LITTLE ROCK — You have to wonder what kind of fun Vatican mystery writer Dan Brown would have with the startling resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.
As would be the case when any well-known CEO suddenly steps down “for health reasons,” we are immediately suspicious.
Was there some dark conspiracy to put him in place just long enough for another prince of the church to be maneuvered into the role? Or perhaps he is just a humble and decent man who had the grace to step aside when he became too old and ill to do the job properly?
I’d like to believe that second choice is the case. Pope Benedict has set an example for popes and others in power who stay too long at the fair: judges, senators, athletes. Those who keep a firm grip on the power and the glory instead of yielding to the inevitability of time.
Many of us thought pope was a job you stayed in until God decided on a change in leadership. Certainly that was the example Pope John Paul II set.
Pope Benedict was a reluctant inheritor of St. Peter’s keys to begin with. He said he prayed during the conclave nine years ago that he not be chosen. He looked forward to a quiet retirement in his native Bavaria, where he would pray and write.
He will get a chance at the contemplative life now. A monastery is being refurbished at the Vatican where he will live in seclusion. But he is not simply quitting a job he never wanted in the first place.
We need to recognize the example he is setting. He had the clarity of vision to see himself as he truly was, and the humility to admit he no longer had the strength or the desire to do what it takes.
No one wanted Cal Ripken to retire, either. Even those who saw his skills erode with age would have wished to still watch him play.
Queen Elizabeth has been on the British throne for 60 years and believes that death is her only out. Meanwhile, the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix, who just turned 75, abdicated, saying it was time for a new generation.
Indeed, only one U.S. Supreme Court justice-William Rehnquist-has died in office in the last half-century. Seventeen others have chosen to retire. Twenty-one U.S. senators are 70 or older. And 10 senators, if we elected presidents the way the Vatican elects popes, wouldn’t be eligible to vote in 2016 because they would be 80 or older.
I am certain the Catholic Church would not like to see popes resign at the first sign of trouble or after some kind of no-confidence vote among the faithful. But Pope Benedict has provided future popes (and perhaps some others) an example of how to leave the stage gracefully and honestly.
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Susan Reimer is a columnist for the Baltimore Sun.
Editorial, Pages 14 on 02/18/2013