It's all about Politics and nothing else. At 78 Ratzinger can be nothing else but a caretaker Pope. Being Pope is more of mankiller job than being President and if he lasts more than 4 or 5 years it will be a miracle.
As I said it is the last gasp of the Europeans trying to hold on to power in the Church. At the next conclave the torch will be passed to someone from Africa or Asia.
It is not man's will, but God's will.
If it is such a mankiller job, how was it that JPII served over twenty years, even with Parkinson's?
There's no such thing as a "caretaker Pope," when you think about it.
"...At 78 Ratzinger can be nothing else but a caretaker Pope...."
Tht's what was said of Pope John XXIII. All he did was initiate Vatican II. A major change for the Catholic church by someone that was in for such a short time. If John XXIII did that, think of what Benedict XVI could do.