The 85-year-old pope is resigning "because of advanced age," Benedict told the cardinals of the Catholic Church on Monday.
"Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me," the pope told the cardinals, according to the Vatican.
The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415.
I highlighted the portion above because I, personally, don't think this has anything to do with his advanced age. Sitting Popes typically die in office. They don't resign. A pope hasn't resigned in almost 600 years.
You are only as sick as your secrets
However, this pope, Pope Benedict XVI, former Cardinal Ratzinger had many secrets.
I wrote a piece last week where I reviewed a documentary released February 4, 2013
Tree Climbers: Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Cover-up at the Highest Level
Prior to his election to Pope, Cardinal Razinger served as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) from November 1981 through April 2005.
In 2001, Ratzinger put out a teaching approved by then pope John Paull II stating every sex abuse case that involves a minor comes to Ratzinger's desk.
The year before the Globe story, then-German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was designated to oversee complaints against priests from all over the world. In that job, he ordered that every sex abuse case in the church be brought to his attention, which means that the man who is now the head of the Roman Catholic Church was once in a position to know more than any other single individual in the church about the extent of the issue of pedophilic priests.
The CDF has documents from 4th century councils in Spain, that talks about sex abuse and children.
When will we stop protecting the pedophiles and start protecting the innocent children?
Pope's don't "resign" -