[Marchmain]

No problem! For some people who have only seen info on him from recent years, he could seem like a mysterious figure in the background!

[Mrs. Don-o]

But what's happened to Benedict, though? From all I read he is sound of mind and body, as frail as --- but no frailer than --- any 90-year-old: still brilliant, even. His reasons for abdicating seem to make little sense (like, he didn't have the energy for another World Youth Day--- wha...? Since when do Popes HAVE to fly off to the ends of the earth for World Youth Day?) and his reasons for his present silence make even less sense.

All this, while Francis dismantles his legacy --- the legacy Benedict created shoulder to shoulder with JP the Great! Veritatis Splendor, Familiaris Consortio and the Catechism, dipped in solvent and dissolving before our eyes.

And Fr. Ganswein's hypothesis about Francis and Benedict having a "shared Petrine ministry" --- with two men being called Holy Father, two men wearing the papal vestments, two men making the Vatican their home --- how do you parse that, canonically, let alone theologically?

And now Francis is poised to canonize Paul 6, while gearing up the equivocation machine to blenderize Humanae Vitae!