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1. While he does not appear to be affected by Alzheimer's Disease as was his immediate predecessor, which had such negative consequences for the Church, Pope Benedict's behaviour would suggest he might consider heading back to Germany and retirement.
   A quiet life enjoying the simple pleasures he probably never knew since he entered the seminary in 1939 aged just 12 would give the Church a chance to begin the long journey towards healing and relevance, after the Vatican's sexual scandals cover-up and the 'women's ordination is a serious crime of faith' utterance which has so appalled many Catholics and others around the world.

   Posted By: Richard Flynn - Norwood SA

2. Richard: That's the first I've heard of JP2 having Alzheimers. I think you mean Parkinson's, which is something very different.

   Posted By: Lance Eccles, Goulburn NSW

3. Thank you, Lance, for drawing my attention to this error. I know Alzheimer's Disease is not at all the same as Parkinson's Disease and I should have checked before hitting the sunmit button.
   That said, it does not alber essentially the substance of my comment that Pope Benedict consider retiring, as John Paul II should have done.

   Posted By: Richard Flynn - Norwood SA

4. Richard: You forgot Ingrid Stampa, his right hand woman and companion of many years.
   
   

   Posted By: L Newington Bendigo Victoria

5. Richard: Pope Bendict is just the man to heal the Church after some bishops' (not the Vatican's) sexual scandal cover-ups, of which he has always been the most staunch opponent.
   The Church has not and will never cease being relevant, regardless of whether anyone is appalled by its constant infallible doctrrines such as that the ordination of women to the priesthood is impossible and that to pretend it is a serious canonical crime.

   Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

6. Considering average life expectancies today compared with the past 2000 years, I'd say Pope Benedict's 83 is 'the new 63'.
   I hope for many more healthy years of this Pope's wise, effective and inspiring rule. Vivat Papa! Ad multos annos!

   Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

7. Richard is so much like many people who call themselves Roman Catholic, but do not follow all that the Church teaches. They think they know more than the Holy Spirit.
   

   Posted By: Bob, from Forster NSW

8. Peter G: The ordination of women to the priesthood is not, in fact, impossible and for you to simply declare the opposite and add the line about it being a 'serious crime' is to fail to understand the issues surrounding John Paul II's prohibition of even discussing the question.
   This is what has been at the heart of honest and scholarly questioning by all levels of Church people.
   If you don't subscribe to that, then I am Ok with your view and I would expect you to pay me the same courtesy.
   Adding 'Vivat Papa!' and 'Ad Multos Annos' doesn't really add anything to your cause, only that you think slogans can seal an argument. An old debating device, nothing more!
   By the way, if Pope Benedict is 'the new 63', how close to 100 are you? [I'm the new 53]
   Bob, from Foster NSW: I am at a loss to know how you arrive at the opinion that I think I know more than the Holy Spirit. May I say it suggests a superficial as well as wrong view on your part.
   My life's search is to try and discern the movement of the Spirit - sometimes I stumble, I admit, but I would suggest so does everybody else, no matter how good their intentions.
   The nub of the problem for me is that 'all that the Church teaches' is arguably - and here you would scream blue murder - not what its Founder teaches.
   That said, I call myself a Catholic but I think I am inclined more and more, as I see the Vatican shambles, to drop the 'Roman' tag as it has been so compromised and not something I would wear with any pride any longer.

   Posted By: Richard Flynn - Norwood S.A.

9. People may hope that Benedict's reign soon comes to an end, but what do they expect to follow?
   Do they expect some radically new type of pope that says: Yes to women priests, yes to divorce and remarriage, yes to the pill, yes to gay marriage... and a whole lot of other things dear to the secular world? That would certainly be the end of the Catholic Church.

   Posted By: Lance Eccles, Goulburn NSW

10. Richard: A mental disease such as Alzheimer’s disease would be a good reason for a pope to resign.
    A physical disease such as Parkinson’s disease is most definitely not.
    Several of the greatest popes have suffered from physical disabilities such as blindness.
    Ven John Paul II appeared to maintain his mental sharpness right up until his last few days.
    I’m gobsmacked that wishing a long healthy life to the Pope could possibly give offence to somebody, or be construed as an “argument”.
    In 1994, Venerable John Paul II formally declared: Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful'. (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis 4)
    And just in case anyone still doubted that this is an infallible “de fide” doctrine, the Holy See even went to the extraordinary length of explicitly re-stating in a response the following year, that this teaching 'requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium 25:2)'.

    Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

11. Peter G: The matter of the Ordination of Women has yet to be resolved by the sensus fidelium. The judgement of JP II just might be invalid because it holds an individual's conscience in contempt.

    Posted By: SCB - Brisbane Q

12. SCB: As the Second Vatican Council re-stated, the fact of the infallibility of the doctrine does not depend in any way upon how it is received by people other than the Pope. You and I don't get to decide what's infallible and what's not.

    Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

13. Peter G: Mercifully there have only been a couple of infallible statements and, at least with one, the faithful, I believe, were consulted.
    Ultimately, if the faithful do not receive a doctrine, then it is irreleveant and lapses.
    The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church reminds us: The body of the faithful as a whole anointed as they are by the Holy One (see 1 John 2:20,27), cannot err in matters of belief.
    Years ago Fr Joseph Ratzinger reminded us that conscience trumps a pope!

    Posted By: SCB - Brisbane, Q

14. Only “a couple”, SCB? Which two have you picked out? Read on immediately following your quote (#12): They manifest this special property .... when, 'from the Bishops down to the last of the faithful' they show universal agreement in matters of faith and morals. That discernment in matters of faith .... is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority (Magisterium), in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men, but truly the word of God (cf. 1 Th. 2:13).
    And in #25: The individual bishops .... proclaim Christ’s doctrine infallibly.... when .... they concur in a single viewpoint as the one which must be held conclusively. This authority is even more clearly verified when.... in an ecumenical council, they are teachers and judges of faith and morals for the universal Church. Their definitions must then be adhered to with the submission of faith. And this infallibility .... extends as far as the deposit of Revelation extends, .... this is the infallibility which the Roman Pontiff, .... enjoys in virtue of his office, when, as the supreme shepherd and teacher of all the faithful, who confirms his brethren in their faith, by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals.
    

    Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

15. Peter G: Are you suggesting that every papal utterance is infallible? How many infallible statements have been utteed by popes over the centuries considering infallibility of the Bishop of Rome is a recent belief?
    I asked one of our clergy how many infallible statements have been issued: his reply: he could only think of two.
    What happens when the People of God reject or do not accept some 'definitive' teaching?
    What happens when the Church, the People of God, no longer accepts what a previous pope has definitively taught?
    May a pope, in a particular historical era, bind the Church for ever? What do we do when a pope gets it wrong?

    Posted By: SCB - Brisbane, 4061

16. SCB: You didn’t answer which two you’ve picked out.
    Perhaps that there is one God? And that He loves us?
    Neither I nor the 2nd Vatican Council suggested that everything that a pope says is infallible. Read what it said again.
    There are no “recent beliefs” in Catholicism. The full deposit of the Catholic faith has been passed down to us from the Apostles.
    Christ guaranteed that His Holy Spirit would always ensure that no pope would ever “get it wrong” regarding any definitive doctrine.
    Such doctrines bind the Church forever. If a Catholic refuses to accept such a doctrine, he cuts himself off from the People of God.

    Posted By: Peter G Thornleigh

17. Peter G: The only two I'm aware of are: The Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, fairly recent beliefs and hardly necessary for salvation. Can you add any more?
    You haven't been answering all my points.
    The full deposit has been handed down by the Apostles? What do you mean by this statement?
    Where did Christ guarantee that no pope would ever get it wrong re definitive doctrine. Was the Syllabus of Errors definitive doctrine? Were the papal statements re no salvation for those not subject to the pope definitive doctrines? Are we still bound to these doctrines? What do you mean by definitive doctrine?
    

    Posted By: SCB - Brisbane

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