World Cup prompted ex-Pope's resignation

[The Straight Story]

World Cup prompted ex-Pope's resignation

The soccer World Cup taking place in Brazil this year indirectly prompted Benedict XVI to bring forward his resignation as pope by a year, his private secretary told a German newspaper Friday.

Archbishop Georg Gaenswein was asked whether Benedict's historic resignation in February 2013 was influenced by the moving up of a major Roman Catholic festival to last year because the World Cup was also set to be held in Brazil in 2014.

"Pope Benedict presented his decision to me exactly as you now said it," Gaenswein responded in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung's weekly magazine.

Now Pope emeritus Benedict wanted his successor to be able to attend the religious World Youth Day gathering in Rio, he added.

http://www.thelocal.de/20140301/pope-benedicts-resignation-hastened-by-world-cup

[diabeticman]

1. I smell something fishy about that "explanation"

[seattledo]

2. Yes, and it's not like a lot of youth are going to attend

Their brainwashing is stunningly less effective among the young. I agree with you that it is fishy.

[TexasProgresive]

3. These World Youth Day events

have been huge, with many attending from all over the world. With Francis attracting so much attention my guess is that Rio will be even bigger. The only drawback I see is security for the attendees. Rio would not be my first choice for any big event, world cup, Olympics or World Youth Day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Not that big, it seems - it happened last July, and you didn't notice

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Youth_Day_2013

[TexasProgresive]

5. Let's look at historical WYD attendance

1984 Vatican City 300,000
1985 Vatican City 300,000
1987 Buenos Aires 1,000,000
1989 Santiago de Compostela 400,00
1991 Czestochowa 1,600,000
1993 Denver 500,000
1995 Manila 5,000,000
1997 Paris 1,200,000
2000 Vatican City 2,000,000
2002 Toronto 800.000
2005 Cologne 1,200,000
2008 Sydney 400,000
2011 Madrid 1,400,000
2013 Rio de Janeiro 3,700,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Youth_Day
The only one larger than Rio was Manila.

You are right in that I forgot that the WYD 2013 in Rio has passed. Events like this that aren't in the US tend to get little coverage in the media. The numbers are impressive if you consider what these kids did to raise the money to get there with their adult sponsors. We sent 6 or 8 kids with 4 or 5 adults to Toronto. The money to go was raised by the kids. Those from rich families were not allowed to buy their way, they had to work to go. You should know this was from a small rural parish of 100 families.