New Hyde Park residents were stunned along with the rest of world by the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI would step down at the end of February.
The announcement came in Rome from the ailing pontiff, who has been in deteriorating health, and indicated he is too sick to carry on his duties.
It will be the first time in 600 years that a sitting Pope has abdicated the Throne of St. Peter.
“Thank God!” Carmela Aloe wrote on the New Hyde Park Patch Facebook page, “He doesn't have people skills, all he has is business skills which doesn't work if your always in the eye of the public.”
Calls to Holy Spirit Church and Notre Dame Church in New Hyde Park requesting comment were not returned.
John Paul II reigned from 1978 until his death in 2005 and is on the path to Sainthood. Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, has reigned since April, 2005.
Benedict’s resignation sets the stage for the conclave, a secret meeting in Rome of all church Cardinals under 80 years old to decide his successor.
The word “conclave” means, literally, “with a key.” Symbolically, the College of Cardinals can not leave the conclave without deciding on a new leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics.
To learn more about Pope Benedict’s papacy see this article from Reuters.
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