A Fermanagh priest who works in the Vatican has said the late Pope Benedict XVI’s great legacy will be the fact he resigned the papacy.

Fr. Enda Murphy from Derrylin is currently Head of Officer in the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome.

He was appointed Capo Officio of the Second Office in the Congregation, having worked as an official in the Congregation since 2015.

Despite never meeting Pope Benedict, who was laid to rest last Thursday, Fr. Murphy was present at a number of ceremonies he presided at.

“I was also present at his final public audience as Pope and there was no doubt that all present that day realised they were witnessing something historic,” recalled Fr. Murphy.

“Those who knew him well record that he was a kind, gentle and humble man, perhaps even shy. He was a serious academic with a piercing intellect.”

Looking back on his legacy as Pope, which faced challenges around child sex abuse allegations, Fr. Murphy believes Pope Benedict’s resignation is the greatest: “Every Pope has to face challenges and this was no different for Benedict XVI. No doubt his great legacy will be the fact that he resigned the papacy.

“Here was someone who wielded absolute authority in the Church, yet he laid it down in full freedom and in good conscience before God. When we think of other leaders who seem determined to cling to power at any cost, his gesture is all the more remarkable. It also opened an important door for the future for Popes to feel free to resign should the feel incapable of carrying out the Petrine ministry.”

Fr. Murphy said the other great thing Pope Benedict will be remembered for is his teaching and writing.

“People will still be reading his homilies many years from now and will find food for the mind and soul,” he said with one personal memory that has stayed with him coming from the homily the Pope gave on the day he inaugurated his Petrine ministry, Sunday, April 24, 2005: “I was driving between Masses in my parish and listening to his homily during which he said: ‘Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary’. I find that not just a beautiful sentiment but a revolutionary idea.

“Certainly, there will be many debates about his legacy but his own work as a theologian and preacher of the gospel was ultimately to discover the mysterious face of Christ and to become friends with him.

“All of that is probably best summed up by his reported last words: ‘Lord, I love you’.”