Catholic Church moves toward consequentialism

[nancylebov]

We have the unusual phenomenon of a Pope resigning because he thinks he is no longer physically and mentally up to the job.

That is, instead of assuming that the Pope should endure the pain and exhaustion of a job he's losing the ability to do and Catholics should endure a Church led by a Pope who's running down, a pragmatically sensible choice has been made.

I can only hope that there will be a motion toward a similarly sensible attitude about contraception, abortion, promotion for women, and homosexuality.

Comments

[redbird]

Alternatively, this is the papal equivalent of a CEO "resigning to spend more time with my family," and he hopes they will find a replacement who isn't as closely connected, either actually or in the public mind, with the child sexual abuse scandals. (Yes, his advisors all say they were surprised, but if he were resigning for reasons other than his health, he would say that.)