Theologian calls for Benedict to step down.

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Liberal theologian Hermann Haering has called for Benedict to step down from the Papacy.

Not much chance of that happening. Last time a Pope resigned was back in 1409 when Gregory XII resigned to end the Western Schism.

[hedgehog]

1. THat was my first reaction, but then I was wondering about the fact that

it happened at all. I mean, who better than a liberal European theologian knows the power of the Papacy? Every avelanche starts with one snow flake....

[Matilda]

2. John Paul II should have stepped down ten years before he finally died.

He was only a shell of his former self, and did no credit to the position he held in the last years.
It was an embarrassment to have this man, who held such enormous personal power, falling asleep when
meeting other world leaders, and often looking as if he didn't know where he was.

Some of the priests at our church were quite outspoken in their views that he should have retired,
but to many in the hierarchy, that view was next to blasphemy.

It's notable that no steps have been taken since his death to bring in a law for mandatory retirement
in the event of debilitating illness, physical or mental. You would think they might have learned
a lesson or two by now.

[hedgehog]

3. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but does anyone else remember the summer of

of 1989 when a group of East German tourists got asylum at the West German embassy in Czechoslovakia? It was a very strange event at the time, and the first sign that the Iron Curtain was collapsing.