Plan B Forum

Pope Benedict to resign at the end of the month, Vatican says

Rome (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI will resign on February 28, his spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told CNN Monday.

The 85-year-old pope is resigning "because of advanced age," Benedict told the cardinals of the Catholic Church on Monday.

"Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me," the pope told the cardinals, according to the Vatican.

The last pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415. He did so to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.
Pope Benedict to resign

Benedict, the 265th pope, is the sixth German to serve as pope and the first since the 11th century. He became pope in 2005.

He has led church after the third-longest papacy in church history and during a time in which the church is declining in his native Europe but expanding in Africa and Latin America.

Benedict's time as pope has been marked with a series of scandals and controversies, including hundreds of new allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

"Strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me," the pope told the cardinals, according to the Vatican.

Gob wrote:I thought he'd been caught with his fingers in a choirboy...

I wonder if his resignation is an attempt to influence whom his successor will be

Sean wrote:Pope Benedict was a good Catholic to the end... He pulled out early.

Gob wrote:

Bishop Brennan

Bishop Leonard, occasionally known as "Len" Brennan was played by Jim Norton. Brennan appears from the episode "The Passion of St Tibulus" until the episode "Kicking Bishop Brennan up the Arse".

Despite supposedly being held in high regard by the Catholic community (he was once invited to meet the Pope), Brennan is a foul-mouthed, lecherous, hypocritical and sometimes even violent narcissist who despises Ted (for somewhat justified reasons, as Ted did steal money from charity and lost it all gambling), frequently casting a shadow over the lowly priest's life. He was the one charged with punishing Ted, Dougal and Jack for their respective misdemeanours, damning them to a lifetime of misery on the bleak, desolate Craggy Island.

He has several peculiar quirks that are exploited for comic effect on the show, such as his bizarre fear of rabbits (caused by an incident in a New York lift) and extravagant lifestyle (in one episode he was shown lounging in a hot tub with a glass of champagne and a beautiful woman). Dougal and Jack, because of their respective stupidity and alcohol-induced psychosis, are markedly less afraid of Brennan than Ted; Jack once even punched him in the face, causing his nose to bleed, while Dougal constantly addresses the Bishop by his first name, Len, despite having been repeatedly threatened and sworn at by Brennan as a result (he usually responds with "you address me by my proper title, you little bollocks!" or "Don't call me 'Len' you little prick! I'm a bishop!"). In the episode "The Passion of St. Tibulus", it was revealed that Brennan has a secret partner and love child in America.

Bishop Brennan visited the island on three notable occasions: firstly; when the blasphemous film The Passion of Saint Tibulus was being shown on the island. Ted and Dougal's earnest protest only attracted more attention to the film, with people flocking to the island to see it (some coming from as far away as Gdańsk). Bishop Brennan vowed to punish the three priests by exiling them elsewhere in the world, in places even worse than Craggy Island. However, the Bishop soon changed his mind when Jack found a video tape containing footage of Brennan with what is presumed to be his long-rumoured son and girlfriend (the boy's mother) on holiday in California, in a clear reference to the real life Bishop, Eamon Casey.

The Bishop makes his second visit to the island when Father Jack starts a habit of nude sleepwalking, and to Bishop Brennan's fury it had been witnessed by an old and respected friend of his. Brennan once again had to deal with "the cast of Police Academy", as he described the three Craggy Island priests. Unfortunately, he was totally unaware that a plague of rabbits had befallen the house. Bishop Brennan was once stuck in a lift in New York with around a hundred rabbits, and they started to "nibble at my cape, and everything". Upon questioning Ted when his suspicions were aroused to the priests' strange behaviour (and finding some lettuce in a cage), Brennan retired to bed, only to be woken up by Ted and Dougal who were getting rid of about a hundred rabbits and a nude Jack who was sleeping in the Bishop's bed.

As the result of losing a football match to Father Dick Byrne, Ted was forced to accept a forfeit: "Kick Bishop Brennan up the arse". After Dick Byrne told Brennan that an apparition of him was appearing in the skirting boards of the guest bedroom, he arrived with his escort Father Jessop - the most sarcastic priest in Ireland. Ted eventually (after much fooling around) managed to carry out the forfeit, acting on Dougal's suggestion to kick Bishop Brennan and then act like he hadn't, the reasoning being that Ted's fear of the Bishop was so well known that he would never believe Ted would do such a thing. After the kick, however, Bishop Brennan was shocked into a catatonic state that lasted well beyond the duration of his visit, until around halfway through a trip to the Vatican for an audience with the Pope. He snapped out of it just as he was due to greet the pontiff, exclaiming "He did kick me up the arse!", shoving the Holy Father aside and flying back to Craggy Island in utmost anger. Ted eventually managed to convince a raging Brennan that he didn't kick him up the arse, only for the Bishop to see the massive photograph that Dougal had had placed outside the house showing Bishop Brennan being kicked up the arse by Ted. Once again enraged, Bishop Brennan got his revenge on Ted by doing the same thing to him, sending him flying ten feet into the air across the field.

In a DVD audio commentary, Graham Linehan said that he considered Bishop Brennan to be the arch-enemy of Father Jack Hackett, because Jack had the potential to become a bishop, but failed where Brennan had succeeded.