Was Pope Benedict the Gift that Kept on Giving to the Roman Catholic Women Priests' Movement?/ Will New Pope Affirm Roman Catholic Women Priests?

Bridget Mary's Response: In spite of the fact that Pope Benedict has been hostile to Roman Catholic Women Priests with automatic excommunications, firings and condemnations of supporters, including the dismissal of Fr. Roy Bourgeois from the Maryknoll Order,  our movement has flourished with more women priests and more inclusive communities! So one could conclude, that Benedict has been the gift that keeps on giving. (Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com, 941-955-2313, 703-505-0004

John Allen's Perspective/National Catholic Reporter
John Allen/National Catholic Reporter:
..."Today there was a sort of semi-confirmation of this reading of events from Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, a veteran Vatican insider who's 80 and thus won't take part in the coming conclave. Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli asked Saraiva Martins if Vatileaks and the other scandals of the last couple of years might have been part of the reason Benedict reached this decision."I imagine they might have influenced it," Saraiva Martins said.
As revelations go, it's not exactly a thunderclap. It's the first time, however, that a Vatican cardinal has said out loud what pretty much everyone believes: The pope doesn't live in a vacuum, and if he finds himself weakening, the long list of fires he's struggled to put out has to be part of the reason why." ( BMM: He sure didn't succeed putting out the fire started by the Holy Spirit with women priests!)

Bridget Mary's Response: Will a new pope affirm women priests? Will a new pope support a renewed priestly ministry in a more egalitarian, inclusive church where all are welcome to receive sacraments? Let's hope so! The institutional church needs radical reform and renewal.
I am grateful that Pope Benedict decided to resign and let the church move forward in a new direction.  He has set a good precedent for future popes- that it is not until death do us part!
It is ironic that he plans to live in a monastery where nuns will be his care-givers after the harsh
investigation of U.S. nuns. (Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com. 941-955-2313, 703-505-0004)

John Allen/ New Pope/New Directions ..."Yet there are many areas where new directions are plausible. One could imagine a non-Western pope, for instance, or a pope more attuned to the argot of popular culture, or a pope less inclined to have secularism as his idée fixe, or a pope with a good head for business management who can finally implement a serious reform of the Vatican itself (or, at a minimum, to curtail the Vatican's occasional genius for stepping on its own story). All those possibilities and others would represent real departures. The more Benedict's resignation sinks in, the more plausible some of those scenarios begin to seem."