Many observers claim that one reason Cardinal Ratzinger was chosen for the papacy was because of his older age. The logic goes that, because Pope John Paul II's papacy was so long, we ought not choose another young pope, and risk having another long papacy.
As well as being downright insulting to the new pope, it shows a glaring lack of insight into how heaven works. We all know that Pope John XXIII, who was supposed to be a transitional pope, ended up leading arguably the most pivotal papacy of the twentieth century. Pope Benedict XVI could as well accomplish much in a short period of time - or could conceivably have a good ten to fifteen years of life in him, and so hang around for quite some time. Either way, the motivating force of the desire for such a transitional papacy falls flat.
But the point I want to advance for your consideration is this: what if, in the grand scheme of things, the real transitional pope is not Benedict XVI, but actually John Paul II? We could argue that the long papacy of Pope John Paul II was all about guiding a ship, in danger of sailing drastically off course (e.g. due to misinterpretation of the Council), back to where it was supposed to be heading. It took more than 25 years to do so. And, now that we have Benedict XVI, who is more or less following the same program, he can proceed full speed along the path of . . . name your issue . . . authentic liturgical reform, cleaning up the seminaries, etc.
Just a thought you might want to consider. Changing one's view as to which papacy is actually the transition leads to widely differing results on the ultimate direction of the Church.
Much appreciated, thanks! I have personally been struggling with a thought, "who will I be calling «the Great» in a few years"...? I try to be quiet reverent about this puzzle though, but I really want more "results", more "fruits" than we had with Pope John Paul II. I'm just not sure how this may sound to other people since I certainly do not want to give the impression that I'd by this be belittling John Paul II in ANY way, or even being too hysterical myself about it all...