Pope’s resignation

POPE Benedict XVI shocked the more than a billion Catholics worldwide when he announced Monday he would resign on Feb. 28, the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years.

Eddie O. Barrita

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”After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” the 85-year-old pope told the cardinals.

When Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who will turn 89 on Valentine’s Day, heard of the news, he told his colleagues, “Don’t look at me.”

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Pope Benedict XVI, by leaving on his own accord, may have set an example for other aging leaders, a USA Today online editorial said.

“By retiring at 85, he gave other aging leaders--in the church and outside of it--a lot to think about,” it said.

All organizations big and small, including the church, need the infusion of young blood at the top. Listen carefully, young blood, not young acolytes.

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Pope Benedict was the first pope to use Twitter. No wonder his resignation spawned many jokes on Twitter.

One tweet says, “The Pope is hardly the first person to lose interest in their real job so soon after joining Twitter.” Another tweet wonders if after his resignation he will be called as the “Ex-Benedict.”

But not everyone finds the resignation jokes funny as this tweet tells us: “True to Twitter, the Pope's resignation is met first with shock, surprise, then every rude, snarky, and disrespectful comment possible.”

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United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) senatorial bets held their proclamation rally, the opening salvo in their campaign for the May 13 elections, in Plaza Independencia in Cebu City Tuesday night.

UNA, led by the “Three Kings” (Vice President Jojo Binay, Senate President Enrile and former president Erap Estrada), is apparently wooing Cebu’s 2.5 million votes.

Where will the Cebu votes go? Only the PCOS machines can tell.