Benedict XVI resignation: CDF's Msgr. John Kennedy recalls

(Vatican Radio) It was exactly one year ago that Pope Benedict XVI made history with the announcement of his resignation from the papacy.
Less than three weeks later, on 28 February, he officially stepped down from office, retiring temporarily to the palace in Castel Gandolfo. He currently resides in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery located within the Vatican Walls.
For more than twenty years leading up to his election to the papacy 2005, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger served as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. One of the officials working for the Congregation at this time was Monsignor John Kennedy.
One year on since his resignation, the CDF official still recalls the moment of Pope Benedict’s resignation. “Part of me could understand why,” Mons Kennedy told Vatican Radio, “having known him since 1998, knowing that he would always want the Petrine ministry to be the most effective, to be the fullest, to be occupied by a person who could give complete energy to it.” All the same, he said, there has been “a great sadness” among the officials, who he often referred to as his family.
His stepping down from the papacy was a “gesture of humility”, the official went on, one that “has opened up for us the enormous possibilities that have been seen in Pope Francis.”
Mons Kennedy concluded by expressing his hope that people “would possibly see Pope Francis and Pope Benedict as really two sides of the one coin. And, as they listen and see and are marveling at the beautiful gestures of Pope Francis, that they might be inspired go back and read maybe some of the wonderful works that Pope Benedict has produced, so that they can actually see both as being complementary.”
Listen to Ann Schneible’s interview with Mons John Kennedy: