SPIEGEL: A Tired and Withdrawn Pope Ignores the Vatican Power Struggle

A highly negative article in Der Spiegel reports on the status of the pope, a man who leads a church with a membership of 1.166 billion people that employs more than 400,000 Catholic priests.

In the article summary: "The mood at the Vatican is apocalyptic. Pope Benedict XVI seems tired, and both unable and unwilling to seize the reins amid fierce infighting and scandal. While Vatican insiders jockey for power and speculate on his successor, Joseph Ratzinger has withdrawn to focus on his still-ambiguous legacy."

Note that the description "apocalyptic" does not fit the story. Except that it implies end times, the term denotes, "predicting or presaging imminent disaster and total or universal destruction."

While the pope may be judged a failure as a leader in some respects, there are no signs presently of any imminent destruction of the Catholic Church (or of the world) described in the Spiegel article.