Who Will Take Up the Keys of Peter?

Vatican Insider magazine online has produced a really great infographic on how a Pope is elected. It’s well worth checking out.

I‘d also like to point you in the direction of two of the better essays out there on the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI.

From Sandro Magister, we have this, on Benedict the disregarded reformer:

Over his nearly eight years of pontificate, Benedict XVI has been resolute and farsighted in indicating the destinations and keeping the rudder straight. But on the barque of Peter, the crew has not always been faithful to him.

This is what happened when he dictated a rigorous line of conduct in order to fight the scandal of pedophilia among the clergy, clashing with hypocritical and delayed implementations.

The same thing happened when he ordered cleanliness and transparency in ecclesiastical financial offices, seeing these disregarded.

This is what happened when he saw himself betrayed by his trusted butler, who violated his privacy and stole his most personal papers.

But there is more than that. Pope Ratzinger has fought first of all and above all to revive the faith of the Church, to correct its waywardness in doctrine, morality, the sacraments, and the commandments. And here as well he has often found himself alone, opposed, misunderstood.

It has been, in short, an incomplete reform that Benedict XVI has pursued. In resigning, he has recognized that he can no longer move it forward with his diminished strength. And he has trusted the conclave to elect a new pope with the strength necessary to do the job.

His is a supernatural wager that recalls that of his predecessor John Paul in the last painful years of his life.

And from the amazing Damian Thompson, a farewell to a modest and wonderful Pope:

First, that was no caretaker who visited Britain in 2010. Benedict XVI’s address in Westminster Hall was historically important as much for its content as its setting. No Archbishop of Canterbury has ever articulated so crisply the relationship between Britain’s parliamentary tradition and the role of Christianity, which sets out “objective norms governing right action”.

Also, Benedict tackled the huge task of restoring beauty to worship. But this is where we come up against the enforcer problem – that is, he isn’t one. The former Cardinal Ratzinger had to enforce things, in his job monitoring doctrinal orthodoxy, but as Pope Benedict he shied away from arm-twisting. This has allowed bishops, including those in England and Wales, to ignore any of his innovations that don’t take their fancy. Fortunately, young Catholics are so sick of the cod folk-wailing of “worship leaders” that Benedict’s restoration of beauty is being implemented quietly, from the ground up.

Benedict has not altered any teaching that the Church regards as God’s will, but his urge to conserve the faith reflects a gentle search for authenticity rather than tub-thumping intransigence.

May God bless and keep Pope Benedict XVI.