# So the Pope Is Resigning **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 11, 2013, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960 "2013-02-11T11:13:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/21 "2013-02-11T12:32:32Z")
He means to cheat the silver hammer ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/22 "2013-02-11T12:44:52Z")
So it’s only been what? Eight years? That’s not very long is it? How does that compare to other popes? ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/23 "2013-02-11T12:45:28Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > He means to cheat the silver hammer Oooh, no, you won’t get away from Maxwell that easily… He will track you and find you, oh my yes… \>:-) > [@gracer](#): > > So it’s only been what? Eight years? That’s not very long is it? How does that compare to other popes? Well, if you compare him to John Paul I, he has had a nice and long reign 😉 But, in general, popes tend to be elected late in their lives, and it seems to me that it is somewhat exceptional for them to spend more than 20 years on the throne. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/24 "2013-02-11T12:47:57Z")
So does he remain a cardinal? (IIRC he is too old to vote for the next Pope - not sure if he still attends). Brian ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/25 "2013-02-11T12:58:58Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Has the church got any child abuse reports scheduled to come out in mid-March? You should have some more fucking respect… for their ability to cover something up at that level! ::looks over shoulder for Sister Maria from elementary school:: ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/26 "2013-02-11T13:00:45Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Oh you are so going to hell for that…that being said, it was MY first thought as well. > > 😛 Me too. Well, Ireland _did_ just release that report on the [Magdalene asylums](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/ireland-magdalene-laundry-system-apology)… Seriously, though, if I had to guess—aside from political blackmail—it’d be an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Or maybe he just wants to elope. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/27 "2013-02-11T13:02:31Z")
There’s a bar chart on [this page](http://popes-and-papacy.com/wordpress/?p=594)that summarizes lengths of past papacies. Average is just over 7 years. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/28 "2013-02-11T13:04:34Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > This is a huge shock to Catholics (and recovering Catholics). Popes don’t resign, even if they run around the streets of the Vatican buck naked screaming “I am choo-choo train”. > > Popes were supposed to die younger, of natural causes due to inadequate medical care, or poisoned. Or both. Nowadays there is a sad dearth of poisonings and access to the best modern medicine can offer gives you a Pope with advanced Parkinson’s and one that is quitting because he’s worn out. > > Don’t elect popes well past retirement age. Commentators at the time speculated that Ratzinger was elected because the College _expected_ his reign to be relatively short, and focused on finishing JP2’s conservative doctrinal work and not so much on attending mass rallies. Hey, they Cardinals went for the then-healthy, energetic 50-something Wojtyla partly to get over the image of elderly fragility after losing two within two months. Ended up hanging around 27 years until it was painful to see him try to soldier on. Y’know, the thing is… It used to be that if the Pope was at the stage of running around buck naked screaming “I am choo-choo train”, he would be doing so safely in the Castello Gandolfo courtyard with the gates well locked and nobody would be the wiser for it. Before Vat II the Pope was for virtually every Catholic outside the Rome diocese itself just this distant figure of reverence and awe that they never got to see or hear in person, and at the Holy See itself the Curia would run business – it was the Popes of the TV age, most spectacularly John Paul II , who brought a sense that the Pontiff is expected to have high public visibility and be seen as an actively involved leader politically, doctrinally and administratively (and John XXIII and JP2 added a dimension of popular mass appeal that was historically entirely anomalous). ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/29 "2013-02-11T13:09:11Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > [SIZE=“1”]Or maybe he just wants to elope. Or maybe smoke some dope, Or be free to grope … ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/30 "2013-02-11T13:10:35Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > he has dementia or a terminal illness that will lead to dementia. The kind of dementia that couldn’t be covered up. That was my first thought as well. I can’t imagine he would break the tradition set by his predecessors by abdicating due to mere physical illness (even a crippling and exhausting one). So my bet is on dementia/Alzheimer. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/31 "2013-02-11T13:10:40Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Or maybe smoke some dope, > Or be free to grope > … Or post in the Straight Dope!! ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/32 "2013-02-11T13:13:17Z")
The Pope is setting the bar high for Lent this year (credit: Facebook) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/33 "2013-02-11T13:14:14Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur;15993075 So my bet is on dementia/Alzheimer.[/QUOTE] Parkinsons. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/34 "2013-02-11T13:19:16Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Y’know, the thing is… It used to be that if the Pope was at the stage of running around buck naked screaming “I am choo-choo train”, he would be doing so safely in the Castello Gandolfo courtyard with the gates well locked and nobody would be the wiser for it. Before Vat II the Pope was for virtually every Catholic outside the Rome diocese itself just this distant figure of reverence and awe that they never got to see or hear in person, and at the Holy See itself the Curia would run business – it was the Popes of the TV age, most spectacularly John Paul II , who brought a sense that the Pontiff is expected to have high public visibility and be seen as an actively involved leader politically, doctrinally and administratively (and John XXIII and JP2 added a dimension of popular mass appeal that was historically entirely anomalous). I wouldn’t really know. During nearly all my years as a Catholic JPII was pope. I left the church when he was still the Pope. I was travelling through Italy in 2004. The day we went to visit Vatican City was the day the Pope presided the public mass (whatever is called). It was a coincidence I was there, but he looked so frail and sick that, even as a rabid atheist, I felt very sorry for the man. He should have quit. ---
**Author:** ![l1I235](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@l1I235](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/l1I235)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/35 "2013-02-11T13:20:18Z")
Wow. Right after I watched Mea Culpa, and my thoughts on Benedict…changed. It will be interesting to see what his replacement does/ who it is. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/36 "2013-02-11T13:24:04Z")
And we Dominicans had our own very elderly statesman (Balaguer) that, in his mid 80s, blind as a bat and very frail but still very lucid, had to be pried out of power. He would have died in that seat if we had let him. Times once called him and Strummond the oldest men of power. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/37 "2013-02-11T13:25:47Z")
If the prophecy of St Malachy is to be believed, we’re down to our last pope, who will be Petrus Romanus. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/38 "2013-02-11T13:26:37Z")
I think he’s going to move to a galaxy far far away and run for political office. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/39 "2013-02-11T13:31:10Z")
“Non sum criminosus!” ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960/40 "2013-02-11T13:39:59Z")
Am I the only one who saw the headline and wondered if it was the Onion? Or April 1st.? What happens. Does he stay Benedicti XVI. Become, Cardinal Ratzinger again? Does ge become simple Herr Ratzinger again? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-the-pope-is-resigning/649960.md?page=3)