True to the traditional style of the Church, on February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI pronounced these words in Latin: “I must recognize my incapacity to exercise well the ministry entrusted to me.”
His decision captured the spotlight around the world, because to find a precedent for the resignation of the highest representative of the Catholic religion, you have to go back six centuries in time.
This news was followed by a series of aftershocks that moved the 0.49 km² territory that makes up Vatican City.
The 115 cardinals with voting capacity at that time reacted to seek, among them, a representative who would give a new air to the Church, which during the pontificate of Benedict XVI was plagued by scandals.
It was at that moment, on March 12, 2013 and in almost record time, that those in charge of choosing the new occupant of the chair of San Pedro entered a Conclave that had the strongest weight in recent years.
Three were the main names that sounded to end the vacant seat: Angelo Scola from Italy, Marc Ouellet from Canada and the Brazilian Pedro Olio Scherer.
The doors of the Holy See were closed and a single vote 10 years ago covered the sky of Rome with black smoke, there was no definition of the new Pope, an expected situation, since the first vote always marks the electoral path.
However, one more name entered the interest of the cardinals, days after officially starting, the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio, caught the attention of many of his companions with a conference of just three and a half minutes, which years later they publicly described as inspiring, refreshing and visionary.