Benedict XVI: I'm Too Pooped To Pope

Today's announcement that fatigue and failing health has caused Pope Benedict XVI to abdicate his position effective February 28 caught everyone by surprise. Given the decline in Church attendance, the continual pedophile scandals, conflict with social activist nuns, and questions about Vatican financial dealings, it's not hard to imagine the Pope, age 85, decided it was time to hang up the miter. Now, the question will be whether the Church will continue in its very conservative direction begun by John Paul II, or whether the College of Cardinals will select a younger, more moderate Pontiff as the successor.

Whatever the case, after 7 years of rigid conservative orthodoxy, we say to Benedict XVI, auf wiedersehen, Popenfuhrer!

BONUS: Not to pile on, but Mr. Pierce has a strong view of the Benedict Papacy:

"There is nothing in the institutional church now but this [pedophile] scandal. That has been the case since it first broke worldwide almost 20 years ago. It has demolished the moral credibility of the hierarchy, most of whom, it should be pointed out, were appointed by either John Paul II or Benedict. It was that hierarchy that sustained to cover-up. It was that hierarchy that attacked the victims, and the journalists, and the many brave priests who stood up against an institution that had moved so far from the message of the gospels that it might as well have been worshipping Ba'al. And it was that hierarchy that did all those things because it was a perfect instrument of John Paul II's reactionary, top-down theology, a return to the authoritatian model of the Church, which was exactly what Benedict XVI was elected to maintain. The conclave that elected him was the conclave of the cover-up. That law enforcement agencies around the world are still trying to pry documents out of the Vatican archives on behalf of the victims is the best measure of the purpose of the papacy that Benedict XVI laid aside today."