Did you know that "the Catholic Church has become as 'decrepit as the Pope?'"

Liberal Catholic leader urges Pope to quit

Why am I not surprised?

Rebel German theologian Hans Kueng has taken the opportunity of the Pope's illness to call for the Holy Father to resign. Remember Kueng? He's the guy who got himself in hot water for challenging papal infallibility, and was banned from teaching Catholic theology way back in 1979. It's not likely that anything he's going to have to say about Pope John Paul II is going to be gracious. (for example, in March of 2004 he is quoted as saying "Karol Wojtyla does not know enough modern exegesis, history of dogmas, modern theology." Hmm...

This time, Kueng seems to have gotten a bit bolder, and goes so far as to call the Pope "decrepit" and says that he has led the Church into a "miserable crisis" behind a "shining facade." Of course, what exactly the "crisis" is that another Pope (any Pope, apparently) would be better at handling, or what precisely the "facade" the present Pope is hiding behind, is not mentioned.

Another note of interest -- Cardinal Ratzinger is (of course) brought up as a possible "German successor," but of course, an unamed Vatican source dismisses that as a possibility due to his age (77). However, this is not out of some concern for his health, but rather, because the unamed source is "frustrated by the entrenched conservativism" at the Vatican.

Come on people, roll your eyes with me! And then go read the story yourself, it's kind of entertaining, in a perverse sort of way.

Don't worry folks, it's the last breaths of a dying generation. The springtime is almost here!