There was considerable irony–as well as shock–in the surprise announcement earlier this week that Pope Benedict XVI was resigning. Heretofore, it had been a papal given: Pontiffs serve for life. The last one to step down did so some 700 years ago.
This Pope had a turbulent eight-year run, one that was plagued infamously by sex-scandal cover-ups and the conservative controversies over birth control, abortion and women as priests. But he bucked tradition when he determined that his health wouldn’t enable him to do justice to the papacy. He is to be given credit for placing the best interest of the Catholic Church and its need for viable leadership over the tradition of serving for life, however compromised.
But how ironic. His most notable accomplishment was resigning.