This pope has done nothing to heal the wounds of the catholic church. The church has been abandoned by the millions. It is time for new leadership in this church, one that that cleanse the wounds and re build the church. It must start with full disclosure of and separation from any priests that have been found guilty of molestation of children. Cardinal Law needs to be extridited back to the United States for prosecution. Not until the church faces these issues will trust be once again regained. Open up the windows and let us start anew.

Sorry - but they will probably select another hardliner who will not yield on much of anything, especially since this pope is just retiring and not dead.  The church should ultimately recognize that birth control, marriage of priests, and acceptance of homosexuality - even if they do not call it marriage - and female priests are necessary parts of being a modern church.

I admit I haven't followed Benedict's Papacy in great detail, but he was something of a throwback who didn't approve of much of the modernization brought by Vatican II.

My most vivid memories are his crackdown on nuns for their openness, and his promotion of Cardinal Bernard Law to a position in the Vatican following the Boston Globe's exposure of many years of rampant pedophilia in the Boston Archdiocese.

and watch the left pounce.

Maybe, just MAYBE, the next Pope will respect women.  The really hard workers of the Church, the women, might get a little justice.  

Call me a dreamer....

The Church will never change man of its strange teachings.

As a fallen Catholic and damned to Hell for all eternity, I can only comment on the fact that the Church (See Vatican Catechism) still

teaches this barbaric doctrine on Hell.  Then Christ as an orthodox Jew, who celebrated the Passover a few days before his death, would be shocked to hear that the Church teaches that he was really a human sacrifice. As a Jew he would recall that the Jews

prohibited human sacrifice, as if God needs blood and torture to save mankind. These teachings and others of the Catholic faith, are an abomination and should be deleted from Catholic doctrine.

Even the teaching that Christ rose from the dead is not clearly backed up in the New Testament if you read it carefully. And if his physical body still survives then he should be able to return to Earth to prove his resurrection to generations who were not privileged to see him after his death. Why is he absent if, as the Church teaches, his physical body is still alive and well?

The absurdities of the Church’s teachings continue on. I don’t say get rid of the Church because in many ways it does a lot of good, like the Red Cross. Let it focus then on its philanthropic mission and delete the stupidity of many (not all) of its teachings

I feel sorry, though for the majority of good priests who have been stained by the evil deeds of some of their fellow priests.  Most priests are straight and living up to their vows. But what good is the opinion of a fallen Catholic, doomed to eternal Hell fire. One positive benefit of Hell, though: At least there will be no New England blizzards in Hell. 

Correction: many. Oh, I guess you figured it out

Ratzi The Nazi, good riddance. Let the truth be known.

The Pope has said he intended to focus more on building up the Church's presence in Africa and

South America.  That's all the millions of impoverished people in those part of the world  need is to

be encouraged to have more children