Pope Benedict XVI Resigns

Coming down Vine Street at 7:15 a.m., I heard NPR scrambling to get a story together on Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. It had happened, they said, only an hour earlier. Though we Church wonks have speculated on this for years, it’s the first papal resignation since the 1400s and we’re all caught off guard. This was one unleaked piece of news.

A routine day has become an urgent one. The March of St. Anthony Messenger is already at the printer (monthlies work ahead) and April is well into production. There will be some major reshuffling. Luckily, Fr. Pat has been writing and occasionally rewriting a piece on Pope Benedict in case of a sudden death, and we’re holding a few Vatican articles for future issues. That will be a start.

But this will be a print-social-media-first. When John Paul II passed away, we ran an AmericanCatholic.org feature page. That took much of a morning. Yet within minutes of Benedict’s announcement the net lit up with Twitter feeds and Facebook posts.  So this will be a different ride.  To be continued.

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Photo: CNS photo/Paul Haring

About the Author

John Feister

John Feister is editor in chief of St. Anthony Messenger magazine and other periodicals at Franciscan Media. He has a B.A. in American Studies from University of Dayton, and master's degrees in Humanities and in Theology from Xavier University. He writes and edits for various publications and contributes to American Catholic Radio. He is married with three sons. His new book, Thank You, Sisters: Stories of Women Religious and How They Enrich Our Lives (Franciscan Media) will be published early in 2013.