"It's a huge precedent. In fact, it's a precedent of almost a millennium as only in the XIII century was there one known case. In the absolute majority of cases, papal duties would end with death. There's only one pope in the Church's history who resigned and it was Celestine. And that resignation was strongly impelled," Vaišvilaitė told BNS by phone from the Vatican.
In the ambassador's words, the news of the Pope's resignation was a total surprise for almost everyone.
"I believe the news was in essence unexpected. Perhaps the Pope's closest people knew something about his decision but having in mind the fact that he is a very private man, I think it was a small number of people," the diplomat said.
"There have been talking about the Pope's resignation, there were talks last year and the year before when he was getting visibly weaker. There were also talks about resignation at the end of the pontificate of John Paul II. Perhaps some people believed that it was a real possibility that Benedict XVI could decide to resign but there were no clear signs that he was going to," the ambassador said.
