So the Pope! Resigning. First time in 600 years. 8 years spent in office and the oldest Bishop of Rome for quite some time back when he was elected.
What do people make of all this then? Was he Popin' fresh, or a lot of money for old Pope? (I'll stop soon, I promise)
My personal take is- he was never going to be in the role for long. He is widely agreed to have been a caretaker for JP2, and that combined with his advanced age when he took the post means that we would probably have been burying him within 5 or so years in any case.
I am concerned though that in a lot of the media there seem to have been efforts by the Catholic Church to suggest that a lot of mean-spirited people will insist on bringing up all this child abuse malarkey, which they portray essentially as sour grapes peeing on the parade of a great man. This strikes me as trying to sweep it all under the carpet which I am not cool with, but maybe that's me just seeing things.
An
interesting article outlines the claims made against Benedict, although readers should be aware that it is not even close to being from a neutral source.
