The problem of paedophile priests probably prompted the Pope to vacate the Vatican

Previous note on character assassinationAs in this debate Pro will attempt to cast doubt on the reasons given by His Holiness to justify his decision to step down from the Papacy and retire to a life of prayer and contemplation it is no surprise that he begins his argument with an attempt at character assassination. He does this in his introduction of pope Benedict as a "former member of the Hitler Youth and apologist for paedophile homosexual priests". I am quite sure people will on average know which Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church as in spite of there being another 15 Vicars of Christ who share his same name, they are conveniently numbered in order to avoid confusion, and all but the current one are dead and thus unable to resign. As such I am forced to assume this is meant to color the reader's perception of the present pope.Really, I could simply leave it at that, as this is non-essential. I am compelled by love of truth to make a small mention of the truth of the matter. Hitler's Youth: The pope was indeed a member of Hitler's Youth, but his does not reflect upon his own ideology, as membership was mandatory from 1939 for all German Youth(1). In spite of his forced membership, young Josef Ratzinger refused to attend meetings, and his family were known to be against the regime(2). This is such a generally accepted fact (apart from those who wish to continue to use the smear quite apart from the facts) that the Jewish Anti-Defamation League welcomed his ascension to the throne of St. Peter(3) and have since defended him from those who would call him a Nazi(4).Apologist for pedophile priests: This accusation is not even sourced, as it is impossible to find a single occasion in which the Holy Father has defended the pedophile homosexual priests. He modified cannon law in order to make defrocking of those guilty of abuse quicker, as well as establishing rules prohibiting the entry of homosexuals into seminaries (a measure for which he has taken more than a bit of heat). As there is no source or foundation for those accusations they should be considered void lest evidence be shown for them.Previous statements by His Holiness on the matterNow, having dispelled the attempts to cast doubt upon the Pope's word through false ad hominem attacks, let us see what he has said on the matter in the past. In the book-length interview given to Peter Sewald, The Light of the World(5), the pope is asked about the possibility of a papal resignation. He answers “If a Pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically, and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right and, under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.” He also mentions that this must not be done in response to a crisis, but in a time of relative tranquility. When the danger is great one must not run away". This excited much speculation in its day as to the future plans of the Pope to eventually resign. We see today that that speculation was more than founded.Current situationSo the question gets down to this: is the situation so critical now as to make it unlikely that the pope consider this an appropriately "tranquil" time in which to take this decision or is he going back on his own criteria? Well, let's compare the situation now to those that have come before.This papacy has been marked by many different attacks and controversies: the Regensburg address (6), the lifting of the excommunication on bishop Williamson (7), tensions with the Anglican Communion following Anglicanorum Coetibus (8), the NYTimes reports on the Murphy case (9) and others. Today, the nearest scandal chronologically is the Vatileaks case, in which the personal butler to His Holiness was found guilty of taking documents and sentenced to prison, although he later received the Pope´s pardon (10). We are not, therefore, in a time in which the Church is under as much fire as before. Rather, from the perspective of the Church herself, we are in an exceptionally positive time. World Youth Day in Madrid gave the church an impulse, the Synod for the New Evangelization set the bases for the future of the Church and the Year of Faith under way is a marvellous step in that direction. The news comes as such a great surprise even to his own closest collaborators (11) specifically because there has been no pressure to speak of for his resignation (other than the usual nutters who ask him to be tried by the International Criminal Court) and the rumors of his resignation had largely subsided. This decision, therefore, was likely taken with no connection to those crisis situations.There is nothing, therefore, in the current situation that justifies considering it more probable that the resignation of the current Pope from the throne of Saint Peter is due to the scandals those who employ character assassination as the foundation for arguments enjoy citing rather than the reasons he himself cited.Sources: (1) http://www.ushmm.org...(2) http://usatoday30.usatoday.com... (3) http://archive.adl.org...(4) http://archive.adl.org...(5) http://www.ignatius.com...(6) http://www.tandfonline.com... (7) http://www.guardian.co.uk...(8) http://www.bbc.co.uk...(9) http://www.nytimes.com...(10) http://www.thetimes.co.uk...(11) http://www.npr.org...