From Vittorio Messori's article today in Corriere della Sera on recent events and ridiculous calls from some quarters in Italy asking for the Pope's resignation. (He will not resign, obviously, and Messori reveals something else.)
He is still a curious analyst... But at least he has very good sources.
[T]he serenity of Benedict XVI comes from the knowledge that, since the beginning - since Pentecost itself - the ecclesial institution has seldom reached the level of its ideal. Imperfection is the rule whenever man are involved. Some have even spoken of a certain apathy of his before the recent, grave events that certainly do not touch upon theology, but harm the institutional machinery, with risk of scandal to the faithful and the loss of credibility of all of Catholicism. There are even some who, saying they speak as friends of the Pope and for the good of the Church, have advocated for a resignation that would lead him to finally go back to his true vocation: that of a scholar, retreated into solitude, alone with his books. Leaving to someone else, more active and attentive to the concrete life of the Church, the administration of things. But these friends of Joseph Ratzinger, whose good faith we do not venture do doubt, fail to understand that, in this way, they are actually playing the game of his enemies, if they truly wish to call him to go away with events such as the leak of private documents. As for apathy, who mentions it ignores that Benedict XVI does is not a friend of uproar, but of patient, meditated work, respectful of persons and that what he has already done, and does, is often overlooked by the media, but is not in fact irrelevant. And soon, it is said, they will have a proof that will astonish whomever accuses him of distance from the facts. [Source: PDF]
