The Catholic bashers on this site get around it by retroactively claiming they "liked and respected your LAST Pope", which reminds me of the "anti-war" Democrats during the Bush era swearing up and down they were "against war" when Clinton was President.
You can search any Pope Benedict threads from the time he was the sitting pontiff. About 95% of the comments from non-Catholics were making fun of his age or calling him the "NAZI Pope".