When some among them I had recognised,
I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
Who made through cowardice the great refusal.
Dante, Canto III, Inferno
The resignation of Celestine V led to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church in Avignon, which produced a period that greatly weakened the Church with dueling Popes flinging anathemas at each other, and setting the stage for the Reformation. Evil men stain the chronicles of the history of Man, but I sometimes think that they do less harm ultimately than the evil that good, weak men unintentionally cause.
The devil is never overtly evil. He always comes with lies and the offer to help.# remember the Garden.
We might expect Jesus to come when there is a Beijing Pope just like the Avignon popes. We’re halfway there.
I suspected at the beginning that what Benedict did was probably stupid.
But that was because I’ve read King Lear…
Still, I can sympathize with Benedict, Lear, and Celestine for simply desiring peace.
Sounds like the dictum of Clint Eastwood playing “Dirty Harry” Callaghan in the film Magnum Force; ” A Man’s Got to Know his Limitations.” I would only add, the sooner the better.