Benedict XVI is dead.

Benedict XVI died this morning. May God have mercy upon his soul.

I remember well the day he was elected. The Catholic institution where I work made the announcement that the "Habemus Papam" was imminent and that televisions were set up in the atrium. As Jorge Cardinal Medina, the Camerlengo said the words, "Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominium, Dominum Josephus Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Ratzinger,"I put my fist in the air with a shout of "YES!". One clerk clapped. The executives and other senior staff stood in silence and walked away in shock and horror. It was quite the moment. I read The Ratzinger Report after my awakening to tradition in Ottawa at the time of the fledgling Ottawa Oratory of St. Philip Neri. He was the Pope of my reversion and my liturgical coming of age. To me, he died nearly a decade ago. He abandoned me, he abandoned my family, he abandoned all of us. There is not much else to write without speaking ill of the dead. The greatest thing he will be remembered for is Summorum Pontificum and the weakness of the document itself is apparent. An Apostolic Constitution and a suri juris structure would have been the better way.