Pope Ready to Resign ‘Months Ago’

It turns out Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was a long time coming. According to the Vatican newspaper, the pope made up his mind to resign after a trip to Mexico and Cuba in March, 2012. The decision was apparently made after Benedict had “repeatedly examined his conscience before God, due to his advancing age.” The pope had previously hinted at resignation during the summer of 2010, when the Vatican was embroiled in a sex scandal. “When the danger is great, one must not run away. For that reason, now is certainly not the time to resign,” he told a journalist at the time, adding, “one can resign at a peaceful moment or when one simply cannot go on.”