The pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church that has many duties and responsibilities. Although the pope has these jobs to fulfill, if he is not in a healthy enough to perform these duties, then the pope should be able to resign. The last time a pope retired was 600 years ago. By resigning, Pope Benedict XVI is shaping the future for popes to come.

As you get older you can get sick and not be able to perform duties to the best of your ability anymore. In any job you are allowed to retire, so why shouldn’t you be able to retire when you are the pope. As the ruler of the Roman Catholic Church it was his responsibilities to Catholics couldn’t be fulfilled. Because the pope cared for his people so much he took a chance and retired.

The pope is like any other human being. The pope has gone through many things in his life time and if he feels he is unable to serve the Catholic Church, then he shouldn’t have to continue as pope. The pope is still going to be involved with the church and the Vatican. He is continuing to serve the Church, but just in a different way.

The Catholic Church has many traditions and the pope retiring is not one of them. I believe retiring was the most noble and hard thing that Pope Benedict XVI could have ever done. Traditions in the Catholic Church are not easily broken and breaking traditions are highly controversial throughout the world. About a year ago the church changed the translation and people a year later still don’t think it should have been changed. When people get used to things a certain way they do not like to change them. I think the pope retiring should become a tradition for future popes in Pope Benedict XVIs’ position.

Some people believe the pope should not be able to resign or retire because they are scared of what will happen if there are two popes. Pope Benedict XVI still has the title of pope, but just a new name. Some people believe he may want to come back into rule and try to use his power. This is impossible because for something to be sign or declared by the pope it has to have the ring on it. The pope receives the ring when he his elected pope. When the pope resigned the ring was destroyed so an instance like that could not occur.

The retiring of the pope may bring new ideas to the Catholic Church. Some ideas could be letting ordained men get married of letting females be priest. Many of the Cardinals are older and with a new generation coming in they might agree with these proposals. The world is changing around us and this spark, the pope retiring, will start a flame of new ideas.

With a new pope being elected I strongly agree with the process of picking new pope. Cardinals from all over the world represent Catholics well. Each Cardinal is from different parts of the world and they know what issues that location is going through and what they need from the Catholic Church. The Cardinals vote four times a day, and when over 2/3 of the Cardinals agree on a person, that person becomes the new pope. Although the process can be long I believe the Cardinals have the wisdom to elect a good pope.

The Pope is a very holy man that knows his limitations. He performed a brave deed, because he knew the duties, and responsibilities he had, he could not do to the best of his ability any longer. The pope retired because he knew it was the best thing to do for the Catholic Church. All Catholics should respect Pope Benedict’s XVI decision to retire from the leader of the Catholic Church.