Pope Benedict XVI's surprise renunciation of the Chair of St. Peter generated a tsunami of commentary usually reserved for events such as a presidential election or a Super Bowl. The pope's struggles with scandal dominated most stories, some of which noted that while these scandals were not of his own makings, they created an enormous burden for him.

The announcement has been greeted with dismay, resigned sadness, and hope in the pope's admirers, Catholic and not. David Goldman, a.k.a. Spengler, wrote, "As the shepherd of the founding institution of the West, Benedict personally embodied its best traditions. He is one of the last men living to have assimilated the fullness of European culture, a member of the ‘heroic generation' of Catholic theologians that included Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar."

The analysis of Benedict's papacy will roll on in the run-up to the conclave that will select his successor, and long beyond. The world's fascination with this office suggests that a pope plays many roles with influence beyond the Roman Catholic Church.

One such role is diplomat. The Holy See is an international personality of long standing, recognized since the middle ages. (The State of the Vatican City is a more recent entity, established in the 1929 Lateran treaties to resolve the status of the pope and his former territories in Italy). The Holy See has its own diplomatic corps, formal relations with 179 countries (including the U.S. since the Reagan years), observer status at the UN, and it is to the Holy See and its head of state, the pope, that arriving ambassadors present their credentials.

Pope Benedict played this role effectively. Although some of his early trips were disturbed by awkward moments with the press, he learned. His 2008 visit to the United States, with stops in Washington and New York, was especially successful and was one of several encounters that cultivated a real friendship with President George W. Bush.

World leaders are eager to visit the pope. Certainly some of that eagerness is deference to Catholic constituencies at home. And, as probably the world's biggest distributor of aid to the poor in every land, the Church has a hand in human development that gives it shared interests with both donor and recipient countries.

In other cases, the substance of the meetings is more geo-political, as the Church deals with the persecution and plight of Christians in China, the Middle East, Pakistan, and elsewhere; faces concerns about encroachments on religious liberty in the United States and Europe; pursues unity within Christianity, including especially with the Orthodox Churches; and generally seeks the space to continue its ministries and activities. The story of Cold War cooperation between President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is well told in John O'Sullivan's book, The President, The Pope, and the Prime Minister.

The Obama administration would be well served to consider all of this as it nominates a new ambassador to the Holy See, who will be received by a new pope.

But diplomat was not the role most cherished by Benedict. He was first a priest, second an intellectual force and phenomenally prolific theologian. He is one of the few people anywhere capable of debating, and changing the views of, a philosopher like Jurgen Habermas and co-authoring books with leading non-believing politicians such as Marcello Pera, former president of the Italian senate. Then a young priest, Benedict was a major influence in the Second Vatican Council and has spent much of his papacy clarifying the correct interpretation of that Council's teaching. He has constantly emphasized the vital complementarity of faith and reason to overcome fundamentalist extremism and secular nihilism.

Perhaps Benedict's most important legacy will be his writing during his papacy: his three volumes on the life of Jesus, his encyclical letters (especially Caritas in Veritate, or Love in Truth, and Spe Salvi, Saved in Hope) and his regular homilies. 

The betting has begun -- literally and figuratively -- on who will replace Benedict. The pope must be priest, teacher, diplomat, administrator, and reformer of a Church still recovering from self-induced tragedy and mismanagement, an arbiter of conservative and liberal viewpoints, authoritative yet gentle. As George Weigel writes in his recent book, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21^st Century Church, no sane person wants the job, much like the American presidency. 

And as we look around us these days, those of us who are Catholics might recall the traditional prayer cited this week by David Warren: "Lord, do not send us the pope we deserve."

Now that summer is upon us, the global economic problems are no less serious, but perhaps our blogging can be. This is summertime, when one just wants to roll down the car windows, crank up some classic songs on the iPod, and sing along.

The pressure on Germany to fix Europe's looming problems is something I've addressed before, more seriously. The ever-louder pleading for Chancellor Merkel to just do it already, though, has lately put me in mind of other sorts of importunings. So, with apologies to Billy Joel, herewith a reworking of his 1977 classic, "Only the Good Die Young" (redone as "Stopping the PIIGS Bank Run"):

Come on, Angela, don't make me wait/ You Protestant countries start much too late/ Ah but sooner or later it comes down to fate/ You know what must be done/ When they sold you the euro and took the Deutsche Mark away/ They promised restraint and said we'd converge some day/ Ah but they never told you the price that you'd pay/ Now that Bankia's come undone

Stopping the PIIGS bank run/ That's what I said/ Stopping the PIIGS bank run

 You might have heard we run with a dangerous crowd/ Private investors just can't be found/ Our national budgets often tend to run aground/ Ah but that never hurt no one

 So come on Angela show me a sign/ Send up a signal I'll throw you a line/ Those old time treaties you're hiding behind/ Just won't get it done

Darlin stopping the PIIGS bank run/ I tell you stopping the PIIGS bank run/ Stopping the PIIGS bank run

You get a fiscal treaty/ And more input as a consolation/ You'll set a brand new goal/ And no risk of an export hole/ But Angela they didn't give you/ Quite enough information/ You didn't count on Greece/ When you were counting on low debt/GDP

And they say there's political union for those who will wait/ Some say it's better though there may be a taint/ But wouldn't you rather laugh with the sinners/ Than cry with the saints?/ The sinners are much more fun

 You know you've got to stop the PIIGS bank run/ I tell you stopping the PIIGS bank run now/ You've got to stop the PIIGS bank run

 You said your voters told you/ All they worried about was inflation/ They worry about subsidies/ Transfers that continue endlessly

Come on, come on, come on Angela/ Don't make me wait/ You Protestant countries start much too late/ Sooner or later it comes down to fate/ You might as well get it done/ You've got to stop the PIIGS bank run/ Tell you baby/ You've got to stop the PIIGS bank run

Imagine this with an interwoven saxophone and you should be all set for  summer crooning on the autobahn. Of course, from a policy standpoint, Chancellor Merkel should probably have some of the same concerns about giving in that the apocryphal Virginia would have had in the Billy Joel original.

Europe's financial difficulties were predictable, but they have been unfolding at a startling clip. This has brought out different reactions in different commentators. Paul Krugman, for example, is preparing to hide under a table. I am no less impressed by the potential for disaster, but I am also struck by the undemocratic nature of major deliberations in Europe and by parallels here in the United States.

The pace of Europe's response to Greece's mounting woes has been rather stately. This is in spite of some fairly blunt calls for urgent action. From the Financial Times:

"Far too much time has been wasted on inaction," said Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. "We should have intervened two or three months ago. The markets have developed negatively since then, unnecessarily. That's why we have to act now, quickly and decisively."

And yet Europe's summit meeting appears set for May 10. Why the delay? There is an important German election on May 9. From the New York Times:

The North Rhine-Westphalia election has the potential to upset the existing balance of power. At stake is not only the state legislature, but also control for Mrs. Merkel's coalition over the little-watched upper house of Parliament, the Bundesrat, which has to sign off on legislation. Billions of dollars in assistance for Greece may not play well with voters in a state with its own financial problems.

"May not play well" is an understatement. A German poll found that only 16 percent of Germans support a Greek bailout while 65 percent are opposed. I am not an advocate of governing by referendum (a number of years living in California clarified the problems with that approach). Yet the avoidance of the electorate on such matters is deeply problematic.

Read on