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Bishop Howard J. Hubbard received three phone calls in quick succession the morning of Feb. 11 before he'd even left for work. The first was at 7 a.m. from Rev. Michael Farano, diocesan vicar general and moderator of the curia, to alert the Bishop to the startling news that Pope Benedict XVI had just announced he was resigning.

Rev. Kenneth Doyle, diocesan chancellor for public information, and communications director Kenneth Goldfarb called next. By mid-afternoon, Bishop Hubbard had done five interviews with local media on his reaction to the news.

While the pope's decision to step down from the papacy was somewhat unexpected, the Bishop said, "When I saw him [during] my ad limina visit to Rome in November [2011], I was surprised at how he'd aged. I was [back] there for the beatification of St. Kateri Tekakwitha last October, and I was struck by how feeble he seemed. There was a point where he had to make his way to the altar by foot, and he had people on either side of him pretty much holding him up."

Suffering popes
During the lengthy pontificate - and illness - of Pope Benedict's predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II, there were rumors that the pope was going to retire. Bishop Hubbard pointed out that the Church's Code of Canon Law had been revised in the 1980s to allow for that, but Pope John Paul chose to die in office rather than resigning.

"I don't think there's any right or wrong way" to conclude a papacy, said Bishop Hubbard. "John Paul II wanted to witness to the dignity involved in the decline of age, and how to handle the redemptive suffering of Jesus. He thought that was part of the witness he was offering to the world. On the other hand, there is a great dignity to what Benedict has done."

Pope Benedict has realized he does not have the vigor and vitality necessary to fulfill his duties as pope, said the Bishop, and "has the selflessness and humility to make that decision" to resign.

Looking back on his interactions with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before the pontiff was elected in 2005, the Bishop remembered meeting him several times during visits to Rome while the future pope headed the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Warm and gracious
"His would be the congregational visit you didn't want to miss," Bishop Hubbard remarked. "He was warm, gracious, fluent in English - and more interested in what you had to say than what he had to say.

"That's not always the case" in meetings with other Vatican officials, the Bishop added. Even if Cardinal Ratzinger had specific issues he wanted to discuss, "it was not that he wanted to give you the answers to issues. He wanted your insights from your local pastoral experience."

As pope for eight years, Benedict has outlasted initial predictions that he would be a "transitional" leader for the Church, serving as pope for only a brief period because of his age. He was 78 when he became pope. The Bishop compared him to Pope John XXIII, who was also in his 70s when elected, but still "opened the windows of the Church" by convening the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. That council made major changes to the Church, most notably the switch from using Latin to the vernacular at Masses.

Both John XXIII and Benedict "surprised people with their vision," Bishop Hubbard said. Pope Benedict became a "scholar pope," he said, writing encyclicals on charity and hope and penning a trio of books on the life of Christ - "legacies that will last far beyond his lifetime."

Benedict's emphasis on the new evangelization will continue to affect the Church and even other faiths well into the 21st century, the Bishop said.

Moreover, said Bishop Hubbard, Pope Benedict could well be called the first environmental pope for his frequent talks on the dangers of global warming and the need for the international community to address the issue constructively as part of respect for the whole of creation.

"In his peace pastorals, he sought to ensure that conflicts between nations were resolved through diplomacy. I hope his exhortation in this regard will be heeded by the governmental leaders of the world," the Bishop added.

Addressing abuse
Though critics have decried the pope's handling of the Church's sexual abuse crisis, Bishop Hubbard noted that, even before his papacy, Benedict shored up Church procedures to prevent clergy sexual abuse of minors and to remove offending priests from ministry, and has consistently encouraged bishops' conferences to "develop guidelines that would have teeth to address the issue."

The pope also met with victims of clergy sexual abuse both in the U.S. and abroad. His 2008 meeting in Boston with five such victims left them "deeply moved," the Bishop recalled, and left the pope having "learned from what they had to say about how traumatized they were [by] such reprehensible behavior."

Wise decision
Until now, only two popes have resigned in the recorded history of the Church: Pope Celestine V, who freely stepped down in the year 1294; and Pope Gregory XII, who was pressured into resigning in 1415 to help end a schism in the Church.

Bishop Hubbard called Pope Benedict's decision to resign a "wise precedent. People today are living longer, but it doesn't mean their faculties are as keen as they age."

According to the Bishop, Pope Benedict's plan to spend some time at the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, located outside of Rome, indicates that he has no desire to have any direct influence on the conclave of cardinals that will elect his successor in March.

However, the Bishop noted, Benedict's influence will still be felt, since he named so many of the electors. Bishop Hubbard asked for "prayers for Benedict as he makes his transition, and for the College of Cardinals as they elect his successor.

"This is a critical time in the life of the Church," the Bishop told The Evangelist, reflecting on the toll that secularism, consumerism and moral relativism have taken on the Church. "Hopefully, we will have a leader with the spirit, vision and determination to bring about the new evangelization."

As for the kind of pope the Church needs today, Bishop Hubbard said the "prime ingredient" for a successor to the chair of St. Peter is that the pontiff is "a holy and prayerful man.

"We also need a man who will give flesh and blood to the concept of collegiality enshrined in the Second Vatican Council, which I feel has not been utilized to its full potential," the Bishop stated. He cited as one example Vatican II's vision for bishops' synods: Meant to bring together bishops throughout the world to address issues facing the Church, they have evolved instead to "the pope himself promulgating what is to be said on a particular topic before the synod."

Bishop Hubbard hopes for a successor who will "develop mechanisms that will provide him with ample input" from bishops, clergy, religious and laity throughout the world on issues of concern to the Church.

Who's next?
Musing on possible candidates to succeed Pope Benedict, the Bishop said a successor may well be a non-European pope. He would like to see someone from Africa or Latin America as the next pontiff, and particularly named Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who studied at St. Anthony-on-Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer.

Cardinal Turkson has other connections to the Albany Diocese, too: He is a childhood friend of Rev. Kofi Ntsiful-Amissah of the Diocese's Black Apostolate, who is pastor of St. Joan of Arc parish in Menands. In recent years, the cardinal has also been featured in The Evangelist for his work with Medicus Christi, a local group striving to create an orthopedic surgery center in Ghana (read stories at www.evangelist.org).

"If Cardinal Turkson were considered, that would be a great gift to the Church," Bishop Hubbard said, lauding the cardinal's background in biblical studies, his leadership of the largest see in Ghana and his recent work with the Vatican's Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace: "Those are gifts you'd like to see in someone sitting in the chair of Peter."

Other possible candidates the Bishop has heard mentioned include Cardinals Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, Angelo Scola of Milan, Gianfranco Ravasi of the Pontifical Council for Culture and Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras - but Bishop Hubbard doubts that Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the New York Archdiocese is a serious candidate.

"I very much admire Cardinal Dolan and I think he'd do a wonderful job, but the common wisdom is that it's highly unlikely" the next pope would hail from a global superpower, the Bishop observed.

Local effects
As Bishop Hubbard himself heads toward retirement - he must submit his resignation to the Vatican in October, when he turns 75, the mandatory retirement age for bishops - his own future may be affected by the election of a new pope. (He noted that a different pope may also affect the choice of the next bishop for the Albany Diocese.)

Usually, a bishop submits his resignation and it's accepted but not implemented until a new bishop is named for the diocese. But since several U.S. dioceses are already awaiting new bishops, a change in popes "will probably slow down the process," the Bishop explained.

Technically, a successor to Pope Benedict doesn't have to be a cardinal. Bishop Hubbard joked that "I've been trying to get someone to second my nomination, but I couldn't find anybody."

More seriously, he hopes that local Catholics are "giving thanks for the gifts Benedict brought and praying fervently for a wise and caring shepherd" to succeed him.[[In-content Ad]]

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