Resignation of Pope Benedict

The coming resignation of Pope Benedict at the end of this month did not generate much sympathy in the mass media of the West, according to the desk columnist of the Catholic Times. The media generally saw the resignation as resulting from the clerical sexual abuse scandal, from the so-called Vatican leaks and the infighting within the Vatican itself.

Although a well-respected journalist writing on the Vatican says it's difficult to say these problems had nothing to do with the resignation, and another journalist, quoting a Cardinal, believes the Vatican Leaks probably did have something to do with the pope's decision, our writer believes it's necessary to see the issue with a little more impartiality.To say these problems were the only reasons for the resignation, he says, is to deal in sensationalism and exaggeration. That the Vatican is in need of purification  and reformation is nothing new. The Church is not a community of  angels but of human beings with all the faults that come along with being human.

Are the problems faced by the pope  any different from the scandal of worldwide poverty? Of abortions? The frequency of local wars and terrorism? The relativism and secularism that threaten religions? Are they really any different from the scandals in the Vatican? Can one say with any certainty that Vatican-related problems had more to do with the resignation of the pope than the problems that threaten the stability of the whole world?

Most likely the reason for the resignation, the columnist imagines, is the pope's desire to see someone replacing him who is younger, with the vigor and enthusiasm that comes with youth, and thus better able to deal with the present crisis facing the Church and the world. There is no need to look for worldly motives, or to look at the resignation with gloom as something full of intrigue. He believes it was simply the humble move of a pope who, because of age and health problems, decided that what the Church needs now is someone who would do a better job than he's capable of doing at this point in his life.