“Pope Emeritus” is not a licit title for Pope Benedict the Great Renunciator

“Pope Emeritus” or “Emeritus Roman Pontiff”: these are the titles Benedict XVI chose for himself at the end of his pontificate. This is according to Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, who reported Benedict XVI’s decision communicated to him by the former Pope’s personal secretary, Georg Gänswein. But in an article published in Civiltà Cattolica, one of Italy’s oldest Catholic periodicals, Canonist Gianfranco Ghirlanda suggested a more suitable title would be “Bishop Emeritus of Rome”. Other Canonists preferred the term “former Pope”, added to the name Joseph Ratzinger, scrapping the papal name Benedict XVI which is linked to the papal acts of his eight years as leader of the Catholic Church.

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Cathcon- more unfinished business left by this Papacy. Will now have to be clarified by the new Pope. Maybe Pope Benedict the Great Renunciator is the best title to be recorded in the history books, who having been Vicar of Christ on earth, retired to become Bishop Emeritus of Rome.

Dante called the abdication of Pope St Celestine V, "The Great Renunciation".