Pope-watching isn’t my thing, but today’s announcement that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning is quite the big news. He cited age and poor health, but come on. The guy just started a Twitter account a few months ago. He’s still young at heart.
In past times, I would have been at least a little excited by the prospect of finally getting a new, less terrible pope. But John Paul II seems to have made that a pretty remote possibility, so I suppose we’ll just end up with more of the same. Still, I guess you never know. As reactionary as he was, Benedict did make a tiny improvement in the church’s most egregious moral failing of the past few decades—even if he did have to semi-retract it later. Maybe the next pope will finally find it in his heart to take a further step toward true compassion and grace.
