Cardinal Ratzinger, who suffers from ill-health, has said in recent interviews that he was looking forward to retiring in order to write more books.
The man is 78 years old! I do not understand why you would choose someone in admittedly poor health and quite old to be the next Pope? Now, I didn't expect the Cardinals to pick a guy in his 50s, but this man has already led a full life (by average statistical standards). How long will he be the leader of the Catholic church? Ten years? Fifteen? And if he does stay alive for a length of time, how useful will he be? How visible will he be?
In my opinion, it doesn't appear that Pope Benedict XVI will travel anywhere near as much as Pope John Paul II did, nor does it appear that the Cardinals expect him to. When a man openly admits to looking forward to retiring and then states what he would do with his "free time", it makes me think that he has already considered the option and was planning to pursue it at some point. Will Pope Benedict XVI retire from the Papacy while still alive if he feels so led? (It's not against the doctrine of the Papacy, but there's a lot of consecutive history behind the Pope remianing in the position until his death.) This begs the question of why would the man accept the position if he was wanting to retire?
It all seems a little off to me...
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