“I keep performing my service while I await the Pope’s response”, German Cardinal Reinhard Marx told the press today, explaining the reasons behind his decision to resign from office as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, made public today. The Cardinal explained that he had recently visited the Pope and spoken to him. A few days after their meeting, Pope Francis in an email authorized the Cardinal to publish the letter and, in a subsequent phone call, the Pope and the Cardinal agreed today’s date for publication. “Now the Pope is considering how to respond”, Card. Marx said. “I am not tired of being a bishop; I am not demotivated, certainly not”, he pointed out. “The Pope has to decide where I can serve the Church and the Gospel”. “I want my gesture to be inspiring”, a sign to say “that we must not continue to revolve around ourselves, but we must focus on the Gospel”. “We are at a dead end”, after all the abuse cases, “but this can become a turning point”, he explained. “A new era for Christianity” can only start if we “learn from the crisis”, but we need “renewal and reforms”. “Please, respect my very personal decision”, he told reporters, a decision “made after reflection”, which is explained in the documents published today, “following an exchange with very few people”. “Let others decide for themselves”, the Cardinal said in response to a journalist who had asked him if that was a message to his brothers in the episcopate.