Dante's verses: In limbo

Since one I now recognized among them,

Poscia ch'io v'ebbi alcun riconosciuto,

(Inferno III, 58-60, translated by Philalethes)

In his Commedia, Dante put many people from the past and present to hell. Some already appear in the entrance area, in the limbo near the bank of the underworld river Acheron. The most prominent among them is, as Dante relates, “a shadow of the cowardly resigning from office”: it is Pope Celestine V, who with his abdication after only five months in office (1294) involuntarily Dante's greatest opponent, Pope Boniface VIII, cleared the way.

Dante's condemnation judgment on this papal resignation was not without effect. Between 1294 and 2009, for more than seven hundred years, not a single Pope resigned voluntarily. Many endured serious illnesses and long agonies - the last example was John Paul II (Pope from 1978 to 2005). Nowhere in canon law, in any handbook, is the keyword “papal resignation” found. The fact that as Pope "dies in the halls" seemed to become normal and almost everyday in the course of time.

It was not until February 28, 2013 that a second papal resignation occurred: the resignation of the German Pope Benedict XVI. (Joseph Ratzinger) to the highest Catholic office. It was justified with health challenges and dwindling strength. Benedict XVI had visited the grave of Coelestin V in Aquila on April 28, 2009, four years before his own resignation, prayed there and took off his pallium, the sign of his authority as Bishop of Rome - a gesture that in retrospect is symbolic Importance to measure.

Back to Dante: After passing through the gates of hell, the poet and his guide Virgil first encounter the lukewarm and indifferent.

They are placed at the side of that host of angels "who once did not dare to rebel / still remain loyal, which was only for themselves".

Is resignation from office stigmatized as indecision, as a great neither-nor?

An amazing option!

Even in the first chants, Dante's poem is full of difficult-to-understand riddles.

Hans Maier

is a political scientist and was Bavarian Minister of Education from 1970 to 1986.

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