The world is stunned this morning as news breaks that Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he will resign his position due to lack of strength to carry out his role; he stated: “to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me”.
“For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter.”
There is much speculation as to the Pope’s motivation to step down at this time. This is the first resignation of a pope in 600 years. Feminism and Religion will continue to update this report as additional information is released.
feminismandreligion.com 
Well at least the pope won’t be Ratzinger…
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Wonder if there is a connection with his negligence as a Cardinal in disciplining priests guilty of child abuse?
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Amazing! It won’t be Ratzinger…but who WILL it be? Someone even more reactionary? I must admit to being stunned.
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Maybe it is time for the pinnacle of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, the papacy, to be examined. Maybe this is time for hierarchies to tumble?
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Majak: I WISH. But I don’t expect much. One can always hope for a “Shoes of the Fisherman” (the novel) outcome, but I fear we’ll only see a slight variation on Ratzinger. Here in the South we talk about the “Good Ole Boys Network,” and if the College of Cardinals had banjos, that’s what they’d be. Hierarchies–barring revolution–are self-perpetuating in general, and this one, hunkered down in its closed system, is one of the least responsive to new thought still hanging around. If it wasn’t, Rosemary Reuther would be a cardinal! ;-)
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Hi Onoosh, I just finished reading Rosemary Reuther’s “Women and Redemption” second edition, and while I am no longer a Christian, she paints a very positive picture of women’s relationship to the sacred over the two millennia of christendom. Yes, a cardinal indeed!
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Majak: I haven’t read that one, but it’s on my list. I love the way Reuther, and others, continue their fight for women–indeed, for all–within structures they still find worth the struggle to try to redeem. It informs my thought, if only to help me understand where I came from. Like you, I am no longer “in the church,”–having decided definitively that I would never again let old guys in dresses tell me what to think–but it is interesting to speculate about what a College of Cardinals made entirely of women would be like. :-)
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This was many years in the making. A purge in the making. I predict more will fall before it’s over. Perhaps a good thing. Let’s hope for a new and more liberal Pope. Righteousness will prevail. Praying for the best.
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How cool would it be if those 180 or so old men (cardinals mostly appointed by Ratzinger) voted to move their church into the 21st century. I read in the paper that the “typical” Catholic is Filipina, female, and poor. Who best leads such women? Perhaps a non-European pope? Someone, unlike Ratzinger or his predecessor, who isn’t medieval? I’d love to see another John XXIII.
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There is a great article on the impact of the Pope’s retirement from a feminist perspective by Mary E. Hunt originally posted on religiondispatches.org. However, I am having trouble accessing the original post now. You can find a reprint of it on: http://www.waterwomensalliance.org.
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