Pope Benedict XVI to Resign on February 28

I am shocked! Honestly, I am. I am not catholic, in fact, I am hardly religious, but the Pope abdicating (a pope doesn't resign, he abdicates!)? That's... insane.<p>Last time that happened was in 1415 when Gregory XII was forced to abdicate because of the Schmism.<p>Honestly, I am disappointed in these people are supposed to serve as relics of our old institutions (such as monarchies), when they cannot stand up to the basic requirement of a title that last till they die.<p>What's the point, if they can abdicate on a wimp? One should <i>only</i> abdicate if a war for the throne has been won by a pretender!

Don't know if you guys heard, but there's buzz around here in the Philippines that the next Pope might be Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Antonio_Tagle" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Antonio_Tagle</a>), or at least the faithfuls believe he has a good chance. The mere thought of it scares me though. The Church has a very strong influence in State affairs, and I can only imagine this being a really bad thing for my country.

And now the end is near. [1] On the positive side, the only really hard prediction on that list is, that the next pope is "Petrus Romanus." So we can nicely test the reliability of Malachy's prophecy.<p>[1]<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes</a>

Interesting, but not HN material.