I now know that we are really living in historic times; a
papal resignation happened 600 years ago when there was a “schism” in the
church and there were three (3) competing popes; someone had to resign and it
was Gregory XII who resigned to end the schism.
I will admit that this resignation came as a shock to me
this morning and all the news outlets were scrambling to cover the truly “breaking
news”.
I now know that Benedict XVI signaled two (2) years ago that
if he was physically unable to function as a pope, he would resign.
Pope John Paul II (the Polish pope) should have resigned
years before his health (Parkinson’s disease) made him physically unable to
carry out papal duties but he tried anyway and it was very painful to watch. I
can only speculate why he held out to the bitter end but maybe his ego would
not let him resign.
Benedict obviously saw John Paul struggle for such a long
time and saw the office of the pope struggle without an active pope and he did
not want to repeat what John Paul did especially when there are so many church
issues that need attention and for that, I think Benedict deserves praise and
admiration.
Benedict’s legacy is another issue. I have already seen
interviews with priests offering up their opinions on Benedict’s papacy. I
think we can all agree that Benedict wanted to take the church “backwards” and
this was anathema to “progressives” but heralded as the right way by
conservatives.
He did not handle the pedophile scandal well but neither did
John Paul.
Since Benedict and John Paul appointed the cardinals who
will vote for a new pope, you can safely say that they will elect another
conservative like they all are UNLESS there exists a “sleeper” like John XXIII
who turned the church upside down with his Vatican II reforms (which Benedict
tried to negate).
We will be hearing a lot about the makeup of the College of
Cardinals who will be selecting the next pope. I already know who should not be
selected and that is an American cardinal like Dolan who is a conservative
idiot and would damage the church more than it already is.
This is BIG and exiting…watching history in the making…
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