Pope Benedict XVI Steps Down

     Everyone has heard by now. Pope Benedict XVI Steps Down from his Pope-ship.
    After all,  the Pope is just a CEO of the company
    Of course if you are a member of the Catholic Church you expect the Pope to die in office and then have the Cardinals gather together and vote in another CEO or Pope
     That is the way it is according to the rule book.

      No, not the Bible.
      The Bible nowhere talks about the office of Pope.
      Sure, if you are a member of the Roman Cathoic Church and have sent your child to be taught at a Catholic School, you know the story of Jesus asking the disciples who do the people say I am.
     And they tell Him people say he is a prophet or Elijah or whatever.
    Jesus asks them who do you say I am?
    This is where Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
      Jesus says, blessed are you,Simon Bar Jonah for neither flesh or blood has told you but my Father who is in heaven.
 .  Now this is the place the teachers of religion classes slip in that Jesus gave him,-- Peter,-- the keys that made him a Pope.
    Wrong.
    Any person who studies the Bible, and they don't, knows that you have to interpret a passage by the context. The church that was to come is not in view in this passage. What we have is leadership . Peter would be the one in the early church that would open the door to the gentiles.

     Getting back to  the stepping down of Benedict from the Popeship. He is not going to be the first.. He joins three others in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

      In 1045 Benedict IX sold the popeship to his godfather before resigning. In 1294  Celestine V was so overwhelmed by the job that after  five months he stepped down. In 1415 a Pope Gregory XII stepped down in order not to cause a schism in the church.

     So the present Pope in in a group of leaders who didn't die in office.

     He will be missed as are all leaders of some sort or another.