"With the election of Pope Benedict XVI, the curtain has fallen on the long-running drama of the myth of "the spirit of Vatican II," in which the revolution mandated by the Council was delayed by the timidity of Paul VI and temporarily derailed for twenty-plus years by the regressive John Paul II, as the Church inexorably moved toward the happy denouement of "the next pope" who would resume the course of progressive accommodation to the wisdom of the modern world. The curtain has fallen and the audience has long since left, except for a few diehards who say they are giving the new management a hundred days to revive the show. Some of them are perhaps thinking of going to another theater. There are worse things than not being a Catholic--when it is made unmistakably clear that being a Catholic is not what one is."
A classic!
What was really amusing was watching the coverage on EWTN, then switching to CNN for a few minutes. The CNN people were flabbergasted that RATZINGER had been elected! They had convinced themselves that some liberal, PC type was going to be the choice and pretty soon the Church would "modernize." It really was pretty funny.