Thank you for the insight! So what really happened with Benedict? He’s only the 2nd Pope in history to resign, correct? Clearly it wasn’t his health as he’ll still with us all these years later. I’ve never been able to figure his resignation out.
1) forced out by homos
2) lost faith in Christianity personally, but sees that Christian based right and wrong is a necessity for the world
Me neither. Almost every Catholic I know is still scratching their heads over it.
Ratzinger was known as an arch-conservative, and prior to his election a bunch of traditional priests I talked to said there was *no way* he would ever be elected because of that. When his name was announced from the loggia, traditionalists like me just sat there with our mouths open. For Catholic nerds like us, it was an upset as big as Trump 2016. And some great stuff came of it. He handed down some great legislation like freeing up the traditional Mass and sacraments, bringing a whole bunch of disaffected conservative Anglicans into the Catholic fold, and taking on the liberal errors of the age.
So why then give that all up, and let a guy like Bergoglio take over? Boy, I have no idea.
From what I gather, Benedict was a good and holy man, but as an academic, he was unused to the backstabbing, politics and snakes of the Vatican. Before he resigned he was already talking about "so much filth" in the Church, and saying "pray for me, that I do not flee the wolves" (!!!) I wonder if he experienced things that just really disgusted him so much that he felt he was just not up to the task of solving. And if you look at the news stories during and since, you get an inkling of what he probably meant.
I believe only the second to resign, yes.
But maybe something sinister had already started to creep in to the Vatican, worse than it was before. Certainly we know Benedict didn't want the job and prayed not to be elected.