Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down as Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
His sudden decision to resign is understandable.
After eight years of battling secular attacks, pedophilia scandals, and a declining laity, the pope's 85 years were no longer up to the challenge.
I am just as mad at Pope John Paul II as I am with the leadership that demonstrated anything but in covering up and covering for the massive perversions which went unpunished in Catholic churches throughout the world. The United State was teh first battleground fo r esposing the corruption of clericism, and now Europe is ravaged with scandals breached for the public to report on. Soon enough, the massive violations of trust and sanctity will explode through the Third World, too, where African and Latin American priests are also well-known for having their own families on the side.
Pope John Paul II left a fractured religious community to his successor, and now the aged, transition figure cannot carry on his duties. Then again, his age and his arch-conservaigvism in teh face of a traending world signalled to the faithful as well as the skeptical that he would not leave a lasting legacy.
In a sense, Pope Benedict XVI was the "Mitt Romney" of Catholic Popes, yet unlike the Mormon from Massachusetts, Cardinal John Ratzinger did win the election.