Well kids, I, like the rest of the world woke up to news of the biggest resignation since Nixon's- if not the biggest resignation ever. Yes, Pope Benedict XVI (more affectionately known round these parts as Pope Skeletor I) officially gave his two weeks notice today- announcing that he is resigning effective February 28th and in doing so, he caught absolutely everyone by surprise.
For the record, he's not the first Pope to resign. There is precedent for this- but you've got to go all the way back to 1415 and Pope Gregory XII to get to the last Papal resignation. (And he only resigned in a massive complex deal designed to end the Western Schism which was going on at the time. Not that I'm rooting for the appearance of an Anti-Pope or two.)
So why the resignation? He says he couldn't keep up and there have been reports that his health was starting to fail in recent months but after the VatiLeaks Scandal last year, Der Speigel ran this fascinating article that gave a surprisingly frank look at the inner workings of the Vatican. The article makes clear the Benedict was surprised to be elected Pope to begin with and although he was a veteran of the Curia (the body that does the governing day-to-day in the Vatican) he didn't make any major moves to reform it or shake things up. Moves he did make didn't seem to go anywhere as the Curia seems to have rapidly split into competing factions as they struggle for control of the place.
This keeps in line with what most people already assumed: as a 78 year old Pope when he was elected, he was seen more as a Caretaker Pope than anything else. This wasn't a guy that was going to light up a Third Vatican Council anytime soon. After three decades of JP Deuce, they went with continuity and in Benedict they got a Pope that wasn't interested in rocking the boat all that much. And how could he? He was tasked with being the follow up act to JP Deuce who really was the first truly modern Pope- if such a thing could be said to have existed. At 78 he didn't have the time to get out of the shadow of his predecessor and I expect he knew that- which is why his resignation, so unexpected, so surprising might be the shrewdest and canniest move he's made over the entirety of his Papacy.
Traditionally, when a Pope dies, there's a 40 day mourning period before the Cardinals convene to elect a new Pope. That's been thrown out the window now because, well, Benedict didn't die. As a result, there's no obvious group of front-runners- this Conclave is going to wide open. And that could lead to potentially some very interesting results. While I get that Conservatives are holding a lot of power in the Church right now, what I don't like are these moves to roll back Vatican II and create a smaller, more doctrinally pure tent. No, no, no- the Church needs to be a BIG tent, a truly universal Church. I'm not saying you throw out the babies with the bathwater and start handing out condoms and performing gay marriages anytime soon but we need a Conservative (because barring a surprise, that's what we're going to get. The College of Cardinals is dominated by Cardinals appointed by Benedict and JP Deuce- both conservatives) that's going to be a leader for all Catholics, not an enforcer for conservative Catholic dogma.
Smart money says to bet on an Italian- they've had a lock on the Papacy, they're a sizable bloc in the College of Cardinals and it's been decades since there's been an Italian Pope. But, if the Der Speigel article I linked to above is to be believed, the mess of the VatiLeaks Scandal and in the Curia might have damaged their chances. An American Pope? New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan is mentioned but I don't think he's seen as a serious choice. A Pope from the Superpower might make more than a few people queasy- but there are choices all over the place from Latin America to Africa to even Canada.
I'm not that much of a Catholic anymore- I'm fairly lapsed to be totally honest about it. But Catholicism is in my DNA. The first months of my life were spent in a Dominican Priory, I went to Church every Sunday until I was 18 and once the habits and the smells and rituals get engrained into you, they're damn hard to completely let go of. But when the sexual abuse scandal hit and the Hierarchy chose obfuscation and cover up (and in the case of Cardinal Law, a promotion to a nice cushy job in the Vatican) I just couldn't stomach it anymore. By sitting in a Catholic Church, I felt like I was surrendering my faith to a Hierarchy that felt- and still feels that they are above the law and unwilling to submit to consequences for their sins. I felt like I was consenting to the cover-ups and the lack of accountability and as a lay person, I had no voice, no say and no leadership willing to hear my concerns. And at the end of the day, I couldn't let my faith be hijacked like that. My faith is mine- and although it's not something I talk about openly, it's a deeply personal thing for me and so when things like this happen, I care. I obsess slightly and I read everything I can about them.
Moments like this don't happen all that often but when they do, it's like catnip to me. The art of politics as practiced by the true masters of the art is going to be on display. No one plays politics like the Roman Catholic Church does- complexities and competing factions and power that's fascinating to watch. If you want to know why I have two degrees in political science, it's because I get to read about and watch moments like this. And it's amazing.
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