Yeah Right, Tommy "Let's All Have Pie" Resign (link)

[_The Mighty Builder]

Could Mormon prophet or Dalai Lama resign like the pope?

Catholic popes, Mormon prophets and Tibetan dalai lamas arrive at their offices via different avenues. They are voted in, outlive their peers or are recognized from childhood.

At least usually. Pope Benedict XVI’s stunning resignation this week raises the question for other religious leaders serving lifetime callings: Should they stay until they die, or can they gracefully bow out?

It is a particularly modern dilemma, tied to a time when the demands on these men have expanded exponentially since their faiths began. They live ever longer and lead even more publicly. They are expected to travel widely, to preach and teach thousands, if not millions, and to do it all under the glare of media scrutiny. Followers crave charismatic figures who can charm reporters and believers alike, who can speak with moral authority and who can transcend the vicissitudes of mortal aging.

For the 85-year-old Benedict, the answer was clear: It couldn’t be done.

"Three or four centuries ago, if the pope got really sick or went nuts, you’d put him a backroom and the church kept moving along," says the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Woodstock Theological Center. "We have had a couple of crazy popes that caused schisms — I’m thinking of the [medieval] Borgias — but we can’t poison them anymore."

Today’s church "is a global village," Reese says. "It is a much more difficult problem."

And not just for the world’s billion Catholics.