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Pope’s have resigned to alleviate such issues. What Pope Benedict is doing is something else. He, more than anyone else, is aware of the ramifications. He is putting the lives of future popes in great danger, and putting them in a terrible position in retaining independence from political pressure. I have been a great fan of the Pope, since before he was the Pope. And this action is a terrible disappointment. It’s not, “refreshing,” at all. Especially since he saw Pope John Paul II’s witness and love for the Church first hand.

I would take second place to no one here in my admiration for John Paul II. OTOH, His last years were hard to understand in that his health was sooooo precarious. If he had suffered a stroke and had become incapacitated in his ability to communicate but survived for, say, four years, no mechanism exists to convene a conclave to elect a successor until he would be physically dead. That would leave the Barque of Peter adrift and without its captain during very perilous times.

We can say that God would not allow that to happen to his Church and it did not but resignation is an honorable and practical alternative. The pope who resigns should scrupulously avoid conflict with his successor and Benedict XVI is apparently going to handle this by entering a cloistered monastery and cutting off direct contact with the outside world.

May God bless Pope Benedict XVI and his soon to be elected successor.

Nick - he is resigning because he is 85 and in bad health and not out of any political pressure that I am aware of. Where are you getting that info? I think it’s good that he is leaving before he deteriorates further and is passing it to someone in better health. What’s wrong with that? I don’t understand your concern. Put other pope’s lives in danger? How? Just curious where you are coming from. Thanks.