My hunch is that he is stepping down because he has Alzheimer’s. I read that he will discontinue writing after he steps down. Why would he do that when he will have so much time on his hands? It sounds to me as if he is about at the same stage of Alzheimer’s as was Ronald Reagan when he wrote his letter announcing he had the disease. Just a hunch.
Vitamin B12
You wrote:
“Why would he do that when he will have so much time on his hands?”
Because of the natural problem it would create. Only one man can be pope at a time. When a former pope keeps publishing it can create confusion. Men who were once pope almost always DELIBERATELY lead very quiet lives when they leave the papal throne to be sure and not draw attention away from the current pope.
U.S. Presidents do something similar when you think about. They might still write, but until Clinton, they generally lived lives of quiet retirement.
This militates against you hunch. Alzheimer’s is not like a stroke, it is a condition that deteriorates relatively slowly; there is no indication he could not, especially with aides available, struiglle on another year:
Three days after that announcement, Pope Benedict delivered a highly structured, 46-minute long public talk, without a prepared text and only occasionally consulting his note [...] Father Lombardi has suggested that the former Pope Benedict might eventually publish the document under his own name
Especially since he is leaving unfinished business: the continuing dissent in the Church and the delicate SSPX negotiations.