures that a pope
who will give him what he wants
is elected.
- He expressed very clearly to the college of cardinals
that he preferred this particular French candidate.
♪ ♪
It wasn't an easy election...
But ultimately the French side was strong enough to win.
- A French prelate who takes the name Clement V
becomes the pope.
♪ ♪
Philip actually asks them to come to France
to crown him pope.
♪ ♪
- The popes, of course, had been appointed in Rome
from the time of St. Peter.
- King Philip of France has a very powerful hold
on Pope Clement V.
This is a weak man,
and he's intimidated by Philip.
- Clement's just notorious.
He just did whatever he was asked.
Clement V actually promised Philip
a flat-out portion of the church tithe,
that it just went straight into the royal coffers.
He also signed off on the expulsion of Jews
as a danger to the church,
in knowledge that the wealth
was going to go to Philip.
That's very blatant.
♪ ♪
narrator: By 1309,
King Philip has turned Pope Clement V
into a pawn of the French crown,
and in an attempt to solidify his power over the church,
the French king lays the groundwork
for what will be the papacy's most notorious resignation
by undermining its very foundation.
♪ ♪
- Peter is buried on the Vatican hill,
and St. Peter's Basilica is built over his tomb.
♪ ♪
Popes are seen as inheriting that charisma
and that role,
standing in for the apostle.
His tomb is the foundation charter for the papacy.
♪ ♪
narrator: But King Philip demands that Pope Clement
leave the legacy of St. Peter in Rome
and move the papacy to operate under his thumb
in France.
♪ ♪
- The pope eventually will end up
setting up quarters at Avignon.
♪ ♪
- Rather than being in a landscape
where the pope could actually act
as an independent power
and make alliances with anyone that he chose,
he was now firmly entrenched in one country,
clearly under the control of one king.
That was what warped the papacy.
It's a little bit as though Washington, D.C.
suddenly upped and said,
"Well, now Manhattan is gonna be the capital
of the entire United States."
narrator: For the first time
since the invention of the conclave,
the one with true power over the church
is not the one chosen by God
but a power-hungry monarch instead.
- It's the dream of all the great rulers
of medieval Europe to control the papacy.
Philip actually got the papacy into France.
Once you've done that,
the pope can become a puppet
of what you want to get done.
♪ ♪
- That is a moment for the church
that becomes very troubling.
You're abdicating the seat
of where the church is supposed to lie.
You leave the bones of Peter behind,
and you're not moving them.
You're moving to this other place.
What you're saying is, is that maybe
this isn't as important to the church
as we have thought it was previously.
And that becomes a really dangerous situation
for holding together not just the papacy
but holding together beliefs and tenets of the church.
narrator: Leaving Rome costs the papacy
its religious authority throughout Europe.
♪ ♪
But once the church becomes established in France,
Pope Clement V finds that despite
being hundreds of miles from the bones of St. Peter,
there are certain benefits to the new location.
- It was very clearly a time
when they had given up their spiritual authority
in order to enjoy material prosperity.
The college of cardinals,
which also became centered at Avignon after this,
was absolutely notorious for luxurious living
and for having banquets that went on for days
and for spending church money
in order to take care of themselves.
- But the Avignon papacy worked.
It's in southern France.
It's much more central to Europe
than the Italian peninsula.
It was efficient. It had a decent bureaucracy.
There was actually a good case for the Avignon papacy.
Big problem, though:
it doesn't have the tomb of Peter,
and what's the point of a pope
who doesn't sit at the tomb of Peter?
♪ ♪
narrator: Despite being miles
from the spiritual foundation of the papacy,
Pope Clement V remains in France
and continues to lead the church under King Philip
until they both die in 1314.
♪ ♪
His successor continues his papacy in Avignon,
as does the pope after him.
- The papacy was more or less captured
by the king of France.
For a long period of time,
it was completely the instrument
of the French crown,
and almost every cardinal who was appointed
to the college of cardinals during this time
was French.
narrator: By 1347,
it appears that the papacy has become
an arm of the French crown for good.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
narrator: In the mid-1360s,
the papacy has left Rome
and been operating in Avignon, France,
for almost 60 years.
♪ ♪
At this point, the cardinals are almost all French
and have become accustomed to the luxurious lifestyle
afforded to them as a thank-you
for the church's loyalty to the French crown.
But outside the walls of the lush papal castle...
♪ ♪
The rest of Europe is a wasteland,
setting the stage for what will be
the last papal resignation for 600 years.
- The black death.
This contagious, dreadful disease
devastated Europe.
♪ ♪
- Pretty much the entire population was wiped out.
♪ ♪
narrator: In the wake of the plague,
the papacy is forced to reevaluate its role in Europe
and face dire conditions in the city it abandoned.
♪ ♪
- With the absence of the papacy from Rome,
the upkeep of the city began to fail.
A great deal of the upkeep of Rome
came out of the pope's coffers.
Now this was all going to France.
Law and order became very, very shaky.
You have a rise in pickpockets and muggings,
because there is no king in Rome,
there is no emperor in Rome,
and now there's no pope in Rome.
- The Romans learned, somewhat reluctantly,
that the city depended on the presence of the papacy
to flourish,
to become anything more than just a bit of a wreck.
narrator: Fed up with the sheltered confines
of Avignon,
Pope Urban V decides
that the papacy has lost sight of its spiritual purpose
and must return to the bones of St. Peter in Rome.
♪ ♪
- Urban V, a reform-minded pope,
is appalled by the luxury.
He was appalled
by the self-indulgence in Avignon.
He announced to the cardinals
that they could only have one course at dinner
rather than their usual ten-course banquet.
And it had increasingly become clear
that as long as the papacy
was tied to the fortunes of any country
that the ability to act as a spiritual leader
would be seriously compromised.
He was convicted that the papacy needed
to return to its home in Rome...
But it's not an easy transition.
♪ ♪
narrator: The cardinals, who had become
used to their indulgent lifestyle in Avignon,
did not appreciate the rundown conditions
of the fallen city.
But Pope Urban V and his successor,
another Frenchman, Gregory XI,
remained firm in their spiritual conviction
that the papacy belongs at the tomb of St. Peter.
- There is a lot of resentment
about their having to sort of come down in the world,
which I think just shows
what a cushioned, isolated existence
they were living in Avignon.
That you have a Europe that's been devastated by the plague,
that the entire social structure
of Europe has changed,
that in some places
90% of the population has died,
but the primary concern of the college of cardinals
is that they're not getting enough courses for dinner.
So you definitely have a sense in which
during the Avignon papacy,
it has gotten so out of touch
with what the church is supposed to be doing.
narrator: When Pope Gregory XI dies in 1378,
many of the cardinals prepare to move back to Avignon,
but the frustrated Romans call for a sign
that the papacy has freed itself from the French crown
and will return to the principles of the church
they once knew.
♪ ♪
- The Roman population, who were always very volatile
and who regularly intervened in papal elections,
after a long string of French popes,
were determined to have an Italian pope.
narrator: The conclave of 1378
is met with angry mobs of Romans
chanting outside the Vatican,
demanding a renewed papal investment
in their beloved city.
And though the cardinals miss
their extravagant French lifestyle,
they worry what might happen
if the Romans' demands are not met.
- And so an Italian pope, Urban VI, was elected.
♪ ♪
But he seems to have been unhinged
by becoming the pope.
Instantly reveals himself to be a megalomaniac,
locking up people who didn't agree with him,
so instead of being a unifying figure,
he becomes a symbol of division.
♪ ♪
narrator: Half of the cardinals stand behind
the maniacal Pope Urban VI in Rome...
♪ ♪
While the other half panic and flee back to Avignon,
where they elect another pope,
Clement VII.
♪ ♪
The once-universal church is now split.
♪ ♪
Catholics are torn between two different popes
running two functioning church bureaucracies
from two different places.
♪ ♪
- There was an election of a pope,
and some people didn't like that election,
so some people say,
"We're gonna set up a church someplace else."
And so this becomes a very big battle.
- So in solving one problem,
getting the pope back to Rome,
you've created a much worse one.
- We went through a long period
when there were always at least two different people
claiming to be pope.
narrator: This unprecedented break in the church
is what Catholics refer to as the Western schism.
- You've got popes saying, "I am pope,"
and some popes are classed as antipopes,
because other people don't recognize them,
but who is the antipope?
Who is the real pope?
♪ ♪
narrator: For nearly 40 years,
the church is divided.
And Catholics are forced to choose
the true heir to St. Peter's legacy.
♪ ♪
- Where is the place that we are centered?
That needs to flow from the pope.
What do you do if you have two popes?
Then it becomes a real problem for the church,
and you've got to sort that out.
♪ ♪
- This schism made a mockery of the whole idea of the pope
and the vicar of Christ
being the successor of Peter.
narrator: If there is one St. Peter,
he can only have one legacy,
held by only one man.
Two popes become a clear sign
that the spiritual source of papal power
has been abandoned.
- Having two popes is impossible.
It's shattering for Christendom.
Reformers say, "We've got to do something about this."
narrator: With the future of the church
hanging in the balance,
in 1415,
cardinals on both sides look for a solution.
- They convene a general council at Constance,
and the popes involved are summoned
and either deposed or invited to resign.
♪ ♪
narrator: Both the Roman pope Gregory XII
and the Avignon pope Benedict XII
are forced to resign.
♪ ♪
In 1415,
Pope Gregory XII will be the last pope
to leave the office alive...
until 2013,
when Pope Benedict XVI
makes a shocking announcement.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- The last time a pope resigned
happened just about 600 years ago.
That would be Pope Gregory XII
back in 1415.
♪ ♪
narrator: Throughout the history
of the Catholic Church,
only four popes have ever resigned,
and Pope Benedict XVI
is the only one who has ever done it peacefully
and of his own volition.
♪ ♪
But what does it mean to have two living popes?
How can two men hold one legacy of St. Peter?
♪ ♪
[bell tolling]
♪ ♪
- Everyone was surprised.
Catholics were surprised. Non-Catholics were surprised.
It was a strong contrast to John Paul II,
who insisted on remaining pope
until his dying gasp.
narrator: In 2005,
after reigning for 27 years,
Pope John Paul II passed away
after a long and public battle with Parkinson's disease.
- In a way, the act of resignation
was a devastating comment
on the last five or six years of his predecessor.
[cheers and applause]
A flight in the face
of the whole theology of the papacy
as it had evolved in modern times,
the notion that John Paul had propagated
that the papacy was a cross
which was laid on your shoulders,
and you could not shake it off.
Benedict said, "Well, it's a job,
"and if you can't do it,
you should let somebody else try."
narrator: By resigning in the face of old age,
Pope Benedict XVI has made a clear statement
about the divinity of the papal office.
- But I think that was a reminder to everybody
in any position of authority or power,
that it's not just about me.
It's actually about,
am I being effective?
Am I really serving the community
and serving the church properly?
- What Benedict did in resigning
was to make it easier for successive popes
to be able to say, "I'm 80 years old.
"I'm not gonna stay
until I fall down dead in this office."
That's thinking more like a CEO than anything else.
- Alighting from the helicopter,
Francis thanks the pilots,
then, seeing his predecessor,
goes toward him to embrace him.
This is a historic moment.
- There's not any kind of precedent
for Benedict's resignation.
He really did do it voluntarily
and of his own behalf.
♪ ♪
narrator: Today, Pope Benedict XVI
lives in a quiet apartment in the Vatican.
He has passed the holy office
peacefully down to Pope Francis,
leaving the power struggles of the past behind.
- The biggest gift that ever happened to the papacy
is Pope Benedict XVI resigning,
because he allowed the papacy not to become a trap.
♪ ♪
- In terms of looking to the future,
as any pope begins to get older
or begins to have any difficulties,
the question of resignation
will be on the horizon.
♪ ♪
- Francis has also talked about resigning,
and one, you don't know how serious he is.
He's a mischievous man,
and he's got an agenda,
and he's an old man,
and I think he'll want to see that agenda out first.
But it may be that he has learned the lesson
of watching John Paul II collapse into helplessness.
It would be very interesting if popes now said,
"Right, I've done my bit.
Someone else can have a go."
♪ ♪
narrator: In announcing his voluntary retirement,
Pope Benedict has shaken the foundation of the papacy.
If Pope Francis retires as well,
a 2,000-year-old institution
could be fundamentally changed forever.
♪ ♪