After Letting It Marinate For A Bit

I've finally had time to process this historic occasion. I honestly still can't quite wrap my mind around all this. Throughout the course of the day, I've deliberately avoided any real commentary, blogs, or other media. I did have a round of discussion with folks on NDNation, but that was it.

No matter the situation, I try really hard not to second guess the Pope (whoever he may be) on anything. I really do, and I'm going to try not to here. The whole thing smacks of Windswept House, but I'm trying not to think about that either.

All things considered, I did hear a lot of things today, both from my exchanges online and from the non-Catholics I work with, that indicate two minds on the Holy Father's resignation. First, you've got folks who think that he's resigning for the reasons he gave, namely, he's old and in poor health. Second, you've got a group who are convinced there is a conspiracy afoot and that the whole health thing is just a smokescreen.

I'm going to comment on this once and hopefully not have to re-visit this again.

I think both of the above groups are correct. Pope John Paul II's waning years are burned deeply into my brain. I went away to college then and was exposed to the rampant problems in the Church for the first time. I remember people wondering why he didn't resign. At the time, I thought that was unspeakable and an affront to the Petrine Office to suggest such.

As the time went on, though, and I became more cognizant of the attacks against Catholicism, I started wondering myself. Why doesn't the Pope do anything about all of this? Then I'd see him on TV, and it was pretty obvious why. The man couldn't walk by himself. He could barely speak. How was a guy in this condition supposed to keep up with the plotting of people who were so well-positioned in the Church's internal machinery?

Yesterday, we were faced with a Pope who was not just getting old. He was old, and even older today. What else were we seeing? A level of public Curial in-fighting not seen in recent history and a catastrophic loss of faith throughout the world, with some of the parties in the former situation probably actively contributing to the latter. My theory in all this is that Pope Benedict recalled the utter hopelessness of JPII's situation and vowed that he would never leave the Church so vulnerable to Her internal enemies ever again. Not being in a position to out-wait or out-maneuver the opposition, His Holiness decided to opt for passing the baton to someone who would be able to do both.

This is all speculation to be sure. What I do know is that this is an occasion of great importance. Not to sound all apocalyptic or anything, but there seems to be a hell of a lot going on right now to just write this event off as the answer to a future trivia question. Big things are going down, and we'd best be prepared for them.

Don't take this as Doomsday Prepper material. I'm talking about staying close to the sacraments and PRAYING. A LOT. Pray for Pope Benedict. Pray for the conclave. Pray that whatever is coming that souls will be saved.

Pray.