It is now sixty years that I have been accompanying the journey of Theology, particularly of the Biblical Sciences,
and with the succession of different generations I have seen theses that seemed unshakable collapse,
proving to be mere hypotheses:
the liberal generation (Harnack, Jülicher etc.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann etc.), the Marxist generation. Having read this from Pope Benedict,
is easy to see why the current Pope has always known,
that he has no chance of matching the intellectual strength of his predecessor(s)- and so in Jesuit "provocative" form- sought a different and less stable path for his own Papacy.
Pope Francis must know deep down, he would always find himself in someone else's shadow.
RIP Pope Benedict XVI
(And Thanks for Posting !)