You Will Anyway: Ratzo to Retire

Monday, February 11, 2013

Ratzo to Retire

Pope Benedict XVI [Joe Ratzinger] of the Roman Catholic Church has decided to resign from his post due to ill health, the Vatican has announced.

"The pope announced that he will leave his ministry at 8:00 pm (19:00 GMT) on February 28," said a Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, on Monday.

al Jazeera

Really? I thought popes just reign until they die. Surely they weren't all fit as a fiddle right up to their deathbed.

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

Yeah, that's a long time ago. And it had nothing to do with health.

Color me skeptical. But it smells like the typical politician's retiring to spend more time with his family. And when that happens, you can almost bet there's a scandal or uncomfortable situation to be avoided. And we all know that Ratzinger has a suspect past, Hitler youth and child abuse cover-up included. Something smells fishy. And it isn't Friday.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.