Benedict's Resignation: Immediate Responses Across Blogsphere

The "In All Things" blog at America has the text of Benedict's resignation announcement, with brief commentary from Bro. Daniel Horan. Reactions this morning at various blog sites:

In response to John Allen's report of the resignation at National Catholic Reporter, John Dwyer writes,

Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. for Pope!

And Edward Lamp replies,

Oh God......no!

PetrusRomanus1 states,

Benedict XVI is now one step ahead of the International Criminal Court. His successor will have little time, if any, for dealing with any business but the sex abuse crisis and coverup. 

And Purgatrix Ineptiae fumes,

What terrible news. I personally find it impossible to imagine a Pope better than Benedict XVI has been. Nobody else will be able to give such elegant and erudite homilies, celebrate the liturgy with so much dignity and grace or personify the Church's best qualities so thoroughly. I wish he could stay on as a kind of sacramental figurehead, and have some kind of supervicar to run the Curia. 

Maybe his health has deteriorated more than we know, or maybe his brother's health is deteriorating. In any case, let's all pray for the man who will almost certainly turn out to have been the best and most lovable Pope of our lifetimes. 

(And what a stupid article in the NYT. How can anybody care about birth control and women's ordination and gay marriage at a time like this?) 

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweets,

At some point, the church will accept contraception and female and non-celibate priests. Could it be in the next papacy? 

And Christopher Hayes of MSNBC tweets,

Call me crazy, but I think the next Pope should be someone who didn't help cover up child rape. Tho, that may disqualify every single cardinal. 

On his Facebook feed, my friend and fellow theologian Michael Iafrate writes,

Mind blowing news to wake up to. My thoughts are something like those famous words of Obi-Wan Kenobi: "TURN THE SHIP AROUND."

In response to David Taintor's article about the resignation at Talking Points Memo, mpat writes,

We Catholics should start a write-in campaign for Sister Simone Campbell (spokesperson for Nuns on the Bus) for Pope. After all, these ladies are the truest followers of Jesus we have today, IMHO.

And Jeff Hall replies,

Don't be silly! How can she lead the Catholic Church? She doesn't have a penis, for god's sake!

in response to a posting about the resignation by Paul Moses, Father Joseph O'Leary announces to Commonweal readers that he'll be 

monitoring the situation in Rome from March 11 to 22

and presumably issuing reports on the Commonweal blog.

As Father O'Leary says, Fasten your seatbelts for his reports from Rome.

All this, and Lent now beginning, too!