Aside from Dan Brown who can hardly wait to twist the Papal resignation into a new vehicle for Tom Hanks, I can't see why all the fuss over the announcement that Joe Ratzinger a.k.a. Benedict XVI is retiring. It's not like he's Tony Bennett. The guy is 85 and looks every day of it. Look, if you can't keep your head up while wearing the papal crown, you should probably take it off. John Paul II waited too long and ended up looking like his neck wasn't attached to his head. (What...too soon?)
Anyway, the charming fact is that the only way the Pope was able to get anyone in America or Western Europe to pay any attention to him was to quit. Prior to his resignation he was as relevant as Paul McCartney who also hasn't produced anything noteworthy in 30 years.
Benedict leaves the Vatican (do you suppose he walks out the gate like Jake Blues leaving prison in the Blues Brothers?) in a terrible mess. Americans attend Mass with the frequency with which they pay their taxes...and with as much joy. Joke: St. Mary's Catholic Church was having a problem with squirrels in the attic. Nothing worked to get rid of them until Father O'Brien had an idea. He had all the squirrels baptised as Catholics. Now they only show up on Christmas and Easter. In Europe, even in ostensibly Catholic countries like Spain and Italy, the average age of the people at Mass on Sunday is AARP+25. If not for tourists many churches would be abandoned. (Did you ever notice that while traveling in Europe you will make it a point to visit every church you see but at home you would never check out a church in say Toledo or Baltimore? Why is that?)
Clearly, people don't feel the need to attend services in a church that doesn't appear to like them or relate to them. When 90% of Catholics practice birth control (the other 10% are either pregnant, infertile, or are dating Donald Trump) you have a disconnect. When the faithful hold moderate views on married priests, women priests and even abortion while the hierarchy and the clergy cling to attitudes made popular during the Middle Ages, you have a disengaged flock. The bishops in Rome are like the teaparty but with sillier hats. It's the reformation of the bored. Catholics just don't find anything in the church that speaks to them although there are many in the pulpit speaking at them.
Then we have the issue of child abuse and the incredibly tone-deaf way the church has dealt (or not dealt) with the aftermath. This issue isn't going away any time soon but a little candor and a lot of compassion might have made Rome look a little less Fagen and a little more like the paragon of morality they profess to be. My old teacher, "Bald" Bill Carney, OSA use to say "you can't claim to have a clean house if you hide the garbage cans under the piano". The church can't do much about the horrific decisions that were made by bishops and cardinals in the 40's and 50's but that can sure as hell make the records public and "out" every predator priest and enabling pastor and bishop. In the process of trying to protect one or two felons the church has sacrificed every bit of good will they had on the altar of obfuscation. As any apartment dweller in Manhattan will tell you, when you see one bug, there are most certainly others.
The cluelessness of the Vatican was never more on display than when the cardinals met in conclave following the death of John Paul II. In fairly short order, they elected to the papacy the one man most responsible for the cloak of secrecy that surrounded their dirty little sin of pederasty. Joseph Ratzinger was rewarded by the College of Cardinals for keeping the biggest scandal since the Borgias as contained as possible. In his role as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (known in former centuries by its more infamous name, The Inquisition) Cardinal Ratzinger ensured that all reports of pedophile priests and their helpers came to him...and only him. Rome was a bit slow to get the memo that, in 2013, there are no secrets and nothing can be contained for long.
Nevertheless, Joe Ratzinger became Pope. In that capacity he has continued in the pinched footsteps of his predecessor. No, not Torquemada...John Paul II. He has refused to even listen to talk of married priests or a softening of the prohibition on birth control. His response to a call for a greater role for women in the Church has been to censure American nuns who have advocated for change. The Church continues to serve up the same bitter gruel and wonders why no one is asking for seconds. Relevance goes deeper than a Twitter account or being able to buy a hair shirt on RCC.com. If the Cardinals in Rome don't start thinking about ways to connect with developed countries, they will continue to be as anachronistic as nuns in habits.
And, as if the disgraceful handling of the child abuse scandal in the U.S. wasn't already shining a harsh light on the Church in general, we now have the tale of Cardinal Roger Mahony. Mahony was forced to step down as archbishop of Los Angeles when it was learned that he allowed a notorious pedophile priest, Nicolas Rivera, to escape to Mexico in 1988 rather than face charges in the U.S. Cardinal Manony's felonious conduct will, of course, not prevent him from sauntering off to Rome to participate in the election of the new pope. This is a bit like asking Bernie Madoff to help elect the next chairman of the SEC.
And so, beginning on March 15th we will be treated to an army of television journalists standing in St. Peter's Square breathlessly watching for white or black smoke. These are the same reporters who otherwise would be standing around in front of Silvio Berlusconi's house to see how many women were doing the walk of shame on Sunday mornings. When a new pope is chosen we will be treated to the customary appearance on the balcony of the residence while the adoring masses, none of whom have attended Mass in ten yeas will cheer for La Papa. His robes appear heavy and the papal hat always looks too big. The look on his face will show just a trace of embarrassment. Maybe now we know why.
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