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The Pope Pop-Song Playlist→
Ben Greenman: “At the end of this week, when Pope Benedict XVI’s formal resignation takes effect, he will be the first Pope to voluntarily step down from the papacy in more than five hundred years. As the search for a new Pope begins, here are some songs about Popeitude”: http://nyr.kr/15jhadH
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The Borowitz Report: Oakland Rapper Pope Emeritus Threatens Lawsuit→
OAKLAND (The Borowitz Report)—The Vatican’s plan to call the retiring pontiff Benedict XVI “Pope Emeritus” hit a snag today, in the form of a threatened lawsuit by an Oakland-based rapper who has been recording under that name since 2006. Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/Xb9zMp
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White Smoke and a Black Pope
Both because of his personality and the potential for a historic milestone, some journalists have taken to calling this papal election an “Obama moment” for the Church. This metaphor is apt only insofar as both will disappoint liberals hoping for significant change.
Naunihal Singh considers Cardinal Turkson of Ghana, who is favored to be the Church’s future: http://nyr.kr/ZGABhf
Photograph: Gabriel Bouys/Getty.
(Source: newyorker.com)
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"In criticizing the “culture of relativism” in modern societies, and “the anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom,” Benedict made clear that he saw his primary mission not as extending and enlarging the Catholic Church but as purifying it, by which he didn’t just mean dealing with the child-abuse scandal. He meant casting off extraneous growths and getting the Church back to what he saw as its proper roots. If this process alienated some current and former members of the faith, so be it. Benedict said numerous times that the Church might well be healthier if it was smaller."
— John Cassidy on the disastrous influence of Pope Benedict XVI: http://nyr.kr/11EV9Ih(Source: newyorker.com)
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Taking over the Church when he was close to eighty, Benedict seemed surprised by events and by the controversy his actions could provoke. For seven years, he has been unable to hit the right note. Perhaps, with his resignation, he has finally done so.
Here, Alexander Stille considers the possibility of a new path for the papacy: http://nyr.kr/Z6rRka (Photograph by Franco Origlia/Getty.)
How do you think Benedict XVI’s decision to step down will impact the institution of the Church?
