A New Election Is on the Horizon

Pope Benedict XVI, citing advanced age and health issues, has decided to step down from the papacy at the end of this month. This is the first time a pope has stepped down from the papacy in some 600 years.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that the pope would continue to carry out his duties until Feb. 28 and that a successor could be elected by Easter, which falls on March 31. But, he added, the timing for the election of a new pope is “not an announcement, it’s a hypothesis.”

While there had been questions about Benedict’s health, the timing of his announcement sent shock waves around the world, even though he had in the past endorsed the notion that an incapacitated pope could resign.

“The pope took us by surprise,” said Father Lombardi, who explained that many cardinals were in Rome on Monday for a ceremony at the Vatican and heard the pope’s address. Italy’s prime minister, Mario Monti, said he was “very shaken by the unexpected news.”

The announcement plunged the Roman Catholic world into intense speculation about who will succeed him, and seemed likely to inspire many contrasting evaluations of a papacy that was seen as both conservative and contentious — though perhaps not so confrontational as many had feared of the man they called “God’s Rottweiler” for his tenacious defense of church doctrine.

Although this pope generated some criticism, I haven't noticed he was all that controversial. He was the typical conservative pope not unlike his predecessor John Paul II. It seemed he was more of a caretaker pope than anything else. He was probably surprised he had been in office longer than he had expected--eight years.

There is a lot of stupid speculation from nonbelievers that the pedophilia scandals had something to do with this, but I seriously doubt it. That's reading something into an action which is actually a refreshing decision for future popes to decide if they want.

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Lotsa luck trying to get the pope deposed.
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A dream comes true for a girl with Down syndrome as she gets to go to the high school prom:

"I feel like a princess," Casey Carroll, 19, said as she walked to the limousine that was to take her to dinner and her prom at the Fox Theatre. Her mother clicked her camera every five seconds, looking for the perfect shot after an hour of staged photos. Casey Carroll, dressed in a floral gown she bought days after being asked to the prom last summer in the midst of her uncontrollable excitement, smiled as she turned to her mother and said what most teenage girls have said to their mothers at least once: "Mom, stop. You're embarrassing me." But Casey Carroll was not like most girls at the Lassiter High School prom. She was not the prom queen, she was not looking forward to any big after-party, and she was ready to step out of her high heels before she even got into her limo. "When Casey was little, me and her father just thought she would probably never get to go to the prom, because we just weren't sure anyone would ask her," said Sue Ann Carroll, Casey Carroll's mother. "Not only is she getting to go, but she has two great dates. To see that, and to see her so happy, I can't tell you how much that means to us." That's because Casey Carroll, full of laughter, jokes and smiles, was born with Down Syndrome. And as much love as Casey Carroll gives, she receives even more.

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A psychologist weighs in on the Jordan Brown murder case.

His dad should be charged with manslaughter for allowing his son to have a weapon.

A Pope Can in Theory Resign,

but it is extremely rare in the history of the Catholic Church, and, as this piece notes, it's hard to define exactly what a "resignation" is.

In any case, I have a far greater chance in winning the Powerball jackpot than Pope Benedict XVI resigning.

So far he's rejected any calls for resigning:

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I haven't followed this story closely, but it appears the Catholic Church, or rather the Vatican, has its own version of Watergate.

It is very possible the infallible pope may be fallible after all.

First, it was an American problem. Then, an Irish problem. But as the scandal of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests has rocked continental Europe in recent weeks, observers inside and outside the church have begun to recognize that it is now very much a Vatican problem, one that is creeping ever closer to Pope Benedict XVI.

"The focus now is on Benedict," the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter wrote Friday in a strongly worded editorial on the scandal. "What did he know? When did he know it? How did he act once he knew?"

Revelations of abuse in Germany, particularly in the Munich archdiocese while Benedict was the archbishop, have seemingly put a lid on the argument by some in the Roman Catholic Church that sexually abusive priests were an American aberration, the result of lax morals and overblown news coverage in the United States.

Not good if Pope Benedict XVI is forced to step down.
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A live stream or whatever of the silliness in Searchlight, Nevada, is here.

Sarah Palin also showed up at the shindig.
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A very young cancer victim has a lesson to teach young people about the dangers of smokeless tobacco.

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I haven't followed very closely what is going on in the Vatican. It would be quite a deal if the pope has to resign his office.

I don't see it happening, however.

As the World Turns.

A cast of thousands is expected to be witnesses at the Darren Mack trial.

I exaggerate just a tad.
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This is just horrible:

Danny, who wore a Boy Scout shirt and a sturdy helmet, had been sitting on his skateboard, his presence concealed by a hedge that runs up to the driveway. He was dragging sneakers to slow down at the driveway, but scooted a bit farther than he intended, and the Honda Pilot was on him before he could avoid it.

Danny was under the car in a flash. His skateboard, knocked out from under him, rolled down the hill toward Palisades Drive.

It was Thursday afternoon, Sept. 20, a beautiful day clouded by this sudden intersection of random events involving people who had never met each other.

"Danny!" called the youngster's mother, Carole.

She hadn't seen the contact and was filled with dread at his disappearance and the sense that something horrible was happening. The car proceeded down the hill, and now Carole White could hear a child's screams.

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Pope Benedict XVI has high approval ratings, but not as high as his rock star predecessor. He has some work to do in that regard when he travels the U.S. next year.
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An arrest has been made in connection with that horrible Nye County, Nevada, sex abuse case.

Just awful.

Here's more:

It was also Boruchowitz who met with the mother of the child who was assaulted.

"The mother was crying, very distraught over what happened to her child," the detective said. "But she was also very grateful. She realizes that it's always better to find out that something has happened and to cope with that. Otherwise, she knew this could happen again because of the man involved. She did not know this had happened."

Stiles was a friend of the child's family, police said.

Boruchowitz said the 7-year-old girl, who was believed to be about 3 at the time of the attack, seemed to be in good spirits.

"She liked playing with my police stuff and I played with her toys," he said.

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More Gossip.

Mayor V. decides to show his disgraced face in public after it was revealed he was carrying on with a much-younger news reporter.

Unfortunately, nobody cared about his positions on the issues, but reporters cared about his ongoing affair with Mirthala Salinas.

In other news, the pope has done it again.

While

whatever news is going on in the U.S., it's about time for me to go to bed here. I will say that the Vatican is something to see. Literally thousands of people were there today taking in St. Peter's Basilca and the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum complex.

We didn't see Pope Benedict, though; he must be hiding out after the latest controversy.

We spent several hours there, literally all day, and we still did not get to see everything there was to see. We did see the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, which has all of those frescoes Michelangelo did in something like four years, but people cannot take pictures of. Let me tell you, the pictures do not do the places justice.

Tomorrow we are going to see the Coloseum in Rome before heading off to Florence on Thursday.