Official Statement of KMFAP about the Resignation of Pope Benedict XVI
 
FEDERATION OF AUTONOMOUS PRIORIES
OF THE SOVEREIGN ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM
KNIGHTS OF MALTA
Government of the State
CABINET OF THE GRAND MASTER AND HEAD OF THE STATE
THE MAGISTERIAL BOARD OF RELIGIOUS COUNSELLORS AND INTERFAITH PLURALISM OF THE FEDERATION OF AUTONOMOUS PRIORIES OF THE SOVEREIGN ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM - KNIGHTS OF MALTA - ( KMFAP )

After having consulted each and everyone of the members of the Magisterial Board of Religious Counsellors and Interfaith Pluralism of Our Sovereign Order and State, representing several different Religions and Churches, in Our personal name and on behalf of all the members of the said Board, We come to express our deepest respect for the decision of His Holiness the Pope Benedict XVI of abdicating the Papacy, due to his health condition. In fact, to better serve the Roman Catholic Church, His Holiness the Pope has made the ultimate personal sacrifice any Pope can do, and for this reason His Holiness has all of our utmost and unconditional admiration and respect.

Even if he had not been elected Pope, Joseph Alois Ratzinger would have stayed in the History of the Roman Catholic Church as one of its brightest minds and finest intellectual thinkers, a true Doctor of the Church of our times, and this is the reason why this Board sincerely regrets that such a brilliant and remarkable mind will - understandably - be cloistered and retired from the World, which constitutes a great intellectual loss for all Religions.

History will remember the Pope Benedict XVI for his decisive and committed work in favour of the Interfaith Dialogue and Tolerance, which constitutes a decisive step and a "conditio sine qua non" towards the Peace in the World, and the fruits of his today seeds of Dialogue, Peace and Understanding, will for sure be collected by our future generations.

The prayers of all the members of this Magisterial Board of Religious Counsellors and Interfaith Pluralism, representing their different Religions and Churches, will always be with Joseph Alois Ratzinger, as an example of Intelligence, Courage, Service, Sacrifice and Religious Tolerance, who, by His example, truly deserves the title used in the beginning of all the Papal Bulls of "Servus Servorum Dei". ( Servant of the servants of God - title used first by Pope Gregory the Great, Pope from 590 to 604)

The Grand Master, Head of the State
and
President of the Magisterial Board of Religious Counsellors and Interfaith Pluralism