The book "Papa, non più papa. La rinuncia pontificia nella storia e nel diritto canonico" (a cura di Amedeo Feniello e Mario Prignano, Viella, Roma 2022) has launched on 10 January 2023 in Rome at Palazzo Firenze. The two main speakers were the President of the Dante Alighieri Society, Andrea Riccardi, and Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. The event was moderated by journalist Massimo Franco. The Fraknói Research Group was represented at the event by its Vatican Archives Research Resident, Katalin Nagy. Below is her short report.
The event was opened by Mario Prignano, one of the editors of the volume, historian and member of the Italian Society of Medieval History, who outlined the circumstances in which the idea of producing this volume was conceived. The idea for the book was born in the summer of 2020, during meetings held in Procida and Ischia, where the discussion was about popes and antipopes. In this way, a very interesting debate between historians and scholars of canon law was opened up. At that time, the University of Aquila started to organise a broader academic exchange of ideas, and the rector of the university, Professor Edoardo Alesse, immediately joined the project. In this way, the volume brings together the writings of the most authoritative personalities who have dealt with the subject in various ways over the years.
The presentation of the volume was continued by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. He drew attention to the topicality and importance of the subject. When Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly announced his resignation to the cardinals gathered in the consistory on 11 February 2013. That is why it is important to revive the centuries-old history of papal resignations with a volume dedicated to the subject," the Cardinal said. Professor Andrea Riccardi put the main message of the book in the context of his recent highly publicised writing. This is that the abdication of popes after Benedict XVI can no longer be considered a unique curiosity of the Middle Ages.
The essays in this volume are as follows:
- Roberto Rusconi, La rinuncia pontificia nella storia della Chiesa;
- Paolo Golinelli, L’abdicazione - «gran rifiuto» - di Celestino V;
- Johannes Grohe, «Quondam Papa». La rinuncia al tempo dello scisma d’Occidente;
- Valerio Gigliotti, Pietro del Morrone e Joseph Ratzinger: diritto e teologia tra storia e contemporaneità;
- Roberto Regoli, La novità del papato emerito. Unicità storica o inizio di nuovi tempi?;
- Gianfranco Ghirlanda, La rinuncia al suo munus da parte del Romano pontefice: il canone 332;
- Geraldina Boni, Prospettive de iure condendo;
- Cristiana Caricato, 11 febbraio 2013;
- Massimo Franco, La rinuncia prossima ventura.
