I already know it's coming...let the Pope bashing begin...

So the media has shared with the world today the shocking news from Pope Benedict XVI, he will be resigning the end of February. As a Catholic I should probably stay away from Facebook and the news today as I already know it's coming...let the Pope bashing begin. The horrific jokes, claims he's the anti-Christ, people saying he should burn in Hell, yada, yada, yada...and the sad thing is, I'm sure some family & friends on my Facebook list will be participating in this or "liking" these types of posts. All I can do is keep all of them in my prayers. We have all been given the free will to believe and think what we want, so I hold nothing against those that believe and think differently then myself. Every now and then I find hope in mankind like this morning when I was browsing through the comments on one of the local news posts about the Pope, someone wrote, "Even though I am not Catholic, I have great respect for the Pope and will keep him in my prayers." Bless you.

I've written many posts about my Catholic faith and the Pope. I wrote one on the misunderstanding of his position in the Church here. My prayers are with B16 today. I know he did not make this decision lightly, and there is great speculation of serious health issues to warrant such a resignation. So I pray for his health. As a Catholic I do not believe that a Pope can error when speaking/teaching on matters of Faith and morals because I believe the Holy Spirit protects him from doing so. I know B16 prayerfully came to this decision with much humility and I deeply respect him for that. With Lent upon us and very soon a new Shepherd to guide the over a billion world wide Catholic Church, special times lie ahead and I have Faith Christ will guide and protect us.

Grant that we may be one flock and one shepherd. Do not allow your net to be torn, help us to be servants of unity. Pope Benedict XVI