Should the Pope step down?

An eminent theologian and an expert in religious history suggest that solution to damage done by Pope Benedict XVI's controversial revocation of excommunications and other disruptive actions.

Reports the Globe & Mail:

Criticism following the pope's January 24 announcement has been particularly cutting in Germany, where denying the Holocaust is a crime punishable with a jail sentence.

"If the pope wants to do some good for the church, he should leave his job," eminent liberal Catholic theologian Hermann Haering told the German daily Tageszeitung.

The case of Richard Williamson, an English bishop who is on record as denying that six million Jews were gassed by the Nazis during World War II, has drawn the most criticism. CBS reported:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meAoIYpupsw]

The internal damage is profound also, it seems:

"A pardon that tastes of poison," wrote Franco Garelli, an expert in religious history, in Italy's daily La Stampa on Monday.

"The trouble caused by this complicated affair is evident not only outside the church but within it," wrote the academic, who spoke of the "profound discomfort stirred up by the lifting of the excommunication in numerous Catholic circles".

If the pope were to step down that "would not be a scandal," Haering said, for "a bishop has to relinquish his position at 75 years, a cardinal loses his rights at 80 years."