Resignation or Rejection?

Pope Benedict XVI

The Roman Catholic Pontiff is the literal face of the Roman Catholic Church. And when that face is 85 years old, then indeed, the church looks very old and very tired.

Pope Benedict XVI just announced his resignation as the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. Benedict is Rome's 266th pope and he becomes the first pontiff to step down since Gregory XII resigned in 1415. According to Catholic historians, Gregory XII resigned in the midst of a leadership crisis that became known as The Great Western Schism. Gregory XII is alleged to have resigned in order to heal a division that had arisen among the leaders of the 15th century church that lacked confidence in Gregory.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/world/europe/last-pope-to-resign-did-so-in-midst-of-vatican-leadership-crisis.html?_r=0

We're told that Benedict resigned because he felt that he lacked the health and vitality to maintain the rigorous schedule that the Roman Papacy demands. And that seems plausible given that Benedict is a very old man. Benedict, whose real name is Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, succeeded Pope John Paul II in 2005 after the immensely popular pontiff passed away from natural causes due to old age. Benedict was already 78 years old at the time which was 20 years older than John Paul II was when he became Rome's 265th pontiff in 1978. 

And therein lies a possible clue to Benedict's resignation. It's no secret that the Roman Catholic Church has lost a lot of members globally over the past several years. Part of that is due to the myriad of scandals involving pedophile priests that the Church often tried to cover up. But the other part of that equation reveals that the Catholic Church has become an irrelevant dinosaur to millions of young people who identify as Catholics for cultural reasons only. In other words, when the Vatican speaks, many Roman Catholics no longer listen.

That was evident last year when the American Catholic Church tried and failed to stir its 64 million members into rising up against Obamacare's edict that private religious institutions (hospitals, schools etc.) were required to make contraceptive and abortion services available to their employees through health insurance plans. 

When U.S. bishops announced Fortnight For Freedom, a protest that was designed to motivate American Roman Catholics to rise up against Obamacare, all they got was a collective yawn. Few listened and few cared. And that apathy was also evident in November when 52 percent of American Catholics voted to reelect Barack Obama as president, despite the fact that Obama is vehemently anti-Christian and an enemy of the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI certainly did his job. He upheld the historical church teachings concerning the sanctity of life and traditional marriage. He also wielded a formidable hammer against rogue priests and pedophiles in the church. But he was old and he never possessed the charisma to attract converts and lapsed members the way John Paul II did. In the end, he became little more than a figurehead; a throwback to a distant time that no longer exists.

Despite the recent decline of the Roman Catholic Church, biblical prophecy reveals that she is going to make a huge comeback in the future. She will eventually become the partner of a powerful global government (Revelation 17) and she will unveil the dreaded Antichrist to the world. So, don't write off the Roman Catholic Church. Though the 267th pope certainly won't be the Antichrist, someone in the not-to-distant future will. Stay alert and stay tuned.