That's why he didn't want the title "Pope Emeritus." This puzzling title is unprecedented historically, and thus not defined.
I am touched in my heart, and will henceforth call him Father Benedict. Or even Father Ratzinger. That's who he is.
It dismays me so deeply me that some little clerical bureaucRAT got it all twisty-tailed around at a point when Benedict was so weak he couldn't nail down all the details.
It's maddening.
There shouldn’t be any more confusion about a Pope emeritus than there should be about a president emeritus or a professor emeritus. The person in question ceased to be a Pope, or a president, or a professor, as applicable.
Maybe Benedict was trying to be gracious, hoping it would all get sorted out under Francis. But, it didn’t.
In our diocese we have a Bishop Emeritus who still takes the place of the current Bishop Earl i.e. Bishop Emeritus Carl Mengling, still confers Confirmation on the candidates when the current Bishop is attending something else. We attended our granddaughter’s confirmation last year when Bishop Emeritus Carl performed the rites, Diocese of Lansing, MI. I do not know what other activity Bishop Earl was involved in at that time.
He was 86 and in poor health. Though I’m not Catholic, Benedict kept the conservative tone of the church. Francis, I’m not so sure.
Apparently, the last time a Pope resigned, he simply went back to being a Cardinal. Perhaps that is what should have been done in this case, rather than inventing some new title out of whole cloth.